One-Minute Tips: Time Management

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Time ManagementOne-Minute TipsManage Train Learn
ONE-MINUTE TIPS
Time Management
Learn the Skills of Becoming a Great Time Manager – In Less Than an
Hour!

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One-Minute Tips from Manage Train Learn
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Time ManagementOne-Minute Tips
The study of time produces
many paradoxes. For example:
time is universal yet essentially
personal; time is money but
costs nothing; time is a
resource, but we cannot buy it
or sell it; time moves
relentlessly at a fixed speed,
yet sometimes it flies by and
sometimes it drags.
#1.UnderstandtheParadoxesofTime

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Time comes in three
dimensions for everyone: a
past we can learn from, a
present we have to decide
upon, and a future we have to
plan. Not everyone learns
from the past, makes the
wisest decisions about the
present, or plans for the
future. The wise time manager
does.
#2.Thinkin3D

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Peter Drucker says time is the last
great resource left to man.
Whereas we know how to manage
fixed resources, like money,
machines and people, time is an
elusive resource. We can't store it,
save it or produce more of it. All we
can do is make the most of it
through wise time management.
#3.MaketheMostofYourTime

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Time is like money because how
we use time can make us rich or
poor. Time also has a cost
attached to it; doing little
valuable with our time can be a
waste of money. Yet, as a free
and renewable resource, time is
not like money. If money is the
great divider, time is the great
equalizer.
#4.UseTimeLikeMoney

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Time and life go hand in hand.
From cradle to grave, we record
our lives in terms of how we
spend our time. Our obituaries
record what we do with our
time on earth: whether we
spend it well, or fritter it away.
As Robert Grudin says:
"Happiness may well consist
primarily of our attitude to
time."
#5.UseTimeWell

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In a survey by the Abbey
National, most people reported
that they never had enough time
to do what they wanted: 72%
were too busy to make meals at
home; 66% were too busy to do
household repairs; 37% were too
busy to remember an important
anniversary.
#6.Don’tBeTooBusy

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According to the Goldfish credit card company, each of us wastes
2.5 years of our lives on unprofitable activities. These included
waiting in queues, getting stuck in traffic jams, and hunting for
things we've mislaid. The average time wasted each week is 10.5
hours.
#7.Don’tWasteTime

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The value of time depends on how
much we appreciate it: to
appreciate a year, ask a student
who's just failed an exam; to
appreciate a month, ask the mother
of a premature baby; to appreciate
a minute, ask the traveller who's
just missed a plane; to appreciate a
second, ask the survivor of a near-
fatal accident.
#8.KnowtheValueofTime

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Most of us tend not to worry about
time. If we waste some today,
there's always plenty around
tomorrow. But in the workplace,
where people are paid by the hour,
week or month, time is always a
cost. That's why time management
is a must-have at work.
#9.SeeTimeasaCost

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In the past, people aspired to a
working life on the "3 x 47" pattern.
This meant 47 years a lifetime (16
to the average retirement age of
43); 47 weeks a year (a year less
holidays); 47 hours a week (basic
plus overtime). Today, this pattern
has changed with a wider range of
time at work options.
#10.Ditchthe3x47WorkPattern

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Your freedom to manage time at
work depends on how work
comes to you. If you are able to
determine the rate at which
work comes to you, then you
can manage time actively. If you
have to wait for others, then you
can only manage time reactively.
Those who can control their
time are invariably better time
managers.
#11.WorkFlow

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There are 4 types of workplace
culture and each one affects
how you manage your time. A
bureaucratic culture ties people
up in red tape. An anarchic
culture leaves people alone to
do what they want. An
autocratic culture puts you at
the mercy of those in power.
Only in a democratic culture can
you thrash out a time
management plan with others.
#12.TimeandCulture

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Your boss can make a big difference
to the way you manage your time
at work. The drive boss wants to
keep you busy. The default boss
wants to leave you alone. The
dump boss wants to dump things
on you. Only the developed boss
will sit down and help you plan
your time.
#13.Drive,Default,DumpandDevelopedBosses

