Time Management Principles

Time management is one of the key factors in determining your personal success. Time management-like the management of other resources-benefits from analysis and planning. To understand and apply time management principles, you must know not only how you use time, but also what problems you encounter in using it wisely and what causes them. From this base you can lean to improve your effectiveness and efficiency through better time management.

There is no universal rules for personal time management.  Time management is a personal process and must fit your style and circumstances. It takes a strong commitment to change old habits; If you choose to apply the principles , you will obtain the rewards that come from better time investment.

Time Spending Pattern

For better time management, you need to understand your time spending pattern. The best starting place to improve your use of time is to determine the extent to which you control the time available to you. No one has total control over a daily schedule. Someone or something will always make demands. However, everyone has some control-and probably more than they realize.

When you are working or studying, A portion of each day is regulated by your company or school and should be used for those activities. Even within this structured time, there are opportunities to select which tasks or activities to handle and what priority to assign to each of them. It is the exercise of these discretionary choices that allows you to control your time. Analyzing how you presently use time is the first step to achieving better control of it. You must have specific, reliable information before you can determine opportunities for improvement. The best way to gather information is to keep a daily time log. A daily time log can help your gather relevant information which can help your analyze your time spending pattern.

Classify your activities

After this information has been recorded, you should examine it from three points of view: Necessity, Appropriateness, and Efficiency. This should allow you to discontinue certain tasks, delegate others, and find ways to increase efficiency .

Necessity test. Necessity activities are those activities that are essential and necessary to do. When analyzing your activities, you should scrutinize each activity to be sure it is necessary-not just nice, but necessary. The test of necessity should help reduce your tasks to the essential elements.

Appropriateness test. Appropriate test is to determine the duties and responsibilities of the activities. Once the essential tasks have been identified, the next step should determine who should perform them . There are probably activities that could be given to others. You may also find you are doing work beneath your skill level that can be easily reassigned.

Efficiency test. The third analysis examines tasks that are remaining. Once you are satisfied that the work you are doing is necessary, ask yourself, “Is there a better way?” This will encourage you to find a faster way, by using better technology or establishing better procedures to handle recurring activities.