Jean Roberts

Life for many people has become more and more demanding. Stress and tension is obvious in almost every kind of activity – whether work, home, family, study, recreation, socialising, or just finding time to catch a good movie.

Each one of us is responsible for the way in which we use the time available to us. We may have different duties, options and impositions to take into account, but there will be a degree of choice on how we each allocate – and use – our time.

These are commonly expressed concerns from people of all ages and different areas of responsibility when asked why they find it difficult to manage their time:

1. lack of organisational skills,
2. unanticipated events,
3. interruptions,
4. competing interests and demands within my work role, eg, statistics, client contact, administration, accreditation,
5. confusing demands,
6. imposed demands,
7. annual planning vs. daily planning,
8. working with to-do lists,
9. surviving peak periods,
10. balancing client services with administrative tasks,
11. ineffective client education,
12. lack of assertiveness,
13. effect of a client-focused working style, or heavy client demands,
14. avoiding burn-out, and
15. managing a limited time allocation with high need clients.

One increasingly expressed concern is the mobile phone. Many people are making themselves – or being expected to make themselves – available and accessible 24 hours of every day, sometimes 7 days a week. Setting limits on availability and accessibility is both a time management and stress management strategy!

Everything you do, say, think, or feel, takes time! That’s the reality of time. We are used to budgeting our finances, but how good are we at budgeting our time?

Taking time to analyse, to plan and to evaluate is increasingly difficult for people when there are so many demands and opportunities for the use of our time. People are busy DOING rather than PLANNING WHAT TO DO.

An easy 6-step time management checklist

1. identify the context within which you must manage your time
2. identify your major and immediate concerns about the use of your time
3. identify yourself as a time manager
4. analyse the basic principle of management of time, and set priorities and strategies that are:
   • appropriate to your context,
   • acceptable to your style of working, and
   • achievable within the resources you have, or have access to.
5. establish your own action plan, and
6. monitor, evaluate and reward your progress

Helpful hints in step 4: Analyse the basic principle of management of time

• Is this task urgent?
• Is this task important?
• Is it task relevant?
• No. 1 priority for your immediate time are tasks that are both urgent and important
• No. 2 priority for your immediate time are tasks that are both urgent and relevant
• No. 3 priority for your immediate time are tasks that are both important and relevant
• No. 4 priority for your immediate time are tasks that are important
• No. 5 priority for your immediate time are tasks that are relevant

You’ll probably never get to the Nos. 4 or 5 until the ‘urgent’ principle is added!