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You can measure how well
you manage your time at
work across 5 timescales.
Control: is it with you or
others? Pace: can you set the
pace at which you work?
Variety: can you vary your
load? Balance: is the mix of
tasks in balance? Goals: can
you see where it's all
leading?
#14.MeasuringYourTime

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Edward Sheldrick describes
people at work as either
pearl crushers or pearl
divers. Pearl crushers are
those who miss the
opportunities that work
affords. They leave the
management of their time
to others and consequently
#15.PearlCrushersandPearlDivers
under-achieve. Pearl divers are those who take control of their
time and consequently discover the hidden jewels on the ocean
floor.

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Time-fillers are people who see
their stretch of time at work as a
period that has to be endured. They
have no sense of purpose and so
drift at others' beck and call like
flotsam on the sea-shore. They
swing from boredom to crisis and
back again, filling up their time with
empty ritual, aimless pastimes and
competitive game-playing.
#16.TimeFillers

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Time managers see time as a
partner in their pursuit of
goals at work. They always
feel in control, even when at
the mercy of events. They
work at an even pace, even
through crises, and are able to
vary their interests to
maintain balance. Unlike
time-fillers, they rarely suffer
from stress.
#17.TimeManagers

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Routine tasks are "earth" tasks.
They are the things we do to keep
body and soul together and the
workplace ticking over: solid and
necessary. For us, as individuals,
they are the set-piece habits of our
day. For the organisation, they are
the necessary chores and must-
do's. We should aim to spend up to
a quarter of our day on earth, or
groundwork.
#18.RoutineWork

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Creative work is represented by the metaphor of fire. Fire is
dynamic, creative, productive and powerful. It makes something
new before it dies out. Most new work is fire work. It starts with an
idea, develops into plans, goals and objectives and finally comes
together in the result we want. We should aim to spend up to a
quarter of our day on fire, or creative work.
#19.CreativeWork

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Non-doing work is work that doesn't involve busyness. It is
associated with air because it is light and in the mind. Non-doing
time is time for planning, preparing and learning. Of the four steps
on the management cycle, three of the four are non-doing
activities. Non-doing time is also time for recuperating. We should
aim to spend up to a quarter of our day on air tasks.
#20.Non-DoingWork

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Water plays an important part
in our lives. It flows and
connects and joins and, so, in
the four elements model
water is associated with our
time with others. Time with
others is a double-edged
sword: we can achieve
nothing without others but if
we are not careful we can
achieve nothing because of
#21.TimeWithOthers
others. We should aim to spend up to a quarter of our day on
water activities, or time with others.

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All organisations need a certain
level of routine work, such as
systems and procedures. These
form the backbone around
which the business meets its
statutory obligations and keeps
control. Your aim in routine
work should be to only do what
is absolutely essential and then
work towards making what has
to be done as quick and
efficient as possible.
#22.RoutineWork

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There's a golden hour
lurking in amongst your
workplace routines. Here's
how to find it: cut out
unnecessary tasks;
automate; use checklists
to do things quicker;
prepare properly so you
don't delay the doing; be a
tidy squirrel; use the Shoe-
shine principle of doubling-
up activities.
#23.HowtoFindaGoldenHourinYourDay

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Most of us are drowning
in paperwork. For
instance, did you know
that the average person
spends 45 minutes a day
looking for lost paper?
There is around 40 hours
worth of paperwork lying
on our desks at any one
#24.Paperwork
time? We hoard up to 20,000 pages of paper unnecessarily?
Tackling these could net you an extra 6 hours a week.

