Keys to Successful Time Management at Work

1. The Bank Account of Life

2. • Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each
morning with AED 86,400
• It carries over no balance from day to day.
• Every “evening” deletes whatever part of the balance you
failed to use during the day.
• What would you do?
• Draw out every cent,
of course!!!!

3. • Each of us have such a “bank”
It’s name is TIME
• Every morning,
it credits you with 86,400 seconds
• Every night it writes off, as lost,
whatever of this you have failed to
invest to good purpose
• It carries over no balance
• It allows no overdraft
• Each day it opens a new account for you
• Each night it burns the remains of the day
• If you fail to use the day’s deposits,
the loss is yours

4. To realize the value of ONE YEAR….
ask a student who failed a grade
To realize the value of ONE MONTH…..
ask a mother who gave birth
to a premature baby
To realize the value of ONE WEEK……
ask the editor of a weekly newspaper
To realize the value of ONE HOUR……
ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realize the value of ONE MINUTE…..
ask a person who missed the train.
To realize the value of ONE SECOND….
ask a person who just avoided an accident.
To realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND…..
ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics.

5. Yesterday is History
Tomorrow’s a Mystery
Today is a Gift
That’s Why its called
The Present

6. Is The Jar Full?
One day an expert in time management
was speaking to a group of business
students and, to make a point, he used this
illustration. As he stood in front of the group
he pulled out a large wide-mouthed Mason
jar and set it on the table in front of him.
Then he produced about a dozen rocks and
placed them, one at a time, into the jar.
When the jar was filled to the top and no
more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is
this jar full?" Everyone in the class said,
"Yes." Then he said, "Really?"

7. He reached under the table and
pulled out a bucket of gravel. He
dumped some gravel in and shook
the jar causing pieces of gravel to
work themselves down into the
space between the rocks. Then he
asked the group once more, "Is
the jar full?" By this time the class
began to understand. "Probably
not," one of them answered.
"Good!" he replied.

8. He reached under the table and
brought out a bucket of sand. He
started dumping the sand in the jar
and it went into all of the spaces
left between the rocks and the
gravel. Once more he asked the
question, "Is this jar full?" No!" the
class shouted. Once again he
said, "Good."

9. Then he grabbed a pitcher of
water and began to pour it in until
the jar was filled to the brim. Then
he looked at the class and asked,
"What is the point of this
illustration?“ One student raised
his hand and said, “No matter how
full your schedule is, if you try
really hard you can always fit
some more things in it!"

10. “No,” he said, “that's not the point”.
The point is :
Put the
Big Rocks
in First
“If you don't put the big rocks in
first, you'll never get them in
at all."

11. Why Time Management is Important
• “The Time Famine”
• Bad time management = stress

12. The Problem is Severe
By some estimates, people waste about 2 hours per day.
Signs of time wasting:
– Messy desk and cluttered (or no) files
– Can’t find things
– Miss appointments, need to reschedule them late
and/or unprepared for meetings
– Volunteer to do things other people should do
– Tired/unable to concentrate

13. Biggest Workplace Pressures
According to the Emotionally Charged Workplace
Study (American Management Association),
two of the most common workplace frustrations are:
– More tasks/responsibilities than time
to do them
– People taking up too much time with
correspondence/meetings

14. Symptoms of Poor Time Management
• A lack of achievement.
• Deadlines always missed.
• High proportion of time spent socializing at work.
• Excessive amount of time on the telephone.
• Indecisiveness leading to delayed work.
• Constantly interrupting others and being interrupted.

15. Obstacles to effective time
management
Unclear objectives
Disorganization
Inability to say “no”

16. Obstacles to effective time
management
Interruptions
More interruptions
Periods of inactivity

17. Obstacles to effective time
management
Too many things at once
Stress and fatigue
All work and no play

18. Interruptions
• You must reduce frequency and length of
interruptions (turn phone calls into email)
• E-mail noise on new mail is an
interruption -> TURN IT OFF!!

19. Procrastination
“Procrastination is the
thief of time”
Edward Young
Night Thoughts, 1742

20. Avoiding Procrastination
• Doing things at the last minute is much more
expensive than just before the last minute
• Deadlines are really important: establish
them yourself!

