Tips & Tools for Better Time- and Self Management

Why and How to Improve your Time Management Skills

In our digital age, increased use of email and messaging, - which allow us to reach anyone, anywhere, at any time -, the following reasons make more disciplined time management an urgent necessity:

• entertainment and distractions offered by the internet;
• the fluidity of the workday now that we all increasingly work from home or across time-zones; and,
• the need for speed in crisis management situations, such as the COVID-19 pandemic,

The driving forces behind these changes are the ongoing process of globalization, and the Fourth Industrial revolution which causes much broader adoption and use of digital tools, many of them utilizing artificial intelligence.

Although time is a critical resource for anything we want to achieve, there is no specific academic discipline devoted to time management and consequently, there are no academic degrees in time management. All relevant competencies are usually learned through practice only. There are a few general principles, but no firm rules for time management. The only manner to develop your own time management system is by actually doing it, managing your time. As a result, there is a steep learning curve and I hope these tips and tools will make it less steep and painful.

Let me share a personal story. In one of my past roles as a program manager at a university, initially, I was overwhelmed by over 60 incoming emails per hour, and many other tasks and interruptions. First, it made me feel sick and burned-out, but then I started to develop enhanced time management skills by using scheduling and project management techniques. Most importantly, I learned to prioritize better, say "no" and to defer tasks to a future date. Although this made me more efficient, eventually, the situation was not improving and I decided to leave the organization. After my departure from this university, I was succeeded by three people, who all complained about their excessive workloads. My work load had simply been too high, and no amount of time management skills would have changed that.

As a result of this experience, however, I decided to acquire project management skills and participate in executive training and coaching. In my subsequent roles, there were ample opportunities to put my newly acquired skills in practice. For over 6 years, for example, I was executive President of a University with more than 1.000 staff members, consistently sent 1.100 emails per months, prepared and chaired over 60 meetings per year plus weekly senior management meetings, oversaw 13 major infrastructure projects, while traveling 30% of my workdays. This workload comes with the territory but there is an executive team to delegate tasks too, an office staff, and a university administration to support. Without my training in time management and project management skills and tools, I would not have been able to perform consistently as an effective executive.

For all human beings, time is the great equalizer. While we fret over who has more wealth or money, by contrast, we are all given an equal amount of time. The term 'time management' stuck, but strictly speaking, time can not be managed: you can only manage yourself, and how you deal with time. If we do not manage our time well, coordination with others becomes a real problem, and we will create a lot of stress for ourselves, and our environment. In some cultures with poly-active time, for example, the fiction you can do many things at the same time can create real coordination problems.

In general, we tend to be more careful and better at managing money, than managing time. It has been shown that managing an organization's time more closely can free up 20% more time. In other words, many organizations waste one day per week by not managing their time well. In fact, in New Zealand through better coordination, use of digital tools and time management, some companies have managed to work four days a week, accomplishing the same as they did before in 5 days.

In our digital age, where we are constantly bombarded by messages, are traditional time management principles still valid, and our customary digital tools still up to the job? Is a different type of time- or self-management required, or are the conventional principles still valid?

Below I will argue that today traditional time management principles can still be applied but more rigor and diligence are required. Upgrading your time management toolbox is probably a good idea at this point. Although each one has to put in the effort to create a system that works for him or her personally, there are some general principles and rules. Specialized digital or productivity tools, for example, for time management tasks for listing, scheduling, and project management are highly preferable over a paper-based planner or Excel spreadsheets.

Principles of Time Management

Time management is a notorious subject: it is associated with failure, a road to hell paved with good intentions. All authors agree that some type of organized system to manage time is required, but the discipline required to implement it is just too hard for many of us.

During our school days, we learned to deal with immediate deadlines, and we learned to pick the low-hanging fruit first. This is a habit that many still hold dear. The drawback however is that tasks without deadlines or deadlines far into the future may fall off the radar. Moreover, we only respond to externally established priorities, while in adult life we are assumed to set our own priorities.

When we start to manage time, we need to take into consideration at least two dimensions. The traditional approach is to map all tasks along two key dimensions: urgency and importance, as shown in the Eisenhower box below.

So how do we choose urgent and important tasks? While efficiency and management is doing things right in using the least amount of resources - money, labour and time -, effectiveness and leadership are really about doing the right things. After all, doing the wrong things very well, does not contribute to the achievement of any personal or organizational goal. You can only decide whether something is important in relation to your objectives if you have to have a clear personal or organizational mission and value statement so that you can distinguish important, mission-related tasks from unimportant ones. This is called 'clarity of objective'.

Probably the most important quadrant in the Eisenhower quadrant is DELETE or what NOT to do. The more you are able to eliminate and say "No", the more feasible and balanced your daily To-Do list will be, and the better you will be able to schedule all your activities. Ideally, your daily to-do list has no more than three and certainly no more than five items, which however at the end of the day must be completed.

