How Can Prioritizing Tasks and Minimizing Distractions Boost Your Time Management?

Some Important Notes in Time Management..... 8)

In time management, it is essential to prioritize tasks based on their importance and urgency. This helps in ensuring that crucial tasks are completed first, leading to increased efficiency and productivity. Another key aspect of time management is setting realistic goals and deadlines, allowing for proper planning and allocation of resources. Additionally, effective time management involves minimizing distractions and staying focused on the task at hand to enhance overall productivity.

Implementing time management strategies can greatly improve one's ability to meet deadlines, reduce stress, and achieve work-life balance. By incorporating these practices into daily routines, individuals can make significant progress towards their goals and enhance their overall quality of life.

Thanks Mr.Venkatramanan for your valuable suggestions on Tile Management.

Here are some quotes on Time Management:

"Don't confuse activity with productivity."

B.W. Luscher, Jr., U.S. Postal Service

"Blaming your faults on your nature does not change the nature of your faults."

Thomas Harris

"What folly, to dread the thought of throwing away time at once, and yet have no regard to throwing it away by parcels and piecemeal."

John Howe

"The way of success is not run with seven league boots, but step by step, little by little, bit by bit---with no exceptions allowed."

Sterling Sill

"The man who rolls up his sleeves seldom loses his shirt."

Thomas Cowan

"Do not let the future be held hostage by the past."

Neal Maxwell

"A goal is a dream with a deadline."

Steve Smith, Amdahl Corp.

"When you're receiving flak, you're probably over the target."

George Hurley, NIKE, Inc.

"One of the best lessons that anyone can learn in life is how to use time wisely. Consider what can be done in ten minutes. If you need a little mental relaxation, you can sit down with a friend and play a game of cards. If you need some physical recreation, you can engage in a few exercises that will help you body. Perhaps you have a friend who for weeks or months has been looking for a letter. Learn to use ten minutes intelligently. It will pay huge dividends."

William A. Irwin

“Mistakes are costly and somebody must pay. The time to correct a mistake is before it is made.”

Henry H. Buckley

“Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely.”

Rodin

“Don't waste time. Don't waste it in idleness; don't waste it in regretting the time already wasted; don't waste it in dissipation; don't waste it in resolutions a thousand times repeated, never to be carried out. Don't waste your time. Use all of it. Sleep, work, rest, think.

Arthur Brisbane

“Spend your time in nothing which you know must be repented of.”

Richard Baxter

“We live in deeds, not years; in thoughts, not breaths; in feelings, not in figures on a dial. We should count time by heart-throbs. He most lives who thinks most, feels the noblest, acts the best.”

Phillip James Bailey

“Life is what happens to you while you are making other plans.”

A.J. Marshall

“You cannot waste tomorrow; it is kept for you. You cannot waste the next

hour; it is kept for you. You have to live on this twenty-four hours of daily time. Out of it you have to spin wealth, pleasure, money, content, respect, and the evolution of your immortal soul. Its right use, its most effective use, is a matter of highest urgency…all depends on that.”

Arnold Bennett

“A man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”

Charles Darwin

“For time will teach thee soon the truth. There are no birds in the last year's nest.”

H.W. Longfellow

“The future is something which everyone reaches at the rate of sixty minutes an hour, whatever he does, whoever he is.”

C.S. Lewis

“This time, like all times, is a very good one, if we but know what to do with it.”

Ralph Waldo Emerson

Thanks

Bala

Hi,

Attached here is a presentation I made for an in-house training program.

Thanks,
Bala

Please find attached a practical guide for time management.

Regards,
umalme

Time Management - Which Advice to Follow? By Shabbar Suterwala



There are so many books on Time Management that it is difficult to find the time to read and digest them all.



What happens to most people is that they buy a book on Time Management, read it, decide that some parts of it may suit them, but then fail to adequately integrate the system into their lives. This is partly due to inadequacies in the system itself, and partly due to the inherently difficult nature of learning a new system - the equivalent to learning a new habit.



What the books don't tell you is that each different time management system is not necessarily suitable to all people or for all uses for which people need them.



Finding the right combination of the basic methods is entirely individual depending on both the nature of the tasks that are required to be done and the nature of the individual who is implementing the strategy.