21. What can we do?
Recognize that obstacles exist
Identify them
Employ strategies to overcome
Take Charge of Your Time

22. Prioritize
• Do
• Delegate
• Delay
• Delete

23. Prioritize
1. Address the urgent
2. Accomplish what you can early
3. Attach deadlines to things you delay

24. Am I Working My “A’s” Off?
• Economist Vilfredo Pareto identified the
80/20 Rule.
– Critical few and the trivial many
– Having the courage of your
convictions
– Good judgment comes from
experience
– Experiences comes from bad
judgment

25. ABC Priority System
Develop a list of all the things you have to do and prioritize
them.
A. Tasks that need to be done immediately.
B. Tasks that need to be done relatively soon.
C. Tasks with no current urgency.

26. Organize

27. Take the Offensive with a
PLANNER
A planner helps you:
– See the big picture
– Plan ahead to avoid “11th Hour” efforts
– Be time efficient

28. Using a Planner Effectively
• Select a planner that you will be
likely to carry with you.
• At the beginning of each day,
record test dates, project due
dates etc from all of your syllabi.
• Use pencil because schedules
change
• Keep your planner handy

29. Planning
• Failing to plan is planning to fail
• Plan Each Day, Each Week, Each Semester
• You can always change your plan, but only
once you have one!

30. TO Do Lists
• Break things down into small steps
• Do the ugliest thing first

31. The four-quadrant TO DO List
1 2
3 4
Important
Not
Important
Due Soon Not Due Soon

32. Be Realistic
• Examine your schedule.
• Be realistic about what
you can accomplish.
• Don’t try to juggle too
many things.
• Don’t set yourself up for
failure.

33. Scheduling Yourself
• You don’t find time for important things, you
make it
• Everything you do is an opportunity cost
• Learn to say “No”

34. Learn when to say “NO”
• You can’t do
everything
• Don’t undertake things
you can’t complete
• Remain consistent to
your goals

35. Use your waiting time
• On public transportation
• On hold
• When you are early

36. Use your waiting time / LQ
Correspondence
Letters or memos
Books or tapes

37. Concentrate on the task at hand
• Focus on your goal
• Tune out interruptions

38. Office Logistics
• Make your office comfortable for you, and
optionally comfortable for others

39. Delegation is not dumping
• Grant authority with responsibility.
• Concrete goal, deadline, and consequences.
• Superiors, co-workers and subordinates are the
employee’s and organization's lifeline; they
should be treated well!

40. Challenge People
• People rise to the challenge: You should
delegate “until they complain”
• Give objectives, not procedures
• Tell the relative importance of this task

41. Sociology
• Beware upward delegation!
• Ignorance is your friend – I do not know how
to run the photocopier or the fax machine

42. Randy’s Magic E-Mail Tips
• Save all of it; no exceptions
• If you want somebody to do something, make them
the only recipient. Otherwise, you have diffusion of
responsibility. Give a concrete request/task and a
deadline.
• If you really want somebody to do something, CC
someone powerful.
• Nagging is okay; if someone doesn’t respond in 48
hours, they’ll probably never respond. (True for
phone as well as email).

43. Benefits of time management
• Efficient
• Successful
• Healthy

44. Hear me Now, Believe me Later
• Being successful doesn’t make you manage
your time well.
• Managing your time well makes you
successful.

45. Your search ends here!!

46. • I recommend you to take care of the minutes, for the
hours will take care of themselves.
-- Lord Chesterfield
• Time wasted is existence; time used is life.
-- Edward Young
• Procrastination is opportunity's natural assassin.
-- Victor Kiam
• A day will never be anymore than what you make of
it.
Practice being a 'doer'!
--Josh S. Hinds
• Our greatest danger in life is in permitting the urgent
things to crowd out the important.
-- Charles E. Hummel.

47. Review
•Set goals
•Prioritize
•Organize
•Learn when to say “NO”
•Use your waiting time
•Concentrate on the task at hand
&
CELEBRATE SUCCESS