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The simple art of deskmanship is your route to tidier, quicker and
more pleasurable office work. The 3 golden rules of deskmanship
are: always stop and ask if a piece of paper is necessary; answer
queries on the paper it came on; move incoming paper
immediately to its destination.
#25.Deskmanship

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Although your aim with
routine work is to eliminate
time-wasters, there are some
routine tasks that can't be
shortened without an
impairment in quality. These
jobs are like cooking a
gourmet meal whose chief
ingredient is time. Find out
which jobs these are and then
do them with love and
patience.
#26.TakingYourTime

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The first step in achieving a goal
usually starts with a statement
about your purpose or mission.
Steven Covey says that a
mission statement should focus
on what you want to be
(character), what you want to
do (achievements and
contributions), and on the
values and principles on which
being and doing are based.
#27.KnowingYourPurpose

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Goals are the stepping stones
that lead you to your mission.
To set achievable goals, you
need to define them clearly,
(eg by using the mnemonic
SMART), base them on the
things you already do well, and
describe them in ways that
appeal to your emotions as
well as your thoughts.
#28.AchievingYourGoals

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The gap between dreaming a goal
and achieving it is filled with
knowledge and know-how. One
way to organise, plan and review
your knowledge is to divide it up
into Key Result Areas. So, for
example, if our goal is better
health, we might choose to work
on the key areas of Diet, Exercise,
Sleep, Lifestyle, and Stress.
#29.KeyResultAreas

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Objectives are the short-term goals for each of our key result
areas. They are best defined with the mnemonic SMART. S for
Specific; M for Measurable; A for Achievable; R for Realistic; T for
Time-bounded. An example of a SMART fitness goal is to "lose 6lb
by the end of next week".
#30.SMARTObjectives

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To reach our short-term
objectives, we need to take
action. Focusing on our goals,
combined with knowledge of our
key result areas, allows us to
determine the actions we need to
take daily to move forward. Daily
action plans work best when we
have a passion about what we're
doing and take advantage of
opportunities as they present
themselves.
#31.DailyPlans

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Most managers spend under
5% of their time on their A1
task. They do other things
because they're more fun or
more familiar. One way to
prioritise is to determine
whether each task before you
is important or urgent and to
delegate, delay or discard all
the jobs that aren't very
important and very urgent.
And then do just the ones that
are very important.
#32.PrioritisingTasks

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A time management system is a
good way to plan more time on
your A1 tasks. Start by putting
the most important jobs into
your diary and then fill up the
gaps with smaller jobs. Never fill
up more than 60% of the day.
Leave 20% for emergencies and
another 20% unplanned.
#33.DiarisingYourTasks

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The Daruma Doll is a Japanese toy
used by executives to remind them
of their goals. To start with, the
doll's eyes are white. They stay
white until a goal is achieved and
then they are coloured in. The
Daruma Doll is named after an
Indian prince famous for his self-
discipline and positive outlook.
#34.TheDarumaDoll

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A project is an
organisation of people
dedicated to a specific
purpose. It usually
involves an undertaking
to complete a series of
tasks by a certain date,
for a certain amount of
money, to a certain level
#35.TheAimsofaProject
of outcome. These 3 variables are inter-related, so that if you
increase the time to get a better result, you also increase the cost.

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Estimates of the time a
project will take rely on 3
kinds of calculation: ball park
estimates with a level of +/-
25% accuracy; comparative
estimates based on what's
worked before with +/- 15%
accuracy; feasibility estimates
based on run-throughs with
+/- 10% accuracy These
estimates can be revised as
you refine your task lists.
#36.CalculatingProjectTimes

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Once you have a list of tasks
for your project, you need to
put them in a logical sequence
using network analysis.
Network analysis will show you
which tasks must take place
before which; any waiting
times and gaps; sequential
tasks and tasks that can
happen at the same time; the
quickest time the project will
take.
#37.NetworkAnalysis

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The plan is your project map. It enables you to see how things will
work out and is an indispensable aid in tracking progress. When
put into a timeframe, a project plan can be drawn as a bar chart.
#38.ProjectPlanning
The bar chart tells you the
earliest starting times and
latest finishing times for each
task and the milestones you
have to reach.

