1.
Time Management
1
Time Management is no longer just a concept
– it’s a necessity
Out of Control
African time – The enemy of time management?
African time is something most of us are aware of. Once perceived
as a cultural tendency to be late, we have started to accept it as a
way of life. It involves a “relaxed” attitude to time, as opposed to the
clock-based Western way of life. But, given the fast –past world of
business, is there really still room for this attitude? The answer is:
not if we want to keep up with the rest of the world. Tight deadlines,
increasing workloads and lack of time are all impossible to manage
without a more proactive attitude to time. This is where time
management comes in. Many years ago, you knew what your job
was. You showed up for work, you completed your tasks for the day,
taking your union-standard lunch hour and tea breaks, and you went
home. Nowadays our job responsibilities are no longer cut-and -
dried. We may have vague job titles that secretly mean we do five
different jobs. We may run projects over a number of months,
involving huge amounts of money and, more often we also run a
number of these simultaneously. If we don’t manage our time, we
can never hope to get anything done to the standards required.
Seven Steps to better time management
1.Be prepared
If you have a big project looming, get your admin in order and start
preparing for the workload. You need to hire new people, get the

2.
Time Management
2
right tools for the job or decide which members of staff can handle
the job.
2.Set Goals
These serve as a call to action and a motivation to get through the
work in a timely manner. If you set weekly goals, you have something
concrete to work towards. Let the team be involved in setting these
goals.
3.Allocate and Delegate
Don’t try to control all aspects yourself or heap the work on one
person. Delegate tasks to each member of the team and allow them
to take responsibility –let them make decisions too so they feel
valued and invested. Also make sure to define each person’s role so
no one can “pass the buck “.
4.Improve Tools and processes
If there a calendar, spreadsheet, computer programme or technique
to make things easier, make use of them. This will increase efficiency
and rule out a bit of human error –if your PC reminds you of a
deadline, the work is more likely to get done on time.
5.Banish Bad Practices
If any process are outdated, cumbersome or more complicated than
they need to be, you need to re-look at them. If something stops
the flow of work (for example, if one person holds up the process
because they need to sign off on something before the project can

3.
Time Management
3
move forward) then address the issue, and find a workable solution.
6.Set Priorities
Make a-to do list and learn how to priorities. If you have a large
workload you need to have a systematic approach to the tasks at
hand. Lists can be a very useful aide.
7.Monitor and Analyse
Hold a weekly meeting so you can get updates on progress and check
that the deadlines and goals are being met .Speak to team members
that are not coping and assess why .Do they need help ?Are their
time management skills not effective ?How can this be fixed?
Methods
There are a number of different methods that can be
used to maximise your time. These include:
POSEC method
Prioritise by
Organising
Economising and
Contributing
PomodoroTechnique
This advocates that mental agility is improved by sectioning work
into set intervals with frequent breaks in between.

4.
Time Management
4
GTD(Getting Things Done )Method
You need to record externally in order to free your
Mind to concentrate on the task at hand. This is because the human
brain is not reliable enough to store all the information itself.
Pareto Analysis (The 80-20 Rule)
The Premise is that 80% of tasks can be completed in 20%of the time
available and the remaining 20% can be completed in 80% of the
time. You need to prioritise the first category.
Eisenhower Method
For this you need to divide tasks into four categories:
Important and urgent – sort out personally and immediately
Important but not urgent –action personally with a set end date
Not important but urgent – delegate
Not important and not urgent - drop