Adding a third dimension of this quadrant, "significance" - how long does something matters in relation to wider goals - pushes us to invest time today in saving time tomorrow. Just by prioritization, you do not create more time, but by deferring, automating, or delegating more tasks you can really multiply your time. A particular objective me be important, but it may not be really meaningful in the sense of you devoting your precious time to it. Deferring becomes easier when we realize that not all tasks are significant or meaningful in the long-run. Something can be important now, but insignificant in three months' time.

Automating has become easier by a series of apps that take over routine tasks (see list below). Another example is setting up automatic payments or emails at specific days each month. Delegating frees up time, and time invested in training and coaching will pay off in the future. It is essential to understand that tasks can only be delegated with minimal oversight to people who are both highly motivated and competent. All others will need a degree of coaching or training.

Peter Drucker takes time management beyond urgent/important dimensions. Key elements of Peter Drucker's approach to time management is to first track your time use, manage it by eliminating time-wasters, and finally free up large chunks of it in terms of hours and days so that you can use time wisely and use your clarity of objective to perform effectively. In particular, if you are just starting with time management it is good to track your time-use over several weeks to see where the distractions are and how you can free up large chunks of time for important things.

Though all this is important, it does not really address the day-to-day challenge of managing your time. This is where David Allen's Getting-Things-Done method is helpful.

David Allen's practical, hands-on approach is summarized in four main steps:

1. collecting,
2. processing,
3. planning & organizing, and
4. reviewing.

This is followed by actually doing the important tasks in the right order.

Collecting means first to sort out all your "stuff", which takes much shorter than you think it will. As part of the collecting process, you must decide to collect all incoming messages, phone calls, letters and faxes, and email messages into one channel: usually your email inbox. This means you should scan paper documents and make conversation notes of phone calls or meetings. One important extension of this method is to use your email archive as your archive of everything. Anything you read you can then simply email to yourself, and process it through your time management system.

Even the messiest office can be sorted in a few hours. As to messy hard-drives, let search functions do the job, and don't waste too much time in setting up a complicated folder structure: a two or maximum three-level structure for your folders is good enough. The most essential thing is to back them up constantly and in real-time, using a service like Dropbox. This achieves 'clarity of mind', which is a necessary condition in order to focus and to perform.

When processing information, the first filter to apply is whether a task is actionable at all. If not, it should immediately be discarded, put on a someday/maybe list for possible future action, or archived for reference. If information is actionable but part of a multiple-step process, it should probably become part of a work breakdown structure of a project plan.

As to processing, Allen's approach is famous for the "two-minute rule". This means any actionable task which takes less than two minutes should be done immediately, and the others should be delegated or deferred. In practice, this means you should check your email only three times per day for a limited amount of time, and process all two-minute emails immediately. Switch off your little bell or ringer each time you receive an email. Tasks that can not be done within two (or maybe five minutes, when you are less pressed for time) you should schedule for action at a specific point in the future.

As a result of the effective processing of incoming messages, you will have an empty desk and an empty email inbox at the end of each day. Some think this is impossible, but I have been doing this for over 10 years in various demanding management or executive roles.

For organizing, you need to create your own system. You will want to base your system on the principles behind the Getting Things Done system. Its logic is pure and simple. These principles are tried and tested, and there is really no other alternative. You need a series of lists, which can be contained in some type of email, online agenda or other scheduling system is required. Finally, reviewing is required to keep your system up-to-date always. It is important to follow your time management system always and make it second nature. Once it is a habit its benefits really start to materialize.

If email is your one communication channel, you need a rock-solid email application that travels with you even when you change jobs. The great thing about Gmail is that it keeps all your messages and does virus scanning in the cloud, and moreover it uses artificial intelligence to select important messages for you. It will be easy to empty your inbox every day. You can use Gmail with Google Drive to store and back up files, and Google Docs to create documents, presentations, spreadsheets etc and share it easily with team members. Use stars (flags) to defer responding. Use (multiple) labels to collect emails around projects or similar topics. Learn to use the search syntax and the advanced search function, so you can use your email as your archive for everything.

David Allen has no specific recommendation for the tools that best fit the GTD process: it can range from traditional paper-based tools to low-tech people, mid-tech such as Lotus Notes or Outlook, or a range of high-tech tools using artificial intelligence and fancy graphical interfaces. Integrated decision making support tools are not yet available, so you will create your own mix of tools.

