Good Time Management Skills

Introduction

The term time management became familiar in the 1950s and 1960s as referring to a tool to help managers make better use of available time. Macan (1994) mentions the tool was based on practical experience, in the form of dos and don'ts. The term appears to indicate that time is managed, but actually activities are managed over time. Time management is self-management with an explicit focus on time in deciding what to do; on how much time to allocate to activities; on how activities can be done more efficiently; and on when the time is right for particular activities (Macan, 1994). Much of the advice on time management concerns the standardization and routinization of activities to increase efficiency. The time gained with this increased efficiency can be used for other activities, deliberately chosen as worthwhile, rather than activities that serve only as means to achieve less worthwhile goals, so-called time wasters. In other words, time is gained for activities that deserve it, and full concentration can be devoted to these activities for a longer period of time.

Time Management: A Discussion

Similar to self-management, time management is focused on solving problems. Examples of common problems are feeling overwhelmed by the workload; planning too optimistically; being unable to deal with distractions; deadline pressure; and procrastination. The core of time management is to prevent these problems by preparation and planning (Van, 2003). Many scheduling techniques can be used that aim at obtaining an overview of tasks, subtasks, and actions and methods to remember them—for example, making a to-do list, organizing it according to priority based on importance (relevant to effectiveness) and urgency (relevant to timeliness), and scheduling tasks to months, weeks, and days (Van, 2003).

In addition, time management may be seen as a way to stay on track in dynamic conditions. As such, it is more than planning, and it involves a cycle of goal setting, planning, keeping track of progress (monitoring), and the evaluation of goal achievement. In dynamic conditions, if-then rules help to quickly decide courses of action when situations change. For example, if a coworker requests to do a task unexpectedly, then there are four options, based on the judgment of importance and urgency. If it is both important and urgent, act on it immediately. If it is important, but not urgent, try to find out whether it may be done at a later time that suits your schedule. If it is urgent, but not important to your own priorities, try to delegate it to someone else. If it is neither urgent nor important, then do not do it at all. It is clear that apart from these decision rules, some social skills related to assertiveness are needed in dealing with such requests (Kanigel, 1997).

Research On Time Management

Despite the worldwide popularity of time management training, the research on time management has been relatively scarce. That is, although several studies have been conducted among students about study behavior and, to a lesser extent, among individuals in a work setting, there ...