Time Management and the "to do" listLearn Management Articles on management-info.biz. Time Management and the "to do" list article will help answer your questions on Management Articles.We at management-info.biz specialize in Management Articles. Management Articles at management-info.biz provides the most up to date news and articles. If you have questions please do not hesitate to contact us.
How can you make time management work for you? Really that's the question, regardless of what system you choose to apply to your time management needs, it has to be something that can work for you. If your time management tool, choice or system doesn't work for you then it simply becomes another task that has to be accomplished in an already busy day. Most time management starts with something as useful as a 'to do' list. We all have tasks that must be accomplished within a certain period of time, whether that time frame is a single day or a plan for the next several months. Tasks are added to the list and crossed out as they are accomplished. Your 'to do' list can be as simple as a notebook page, a daily page in your planner, a function of MS Outlook or a task list on your PDA. In general a 'to do' list is a simple and effective way to see all the tasks that impact your day. Just follow a few simple guideline and your 'to do' list will work for you (and not the other way around). Creating and prioritizing a 'To Do' list: 1. First create a simple To-Do List. Using whichever tool you've chosen. 2. List all of the tasks for which you are responsible. 3. Don't worry about accomplishing everything right now. The key is to get the right things done by prioritizing. 4. A To-Do list will most likely be a living, never-ending document. New things appear as old ones are cleared away. For each item on the list, answer these questions: One Time or Reoccurring - Do you have to complete this task more than once? Often? Perhaps on a regular basis? Due Date - When must the task be completed by? Time Required For Completion - How long will the task take to complete? Is the task variable? Other Resources Required - What other resources will be needed to complete this task? Benefits and Consequences - What are the benefits of completing the task? The consequences on not completing it? Use the answers to these questions to decide which tasks must be completed first. Once you have prioritized your tasks you are ready to start scheduling them. Plan the completion of each task. Start with the givens. Block out those tasks with known times. Place the rest of your tasks into the schedule according to your priorities. Build in some flexibility so that you can handle life's little emergencies. Pay attention to the resources required. Remember that you yourself are a resource. Match tasks requiring the most mental effort to those portions of your day when you feel the most productive. Don't forget to include personal time. (if you have scheduled every minute of your day for work, when are you going to refresh, regroup, renew?) Most time management tools are really creative ways of completing a 'to do' list. If you choose to use something like a PDA or a computer program like MS Outlook you can easily manage reoccurring events and meetings by reserving blocks of time and creating reminders for those things that might get lost in the daily shuffle of work and paper. If you choose to use a planner, remember to carry reoccurring event through to the next day, week or month. Once your comfortable working with your 'to do' list you can expand it to include goal setting.
While 'to do' list may get you started on your time management endeavors there are all kinds of thoughts and theories out there about how to effectively manage our time. I would like to think that if I can complete all the tasks I have to accomplish today, and check them off my list, I might be able to schedule an extra hour of sleep. Maybe I can put it on my 'to do' list. ;-)
|
More Articles:1. Time Management Tip: Stop Micro-Managing Employees By Marcia Zidle If I was a fly on the wall what would I hear your employees say? Would it something like this? “They won't allow me to make even the simplest decisions.” “The red tape here makes it very difficult for me to do my job.” “Management has to sign off on everything; they don't trust me."A big time waster for managers is micro-managing - paying extreme attention to small details and not giving people the authority to do their job. If it is such a time waster why do so many managers get hooked into … 2. Managing Rebellious Employees By Michael Mercer Surveys of executives reveal that many companies fall short of their profit objectives due to “people problems.” Research for my Absolutely Fabulous Organizational Change book found these “people problems” fall into two “r” categories: rebellion and resistance.Rebellion is akin to teenagers defying authority figures, fir instance, rebelling against leaders who institute change. Resistance includes employees flinging roadblocks in the way of the organizational change. Examples include employ… 3. Nine Vital Lessons For Avoiding Training Fads That Waste Time, Money and Enthusiasm By Bill Robb Unfortunately, at least two thirds of much of the training and development effort undertaken by organisations to develop their people is wasted.This is such as shame isn’t it? Waste of money is bad enough but even more serious is the waste of human energy and enthusiasm. I’ve witnessed organisations and their people suffer for weeks and months under the latest management fad only to find they’re no further forward – or worse off.Here are nine vital lessons from hard experience that will help s… 4. The Five Biggest Mistakes an HR Professional Can Make... From the Client's Perspective By Lonnie Pacelli A number of years back I was in a meeting with two HR representatives at my company. They were explaining to me how the HR organization wanted to be more "strategic" with its clients and how they wanted to help us with annual resource planning. At the time, our biggest problem was filling open positions with qualified candidates; a number of key positions had been open for months with no qualified candidates in the hiring pipeline. When I asked the HR reps about how they were going to help… |
||||
