Comments on: What are your beliefs about time management?

By: Robert Krawitz

Robert Krawitz — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 14:17:14 +0000

Here’s a real doozy: if people are meeting their schedules, the schedules are too easy and they’re not working hard enough. An all too common management technique. This is quite the opposite of my belief.

Another one that I do believe in: clear the small stuff (reply to email, reply to phone calls, take care of garbage paperwork) quickly — either do it or don’t do it at all.

By: Paul Derham

Paul Derham — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 21:55:48 +0000

There’s no such thing as time management, it’s all about self management. However, my self disagrees with this conclusion.

By: Carl

Carl — Wed, 27 May 2009 18:30:19 +0000

Here’s some assumptions and fallacies I run into a lot:

* We have less time than ever before. (In fact, everybody who ever lived had 24 hours a day. What’s changed is how we choose to spend that time. It’s a different mindset.)

* Tasks can be prioritized. (I find that coming up with the ultimate prioritization method is a never-ending quest, and my belief is that it just doesn’t exist. It’s too fluid, it’s too complex, and there’s attributes that are impossible to quantify.)

* Your value is measured by what you do for others. (In fact, you have inherent value just because you exist. What you deliver for others is great, but this assumption puts you in the mind-set that nothing matters unless – and until – others say that they value it. That’s incredibly short-sighted.)

By: Steve Mills

Steve Mills — Wed, 27 May 2009 07:15:40 +0000

Turn off that “You have new mail” reminder. It stops you getting your work done. Everybody is easily distracted so remove that distraction. I set my mail to manual download so it only downloads when I want to look at mail and I let everyone know not to count on me reading it more than twice a day – once at the start and again at the end (to help plan tomorrow).

By: Steve Mills

Steve Mills — Wed, 27 May 2009 07:13:51 +0000

Make sure you achieve something every week. At the beginning of the week work out what you could actually complete and so tick off your list, then half it and make that your target. If all your tasks are so big that there’s no achievable milestone each week then they truly need breaking down further – get it done.

By: Steve Mills

Steve Mills — Wed, 27 May 2009 07:12:17 +0000

If you use a scheduler like Outlook then schedule dummy appointments with yourself during which you stop doing email and get work done. Otherwise your colleagues will eat up all of your time. Know when your personal best time of the day is and make sure those are the times you reserve for real work.

By: alejandro

alejandro — Wed, 27 May 2009 01:43:58 +0000

I think a big thing is what Covey talks about in 7-Habits, and beginning with the end in mind.

There will NEVER be enough time to do all the things we need to or want to. If we know what the “end” is and keeping that in mind, it will be much easier to prioritize the most important things to achieve the END. Everything else is just not important.

-az

By: Howard Fine

Howard Fine — Sun, 24 May 2009 17:40:55 +0000

I’m also always interested in improving my time management… I find that prioritizing my daily things to do list has proven highly effecient in improving mine.

Another post on another blog shared a new method for prioritizing that was new to me, I went to the posted link and downloaded a final ‘release candidate beta copy’ of this new product. You might want to check it out with your experience and knowledge. It is awesome and I find now that I use it for many decision needs.

http://www.choiceanalyst.com

Cheers,

Howard Fine
Director of IT

By: Sam Fawaz

Sam Fawaz — Sun, 24 May 2009 16:03:00 +0000

There are so many good comments here, many that I share. I find that what you spend time on is what’s really important to you, trumped only by those tasks with non-extendable deadlines that must get done now. If you’re not spending time on something, or find yourself procrastinating on it, it’s because you don’t enjoy it or it seems like such a big mountain to overcome.

Managing time, in my opinion, is easier said than done, especially when you have family members, clients, bosses, friends and vendors all competing for your time. The best I can do is try to put in filters to minimize the interruptions and have a clean, comfortable and quiet place to work without “pretty shiny objects” to distract me from my mission. Yep, I’ve often thought that time management is an oxymoron.

By: Andy Cumbo

Andy Cumbo — Sun, 24 May 2009 02:36:55 +0000

For me, I think a lot of time is wasted overall. Mindless chatter, wasting time doing the wrong thing–or nothing at all, avenging each and every wrong done to you, and plotting to hurt others in any way, shape or form are all time not well spent. When I hear, “God, I wish I had more time for (fill in blank)…” I think of my own situation, and the amount of time I waste that could be put toward getting things done. I, like many others, do have time. It’s just wasted in many cases. Better time management is a dynamic goal and, while maybe not ever being achieved in full, should always be there as a goal.