Key Aspects of Time Management

Time Management is essentially the ability to organize and plan the time spent on activities in a day. The result of good time management is increased effectiveness and productivity. It is a key aspect of project management and involves skills such as planning, setting goals and prioritizing for a better performance.

Planning

Planning consists of identification of the intention of the Project Management Group with respect to the steps one intends to follow toward the execution of the project. It includes depicting what the Project Management group intend to do, how it will be done, and what will be used to do it. Setting Goals When setting goal, we ensure that we follow the SMART process. SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound) goals that motivate you. There are a lot of time wasters in our daily (working) lives, which is why we need a way to manage our time better.

Time Management is often associated with business, but you need this skill in every part of life. For project managers, it is particularly important to possess time management skills to be successful. A lack of effective time management can have a negative impact on a project in the long run. Time is one of the three triple constraints and any deviation from the schedule has an effect on the cost and scope of a project. In most cases time really is money. Ineffective time management can also increase stress and frustration in the project manager and the team members. Worst case scenario: a burnout.

Effective Time Management

The key to good time management is not to work more, but to work more efficiently. Task list and priorities Planning is key in project management. An effective planning method is to identify all the tasks that you need to do to complete a project. This can be done by making a to-do or task list. The next step is to prioritize these tasks. Estimate and track time accurately After you have identified and prioritize the tasks it is time to estimate how much time it will take to complete them. Make sure that you include all constraints and other factors in your estimation. Most of the time things will not go as planned, so include buffer times for unforeseen events into your project schedule.

Create a schedule

After all the planning and estimating, you can create a project schedule, which includes all tasks and their duration. I know I mention them a lot, but Gantt charts are really a staple of project management that help you schedule activities and assign resources. For more complex projects, add a critical path to visualize which tasks are most important to complete the project.

Reference

1. Tourangbam, D. K. (2011). Time Management. New Delhi: Vij Books India Private Limited.
2. AEON, B., & AGUINIS, H. (2017). It's about Time: New Perspectives and Insights on Time Management.
3. Farrell, M. (2017). Time Management. Journal of Library administration.

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