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Monitoring controls are
essential if you want to
keep your project on time.
This means developing a
system that keeps you and
others informed of progress
and signalling problems,
lack of resources, missed
targets, and anything else
affecting progress as soon
as they arise.
#39.MonitoringYourProject

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Crashing a project means
accelerating it either to catch up
on time or to take advantage of
an opportunity to speed things
up. Some of the ways to crash
include changing the
specification, doing tasks
simultaneously rather than
sequentially, and removing non-
critical tasks from the priority
list.
#40.CrashingaProject

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Murphy's Law states that
anything in a project that can
go wrong will go wrong.
Tongue-in-cheek, it's the law
that says that if everything is
going well, you haven't a clue
what's going on and that the
light at the end of the tunnel is
the headlight of an oncoming
train.
#41.Murphy’sLaw

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A study at Sussex University
showed that most people
seriously under-estimate
the time a project will take.
That's because they tend to
ignore what can go wrong.
As examples, the Channel
Tunnel between England
and France came in a year
#42.EstimatingaProject’sTime
late and 100% over budget and the Sydney Opera House opened 10
years late and 1300% over budget.

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Non-doing work is work that is
non-active. It is associated with
the element, air, and for some
people is unproductive and
therefore wasted time. In fact,
the opposite is more likely to be
the case. For a balanced time
plan, up to a quarter of your day
should be devoted to non-doing
work.
#43.Non-DoingWork

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Thinking is a non-doing activity
and can be far more productive
than unfocused activity. That's
because we think 3 times
quicker than we can speak. The
management cycle of plan, do
and review consists of two
thirds thinking activity to one
third activity. Focused thinking
allows us access to the
abundant store of ideas in our
sub-conscious brains.
#44.FocusedThinking

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Tuning-in quiet is the ability to
become at one with our
surroundings. It's the state of
simply being and not doing. It
means being fully present in the
moment, listening openly to others,
and detecting what we can do
effortlessly at any moment because
the time is right.
#45.Tuning-InQuiet

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In the Christian Bible, in
Ecclesiastes, we read: "To
everything there is a season
and a time to every purpose
under heaven". Such as: a time
to plant and a time to reap and
a time to break down and a
time to build up. When we lock
in to these times, our actions
are easy, natural and
accomplished without
resistance.
#46.TimingItRight

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The human body has a daily
rhythm to it that can help in
some tasks and hinder in others.
For example, at the start of the
day, when the body has high
levels of the stress hormone
cortisol, you should do your
most difficult task. At the end of
the day, when your efficiency is
low, you should return your
phone calls and chat.
#47.TheDailyRhythm

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There is a basic physiological
rhythm to our day governed by
our automatic and endocrine
systems which alternates
activity and rest. This is known
as the Break-Rest-Activity Cycle
and lasts about 90 to 120
minutes. That's why you are far
more productive when you take
regular breaks.
#48.TheBreak-Rest-ActivityCycle

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Taking time out from the
workplace is a good use
of time especially in fast-
moving environments.
Some organisations take
their managers away for
weekend breaks to stop
and see the big picture.
Individuals have an end-
of-week review session.
#49.TakingTimeOut
Bill Gates of Microsoft takes himself away every year just to think
about the future.

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There are two impulses in the
way we spend our time with
others. On the one hand, we
need to know what's going on; on
the other, we need to avoid
wasting our time with them.
Henry Mintzberg found that the
average manager is interrupted
once every 8 minutes. Rather
than regard it as an intrusion,
most managers actually welcome
it.
#50.HowOftenDoYouGetInterrupted?

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The popular image of the
successful manager is
someone who plans each day
carefully and moves
efficiently from one job to
the next. The truth is
somewhat different.
According to research, the
average manager spends
only 9 minutes on one job
#51.AManagers’Time
before being interrupted. But the same manager spends 73% of his
or her time in unplanned contact with others.

