How would you feel if I say that you have 48 hours in a day? Will it solve your issues? Will you feel the relief and finally find the time for yourself? How many of us know this feeling? The Feeling of rushing and never having enough time for the job we have done. Even if you have fast pace in that race, it is easy to fall behind of finish line.
Busy, Busy, Busy!
One more meeting to attend, one more task to do, one more talk to have, one more blah, blah, blah. One more never ends. It is easy to think that this will be last thing to do before you can start on what you want. Then, you find yourself watching sunset and wishing a day is 48 hours. These kind of feelings and thoughts are the signals we should pay attention. It tells us that something is not right.
But you are not alone. Research shows that 80% of people have no time management system¹. How it is possible, right! Just ask 5 person around you. Do any of them have time management system?
If you are reading this article, that means you have already taken the first step. There are several techniques for managing time and prioritizing tasks. However, this article focuses on Time Audit and the Eisenhower Matrix. In addition, there is a short section called: How to Use Both Techniques Together.
Time Audit
Without understanding where you spend your time, it is hard to manage it. Time audit is a technique to track and log your activities for a period of time (usually a week) and analyze the result of it. Simple pen and paper is enough to conduct this activity but of course you can get benefit of mobile applications, excel sheet etc. There are few aspects you need to pay attention:
- Please choose your one of ordinary week to conduct time audit. So that you can get snapshot of your usual activities.
- Keep the logging activity simple. It is not recommend to spend several minutes to log an activity.
- Set a reminder to record your tasks — if you think that you forget to do
Eisenhower Matrix
Eisenhower matrix is a tool that helps you to prioritize your tasks and how to handle those. Urgency and importance have been taken into account for prioritization. That’s why it is also called Urgency-Important matrix².
There are four categories in Eisenhower matrix and recommendation how to handle them.
- Urgent and Important tasks needs to be handled immediately
- Important and Less Urgent tasks should be scheduled
- Less Important and Urgent tasks should be delegated.
- Less Important and Less Urgent tasks should be dropped.
How To Use Two Techniques Together
Let’s assume you keep logs of your activities for one week and successfully done your time audit. If we have the data, next step is simple: analyze. But how? Eisenhower matrix is one of the time management techniques you can use for further actions but it also helps to prospect past and understand your usual behaviors.
Now it is time to categorize your tasks which you kept in time audit based on Urgent-Important matrix. When you have the categorization, you see that where is your bottleneck and what kind of task usually you are dealing with. You should work with your habits and follow the suggestion given in Eisenhower Matrix.
Let’s say if you are having difficulties with delegation, you can invest more time to improve that. You can create smart goal to improve your delegation skills. Afterwards, I recommend using the time audit again to assess whether you’ve reached your goal. In addition to setting goals and developing your competence, I also recommend placing each new task in the Eisenhower Matrix as a reminder of how to handle it.
Let’s start.
“The secret of getting ahead is getting started. The secret of getting started is breaking your complex overwhelming tasks into small manageable tasks, and starting on the first one.” ― Mark Twain
References
[1] Richardson, B. (2021). Time Management Statistics & Facts (New 2021 Research) https://development-academy.co.uk/news-tips/time-management-statistics-2021-research/
[2] Introducing Eisenhower Matrix https://www.eisenhower.me/eisenhower-matrix/
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