Time. It’s the one thing nobody can buy, but we all want boatloads of it.
We stay up late or get up extra early to get things done, but what if our sleep or downtime didn’t have to suffer, and we could get everything done on time?
That’s where time management practices come in. By understanding what works for your personality and your schedule, you can choose the perfect approach. Controlling your time can lead to feelings of empowerment and boosted confidence, not to mention a few extra minutes to read, stretch or take a relaxing bath.
Just a few time management principles are listed below. Mostly borrowed from business literature, these methods have shown to be effective not only in professional arenas but also can easily be applied at home.
A considerable time management tool uses the 80/20 principle. Also called the Pareto principle, this concept explains the phenomena where 20% of the effort is responsible for 80% of a result. For example, in an office environment, 20% of a person’s time is typically responsible for 80% of the work done (Human-Vogel & van Petegem, 2008). This method can be used to help identify problems and their root causes.
The 80/20 approach requires the naming and grouping of issues and their causes. After grouping, each issue is then ranked according to importance. Then, those issues of the highest priority are worked on first (University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, 2019). Through this process, you may find that a big issue is that you can’t find the time to exercise. A cause you identify may be that you spend more time bingeing your favorite streaming crime dramas than you would like, and you may also find that other issues are also connected when you group the problems. Therefore, through this method, you would find that the cause is spending too much time streaming, and the result is not enough time sweating and addressing other important issues. In this case, turning off autoplay could help you discover a few extra minutes.
Another time management principle borrowed from business is the Pomodoro Effect. Created by Francesco Cirillo, this method takes its name from the tomato-shaped timer used in its execution. The Pomodoro effect allows for 25-minute bursts of activity followed by five-minute breaks (Mandal, 2019). After several sessions, the pauses can last longer, up to 20-30 minutes (University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences, 2019).
Parkinsons Law is another tool that can be applied to time management practices. This approach is based on the idea that the work one does will either expand or contract to fill a period. Essentially, this idea shows that we choose our effort levels based on the appropriateness of the task and the amount of time available for completing these tasks (Peters et al., 1984). Therefore, if we give ourselves a deadline, such as when my laptop battery runs out, to finish a project, we will likely get it done.
Lastly, time blocking is a common scheduling practice whereby a schedule outlines what activity will be worked upon and when. For example, instead of checking your email every five minutes, you can choose to check your email at the beginning and end of the hour. Consider placing alerts for emails that can’t be missed and let the others wait until the scheduled time.
By applying one or more of these approaches to daily tasks, you may get more done with less stress. It’s normal to feel overwhelmed sometimes, but remember that reaching out to a trained counselor can help if these feelings persist. Contact us here for more information.
References
Human-Vogel, S., & van Petegem, P. (2008). Causal judgments of positive mood in relation to self-regulation: A case study with flemish students. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 33(4), 451-485. 10.1016/j.cedpsych.2008.02.002
Mandal, Amrita. (2020, May) The Pomodoro Technique: An Effective Time Management Tool. The NICHD Connection, 11 (120), 6. https://science.nichd.nih.gov/confluence/display/newsletter/2020/05/07/The+Pomodoro+Technique%3A+An+Effective+Time+Management+Tool
Peters, L. H., O’Connor, E. J., Pooyan, A., & Quick, J. C. (1984). The relationship between time pressure and performance: A field test of Parkinson’s Law. Journal of Occupational Behavior, 5(4), 293–299. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.4030050406
University of St. Augustine for Health Sciences. (2019) Nine Proven Time Management Techniques and Tools. https://www.usa.edu/blog/time-management-techniques/
Vaccaro, P. J. (2000). The 80/20 rule of time management. Family Practice Management, 7(8), 76. http://library.capella.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fscholarly-journals%2F80-20-rule-time-management%2Fdocview%2F221687723%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D27965