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There are 3 types of people who
can seriously waste your time at
work. 1. moaners, whingers and
complainers who can suck you
dry with their negativity. 2.
gossips who can embroil you in
their put-down of others 3.
work-avoiders who want to
recruit you to their team. Avoid
them.
#52.TimeWasters

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Learning to say No to jobs that
aren't yours is essential if you want
to control your time. Fix it in your
head that it's OK to say No.
Remember that others may have
more claims to your time than they
do. Say No firmly and
unambiguously. Don't feel bad or
guilty. It's their problem, not yours.
#53.SayingNo

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Other people are potentially
the greatest threat to your
effectiveness at work. If you
are not careful, you can get
sucked in by pointless phone
calls, endless meetings, and
purposeless encounters. Be
known as someone who is
brisk and brief. That way you'll
earn more time to call your
own.
#54.TheGreatestTimeThreat

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If you're trapped by an unwanted
caller, use these tactics to get rid of
them in a polite way. Offer them
another time slot. Ask how long
they're going to be. Use your body
positioning to indicate you've
finished business with them such as
getting up from your seat and
perching on the edge of your desk.
Be gracious with people and
ruthless with time.
#55.GraciousWithPeople,RuthlessWithTime

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A team-wide policy on
time is a good way to
resolve the dilemma of
wasting time with others.
It can include allocating
tasks as a team; sharing
each others' to-do lists;
regularly reviewing how
time is spent in the team;
agreeing team availability
times.
#56.ATeamTimePolicy

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Alec McKenzie offers this simple
but powerful tip to anyone who
wants to improve their time
management: don't be late. When
everyone is on time, it sends a
signal that time is a valuable
resource not to be wasted. It also
indicates that you respect others
and their time.
#57.RespectingPeople’sTime

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The Perfectionist is
someone who fills up
every moment of
time with purposeful
work. They use well-
planned routines to
get them through
each day and feel
bad if something
#58.Perfectionists
interrupts this routine. Perfectionists are typified by George
Bernard Shaw who wrote religiously every day at set times and to
fixed targets.

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Without strong personal
ambitions, Socialisers are not good
time planners. Work is about being
with others, not personal
achievements. The Socialiser has
numerous favourite meeting spots:
the water cooler, the after-work
pub, the weekly team meeting.
However, their lack of time
consciousness means they find it
hard to break away from contact
with friends.
#59.Socialisers

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The Achiever is a highly ambitious
person who prizes work for the
success it brings. Achievers like to
impress others with the amount
they take on and the apparent ease
with which they complete tasks.
But under the surface things may
not be so rosy with jobs left undone
or not even started.
#60.Achievers

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Artists have a cavalier
attitude to time which they
regard as a constraint. They
regularly arrive late, stay late
and miss deadlines.
However, the work they
produce is often one of a
kind and in their eyes makes
up for their non-
conformance to the rules of
time.
#61.Artists

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The Analyser has a touch
of the absent-minded
professor about them.
They can get so wrapped
up in their thoughts, that
the minutiae of daily life
can easily pass them by.
When this happens,
mealtimes, bedtimes and
#62.Analysers
appointment times are
forgotten for something more
interesting.

66|
Hesitators are the procrastinators
of time management. They are
often highly competent people but
need to be sure about their actions
before they throw their hat into the
ring. As a result, they often get little
done. Hesitators find their home in
service to others where they do
nothing unless asked.
#63.Hesitators

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Adventurers appear
dynamic time managers
because of the
enormous amount they
do. In fact, everything
they do is done at
breakneck speed:
talking, eating, walking.
The trouble is, they have
#64.Adventurers
short attention spans and, like the hare in Aesop's fable, soon lose
interest in one task for something more fun.

68|
Rebels push time to the
limit. Typically, they like to
run late for deadlines
coming to life in the tension
this creates. They love to
burn the candle at both
ends, staying up late and
getting up early. This defeat
of time makes Rebels feel
strong, confident and in
control.
#65.Rebels

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Wanderers are more in tune with
natural cycles than the artificial
timescales of the workplace.
They like to go with the mood.
Simplicity is their watchword.
They either avoid any task that is
#66.Wanderers
too difficult or complex
or make it easier.
Wanderers are not
ambitious, but they do
achieve a high level of
contentment.

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THAT’S IT!
WELL DONE!

71|
THANK YOU
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One-Minute Tips: Time Management

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