This is where an overview of the basic systems is useful.



Basic Time Management Systems



To-Do Lists. Write a list of things that need to be done and then do them in that order. They can be distinguished from Checklists that are wonderful for breaking a project down into smaller tasks that can be ticked off regularly. Also a suggestion that instead of writing everything on the to-do list and making a big list - write down what is Important that needs to be done.

Prioritisation. This is pretty simple - you write down the list of things you have to do and then put them in order of priority. Then you do them in that order. What you may do is have priority for office tasks, home chores, emergencies and make seperate priority lists for different projects.

"Do it now". A journey of thousand mile begins with the first simple step. So Act NOW. A favourite with people who handle a lot of paper - this is basically a preventative measure for procrastination. If you need to do action something, you do it now. Its very good for procrastinators, routines and tasks which are vital for function. Be Cautious where there are a lot of different aspects which need equal attention, as here you can end up spending all your time on one area as you have to "do it now"!

"Do the thing you fear most first". “Do the things you fear and the fear will disappear.” A form of prioritisation, this is also good for procrastinators as it has a great kernel of truth in it, in terms of the fact that once the most-feared thing is done, the rest will be easier in comparison. Very good for personal growth and conquering fears and phobias.

Scheduling. Prepare to put things in your list with time lines attached and then you take action on them according to the time. At times it may be difficult to estimate the exact length of time something will take, and doesn't take interruptions, delays and other unexpected issues into account, so you need to also take some time for contingencies or failures.

While all of these are very useful in particular situations, and for particular people, they often work best in combination with each other. Individual tools just don't work on a consistent basis.



So why are these tools not working?



There is something which underlies the whole issue of time management which makes any solution you apply the equivalent of a plaster on an otherwise untreated wound.



Time is not the variable here - there is the same 24 hours in every single day. Human attention is the vital variable - focussed attention gets things done, while distractions and poor organisation fragment attention so that tasks do not get done. Remember days where a lot gets done, and remember days when you just couldn't concentrate on any single thing long enough to get it completed? This is down to your attention span. It changes from person to person, but research shows that the average person can concentrate fully for about 20 minutes at a time, before the attention starts wandering.



Improve Your Attention Span

Often the case is that you are allowing yourself to be interrupted which is causing the distraction (even if it appears to be in the job description that you must down tools when the boss calls). You can still put systems into place to ensure that you don't get distracted - and get a block of time available to focus your attention in. Even a response to the person at the door of "just a second, let me just finish this bit off" can mean that you don't waste the first five minutes after a distraction trying to remember where you were.



Choose the right system for you

Look at the list above and decide what your main tasks are which match what each system is best suited for. Then implement a combination of them. Often all you need to do is integrate your priority list with a scheduled list (by using a diary with a loose piece of paper as your priority list of unscheduled items - just remember to allow time in your schedule to complete the unscheduled items).



Give it some time

Learning and implementing a new time management system is like learning a new habit - and just as difficult as it is something extra to remember. It can take up to 3 weeks to be sure that the new habit is learned, at which point it will be second nature to use your system. If it doesn't work for you, just modify it a bit and try again - it can be something as simple as buying a larger diary so that you can use just one item to record your tasks, meetings etc.



Distraction Management – “Closed Door”

Locate your regular distractions and set up a plan to minimise them. I am not saying remove them - that would be rather difficult, unless you moved to heaven.



This can be through implementing a system where you are not available to be distracted at work for a set amount of time, on the premise that you will get back to them with an actual answer to their problem the moment you are able to. While this may not be too popular with some of your co-workers (because you are not available at the drop of a hat), the fact that if you are able to be more productive during normal working hours, you will actually be able to leave work on time a bit more often. Make sure though that when you do get back to people after a no-distraction period, that you answer their question/query fully and swiftly.



Time management is not difficult; it is the various things that are fundamental to them being able to work that are the complicated parts. So long as you are able (both physically and mentally) to focus your attention you should find that time can be managed better. Remember though that there is no one-size fits all in the world of time management systems - you will need to try out one or two before you find the perfect one that works for you. Just make sure you choose the ones that are suitable for the tasks that are part of your daily life.

Regards,

Soumya Shankar