Time management
A classic definition describes time management as the “process of determining needs by assigning priorities and planning the tasks necessary to satisfy them” (Lakein, 1973).
It is an efficient way of defining professional goals and managing their organization in a specific time frame. With time-management, the use we make of time is made efficient, thus allowing us to improve the quality of working time and, consequently, improve personal time.
Our mind struggles to stay in the present time, it is constantly projected to the future (plan, organize) or to the past (rethink, rebuild). This can lead to states of stress and anxiety.
- Do you set yourself long, medium and short term goals to help plan how you use your time?
- Do you have a realistic idea of how long activities will take?
- Do you know exactly how much time you need to spend studying/working each week?
- Do you write a daily ‘to-do’ list?
- Are the tasks you work on during the day the ones with the highest priority?
- Do you have a diary that you regularly use to keep track of your activities?
- Do you set specific goals for each work period?
- Do you complete your tasks during your most productive hours each day?
It is important to divide your tasks and organize them by imagining intermediate steps to achieve more general objectives. This also allows you to make a realistic assessment of your workload.
A written list of tasks, status and priorities allows you to use fewer cognitive resources of your “working memory”, reduces the frequency of forgetfulness and allows you to better manage unexpected events.
It is important to remember that our team is one of the greatest resources we can rely on, in fact structuring collaborative relationships in which tasks are divided between group members can really be very effective.
Creating an order of importance of your activities allows you to always work with an adequate level of organization compared to the importance of the objectives we have set ourselves. See Eisenhower Matrix section
This simple action is very useful because it allows us to implement a more conscious and effective programming.
EISENHOWER MATRIX
Stephen Covey
“What is important is rarely urgent and what is urgent is rarely important”
This phrase, attributed to Dwight D. Eisenhower, general and president of the United States in the 1950s, is the basis of a time optimization method known as the Eisenhower matrix, also known as the Covey matrix by the name of Stephen Covey, who studied this model in his book «The 7 habits of higly effective people»
The matrix of E. is a method of structuring one’s activities by priority and, by building a scale of urgency of activities, allows us to optimize our working time.
First you need to start by defining two key concepts:
IMPORTANT
is a concept linked to the personal values of everyone, so it is a subjective parameter.
URGENT
is an objective parameter because associated with the time variable.
Combining the two parameters, we have the four quadrants that make up the Matrice di Eisenhower:
1: IMPORTANT and URGENT
to do now
This is where the important things go that can have an immediate impact on other people and that have major consequences if they aren’t done. Take care of these operations immediately.
2: IMPORTANT but NOT URGENT
Plan to deal with it later
Here go the tasks that are important but for which you still have time. Plan your work to take care of them calmly but without neglecting them.
3: URGENT but NOt IMPORTANT
do it later
Some things might be urgent – especially to other people – but they’re actually not that important. Do them later, or ask someone else to do them.
4: NOT IMPORTANT and NOT URGENT
Delete
Useless activities that are a waste of time, try to get rid of them.
Box 1 contains tasks that need to be completed as soon as possible and cannot be delegated to others (overdue projects, customer calls, urgent issues that need to be resolved quickly, programs that are expiring or already overdue. The tasks that fall into this quadrant they must be reduced to the maximum, as they are the ones that increase the risk of making you lose control of the situation, finding yourself working in a constant emergency.
Box 2 relates to important but not urgent activities, such as medium or long-term projects, activities aimed at personal development or the concrete definition of new operational strategies. Since they are actions of a strategic and long-term nature, they can be addressed without pressure. Always remember that if they are not treated they risk becoming urgent.
Box 3 contains urgent but not important tasks. These are urgent and deceptively important activities that almost always depend on people, or in any case on external circumstances, which can often be delegated. If you spend your time on quadrant 3 actions you are only stealing your resources and energy to pursue what truly concerns and interests you.
Box 4 contains everything that is a pure and simple waste of time: trivial or useless activities, distractions, more or less conscious excuses to postpone what is truly important and/or urgent.
Thanks to this method, you can optimize your time, obviously after having made a detailed list of the activities you need to carry out, finding time for yourself and for your passions and interests, thus reducing stress factors both at work and in your personal life.
THE POMODORO TECHNIQUE
The Pomodoro technique is a time management technique born in the 1980s which aims to make the most of concentration skills in order to achieve maximum productivity. It is based on extensive time planning, so as to reduce the risk of distractions, poor performance and late deadlines. It is therefore a perfect technique for entrepreneurs, developers, designers and freelancers in general.
The creator Francesco Cirillo created this technique to tackle university study during exam sessions. He used a banal tomato-shaped kitchen timer to mark study intervals from breaks, and it was from the timer used that the name “pomodoro technique” was born.
How does it work?
The idea behind this technique is that human concentration is not constant and prolonged over time so it is necessary to plan one’s activity in intervals punctuated by short breaks that allow the brain to “recharge” and then start working again with the right attention .
25 minute intervals with 5 minute breaks are generally recommended.
After 4 “pomodoro” sessions (a total of 100 minutes of work and 15 minutes of break) you can take a longer break of 15 – 30 minutes.
In short
- Define the objectives of the working day and estimate the time available.
- Divide the work into sessions of 25 minutes each by setting a “pomodoro timer”.
- Every 25 minutes take a short break.
- Every 4 "pomodoros" (i.e. periods of work activity) take a longer break.
At first it may be difficult to maintain attention on a single activity for 25 minutes or to adapt your work tasks to the timing of the Pomodoro technique. But with practice you will notice greater ease in organizing work and enjoying moments of leisure.
You can find various pomodoro timers online, both for PC and APP, here are some useful links:
However, be careful to ensure that the use of these apps does not increase distraction factors instead of decreasing them!
