Time management is the process of planning and exercising conscious control of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity. It involves a juggling act of various demands upon a person relating to work, social life, family, hobbies, personal interests and commitments with the finiteness of time. Using time effectively gives the person "choice" on spending/managing activities at their own time and expediency.[1] Time management may be aided by a range of skills, tools, and techniques used to manage time when accomplishing specific tasks, projects, and goals complying with a due date. Initially, time management referred to just business or work activities, but eventually the term broadened to include personal activities as well. A time management system is a designed combination of processes, tools, techniques, and methods. Time management is usually a necessity in any project development as it determines the project completion time and scope. It is also important to understand that both technical and structural differences in time management exist due to variations in cultural concepts of time.
The major themes arising from the literature on time management include the following:
Creating an environment conducive to effectiveness (In terms of: cost/benefit, quality of results and time to complete tasks/project).
Setting of priorities
The related process of reduction of time spent on non-priorities
Implementation of goals
Time management is related to different concepts such as:
Project management: Time management can be considered to be a project management subset and is more commonly known as project planning and project scheduling. Time management has also been identified as one of the core functions identified in project management.[2]
Attention management relates to the management of cognitive resources, and in particular the time that humans allocate their mind (and organize the minds of their employees) to conduct some activities.
Timeblocking is a time management strategy that specifically advocates for allocating chunks of time to dedicated tasks in order to promote deeper focus and productivity.
Organizational time management is the science of identifying, valuing and reducing time cost wastage within organizations. It identifies, reports and financially values sustainable time, wasted time and effective time within an organization and develops the business case to convert wasted time into productive time through the funding of products, services, projects or initiatives at a positive return on investment.
Some time-management literature stresses tasks related to the creation of an environment conducive to "real" effectiveness. These strategies include principles such as:
"get organized" - the triage of paperwork and of tasks
"protecting one's time" by insulation, isolation and delegation
"achievement through goal-management and through goal-focus" - motivational emphasis
"recovering from bad time-habits" - recovery from underlying psychological problems, e.g. procrastination
Also, the timing of tackling tasks is important as tasks requiring high levels of concentration and mental energy are often done at the beginning of the day when a person is more refreshed. Literature[which?] also focuses on overcoming chronic psychological issues such as procrastination.
Excessive and chronic inability to manage time effectively may result from Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) or attention deficit disorder (ADD).[5] Diagnostic criteria include a sense of underachievement, difficulty getting organized, trouble getting started, trouble managing many simultaneous projects, and trouble with follow-through.[6][page needed] Daniel Amen focuses on the prefrontal cortex which is the most recently evolved part of the brain. It manages the functions of attention span, impulse managegment, organization, learning from experience and self-monitoring, among others. Some authors[quantify] argue that changing the way the prefrontal cortex works is possible and offer a solution.[7
Time management strategies are often associated with the recommendation to set personal goals. The literature stresses themes such as:
"Work in Priority Order" – set goals and prioritize
"Set gravitational goals" – that attract actions automatically[citation needed]
These goals are recorded and may be broken down into a project, an action plan, or a simple task list. For individual tasks or for goals, an importance rating may be established, deadlines may be set, and priorities assigned. This process results in a plan with a task list, schedule, or calendar of activities. Authors may recommend a daily, weekly, monthly or other planning periods associated with different scope of planning or review. This is done in various ways, as follows.