Tools for Time Management

Listing & Scheduling

• Gmail (free, mobile app available) - Gmail integrates with Google Meet, Zoom and Webex video conferencing. If you use your email as an archive, you can use Shareaholic or Email-This apps to email all things you read to yourself. It integrates well with free external apps like Trello (workflow management) or Asana (project management).
• Google Calendar (free, mobile app available) – offers easy-to-use calendar functionality with a sleek interface in the cloud. Integrates with Google apps (Gmail, Notes, Keep and Task Manager), videoconferencing (Google Meet, Zoom, and Webex) and external apps (Asana, Trello, see below).
• Evernote (free) – note taking and much more. Integrates with Gmail, Google Drive, Outlook, MS Teams, Salesforce, and others. Use Web clipper to make notes on webpages, YouTube clips, articles, etc. Useful if you do not (always) want to use your email archive as an archive of everything. Mobile app is available.
• LinkedIn messages - Every time you get a message from a member of your professional network you can get an email, so you can continue monitoring email only. When you use LinkedIn messages, make sure your profile is updated. The premium version gives access to free LinkedIn learning courses and an analysis of your profile views. Mobile app available.
• Microsoft Outlook – Microsoft’s answers to emails, task management and scheduling. With One Note – Microsoft’s answers to note-taking. I am not a fan, because of the program's complexity, small letter interface, and sensitivity to viruses. Mobile app available
• Lotus Notes – robust app, but with limited functionality. Beyond end-of-life.
• For academics collecting scholarly information, please keep track of your literature references using a literature manager like LateX, Zotero, Endnote, Mendeley, or similar. You can also use Bib-It add-in for your browser to create literature references instantly from webpages.

Time Tracking

• Toggl (free) track your time for self-defined tasks or projects. Great app which allows you to track your time across various projects or clients. https://www.toggl.com
• Rescue Time (subscription $78 per year) automatic tracking of web activity. Works fine if all your work is behind the computer on the internet https://www.rescuetime.com/
• Freedom (paid). Blocks the internet to avoid distractions. For people who can not easily focus and block out distractions (https://www.freedom.to)

Process Automation

• Zapier – integrates all your apps into Zaps, and make them perform tasks automatically. When you want to go beyond urgent/important to deal with a given amount of time, and multiply the time you need to invest time in automating tasks. https://zapier.com/
• IFFT – Another platform to automate tasks through app integration, particularly useful for producing a better customer experience https://ifttt.com/

Project Management

Review of project management software for 2020 - https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-project-management-software

Review of kanban apps - https://www.pcmag.com/picks/the-best-kanban-apps

• Ganttproject (stand-alone, free) – open source project management software integrates with Microsoft Project. If you want to avoid the cloud, and keep everything on your PC and company server. https://ganttproject.biz.
• Clickup (free for limited number of users and projects, with mobile app) - project management software, including Gantt charts and critical path analysis. Scales well, good document management, great for Agile https://clickup.com/
• Teamgantt (free for 1 project, 3 users, subscription $85 per month for a team of seven) - complete project management software, excellent communication facilities for project teams https://www.teamgantt.com
• Asana (free for limited number of users and projects, with mobile app) – task and project management software with nice interface, including Gantt charts and critical path analysis https://www.asana.com
• Trello – Using Kanban approach, good for managing work and workflow, not for project management. Does not produce Gantt charts, no time tracking, or billing functions. Has mobile app. https://www.trello.com
• Manage-it (free with limited functionality) – simple task and project management software. Has a mobile app. (https://app.manageitapp.com/)
• Flow (test free, afterward $2.50 per month) - task and project management software for teams https://www.getflow.com/why-flow

Browsing

• Duckduckgo – Google-based search engine without tracking, can be set as the preferred search engine in Mozilla Firefox https://www.duckduckgo.com
• Brave – Chrome-based browser blocks advertisements and time wasters, secure, fast and private https://www.brave.com

Final Remarks

When you call for a carpenter you do not expect him to come armed with a rock and hand drill, rather with a hammer and electric drill. Similarly, knowledge workers should use modern and appropriate tools for our jobs. There is so much great, agile, and specialized software available in the cloud, that there is no reason to continue to use what you used as a student. If you run a Linux version, your choice of free, stand-alone software is enormous, and you will regain complete control over your computer.

At this point in time, therefore, I suggest to upgrade your tools and create a time management system that works for you. The best way is probably to start using some specialized tools, and apply some general principles consistently over 3 to 4 weeks and evaluate afterward. Don't give up too fast, and remember all behavioral change requires time.

(short link to this article https://bit.ly/timemanagementdralbert, and youtube video list with many more tips https://bit.ly/videostimemanagementdralbert)

References

Allen, David (2015). Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity. Piatkus.

Covey, Stephen R. (2013). The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change. Simon & Schuster.

Harvard Business Review (2011). HBRs's 10 Must Reads on Managing Yourself: With Bonus Article How Will You Measure Your Life? Harvard Business School Press

Schram, Albert (2020) 7 Tips to Make Your Online Classes More Engaging | LinkedIn. https://bit.ly/Schram7tips