What to Include for an Effective Time Management System

Photo by Estée Janssens on Unsplash

When you read anything about time management, it will likely steer you towards some kind of time management software tool or program. You put the tasks into the program and you will have time slices for each task. Usually, these programs give you the ability to decide how much time should be allocated to each task. When you are ready to work on a task, you hit the start button and get going on it. When you finish the task you hit the stop button. Over time, the tool will report which tasks you completed early or on time and which you took longer than you should have.

While time management is a crucial tool for day-to-day use, it should not be mistaken for setting goals. Your goals are usually broader-in-scope and often defined as milestones. The tasks included in your time management system are the tasks that are used to make up your goals.

However, it can be a bit more complicated than this. Suppose you use your time management system to measure not only the tasks that you complete that are part of your overall goal, but you also include tasks that are outside of the scope of the goals. For instance, if you take fifteen minutes out of your day to speak to your spouse, why not include this task within the time management system?

Most people don’t include these extraneous activities and this could be a mistake when measuring how well you are doing on a day-to-day basis over time. If you add those extras in, you can see just how much time is spent on those extra activities as well as see what those actual activities are. If you are spending too much time talking to people on the phone, this will appear in your report.

A major reason why people are afraid to include these extra activities in their time management systems is they are afraid to see the truth. This can be especially troublesome if you have a manager that may use this against you. However, you can use this as a basis for improvement, both for yourself and to show your manager. This will increase your productivity, which could lead to better opportunities such as promotions and more money. When you reduce the number of extra activities on a daily basis, you will be increasing the activities that will get you closer to your goals. You probably will reach your goals quicker as a result.