The goal of time management practices is to spend time, and essentially life, wisely. Without sound time management, things are left undone, goals are rarely realized, feelings of failure pervade our thoughts and eventually, setting and achieving goals becomes a thing of the past.

Learning and applying proven time management practices is vital to making the most of everyday. It begins with setting clear and meaningful goals, maintaining a solid to do list, employing effective planning and scheduling techniques, prioritizing important tasks, being in the right space or environment to get things done, knowing your prime times of day for getting things done, then doing what you need to do.

Numerous time management techniques, books and theories exist as to how time can be best used. From techniques that track blocks of time to basic adjustments of how we approach everyday tasks. However, not all techniques suit all activities or personalities, so finding the most appropriate technique can take some tweaking and experimentation.

time isn't a commodity that can be replenished ... make the most of it in the moment

Laying the groundwork

• Make a precise list of everything you need and want to do. Think about wasteful tasks and how you can eliminate them. Weed out activities that aren't crucial as well as what you don't enjoy. Then, for each activity, write an estimate of effort required to complete it. Track whole days or weeks to gain a greater understanding of how you spend your time.


• Create an environment or workspace that's conducive to productivity - or find one. It should be isolated from distractions and interruptions.


• Become familiar with your circadian rhythm, your body's internal clock. For most, the best time to get things done is within the first few hours after rising to around midday. Although sunlight plays a big part, there are some exceptions to the rule, so it's best to make note of how you feel when monitoring your other activities.

Planning and prioritization

Planning should go beyond the journal. Meal planning, outfit planning and personal project planning all go a long way. The chief benefit of planning is once it's execution time, it's exactly that: you check your plan, you go and do it. There's no umming and ahhing.

Prioritization is the cornerstone of time management principles. It's an iterative process that occurs first when you receive or become aware of a task, when you schedule the task and when you're unsure of what you should be doing next. It applies to almost every time management technique as a preliminary exercise or embedded within the practice.

GTD

David Allen's Getting Things Done in its various editions is a best-selling productivity book around the world. The system emphasizes the importance of writing down what you need to get done as and when you think of or come across the task. Allen insists, if it's in your head, it gets in the way of focus and creativity because you're in a constant state of stress by worrying about all the things you think you need or have to do.

Once you write it down, you can deal with it and allocate time to do it, knowing that you'll get to it when the time is right.

GTD in its current state has five steps:

1. Capture, which is to jot down all your to dos as soon as you think of them or receive something to do.
2. Clarify, which is to determine if the task is actionable, create actionable steps (breakdown into actionable steps), and if it's something that would take under two minutes to do, do it, otherwise delegate or schedule it. If it's not something actionable, trash it, note it as a “maybe later” or use it as a reference.
3. Organize, which is to prioritize or schedule as well as categorize.
4. Reflect, which is checking what's to be done next without any further organizing, planning or clarification.
5. Engage is to simply do it. Get the thing done! Repeat the process when the next thing comes to your mind, your inbox or your desk.

Pareto analysis or the 80/20 rule

The Pareto analysis, also known as the 80/20 rule, is the notion that 80% of value comes from 20% of work. For example, it's believed 80% of revenue comes from 20% of customers for many businesses. What you do with that knowledge is identify the 20% of customers and focus your efforts on them. You know what's important and can choose to eliminate or deprioritize the rest.

Eisenhower method

The Eisenhower method chunks tasks into an urgency quadrant. Urgency is then divided up into Important and Not Important. Each quadrant represents tasks by priority and has an associated action to take on those priorities.

• Important & Urgent: Do now or next.
• Import & Not Urgent: Schedule for later.
• Not Important & Urgent: Delegate.
• Not Important & Not Urgent: Forget it.

Pomodoro

The Pomodoro Technique is a practical timing method that came about in the 1980s by Francesco Cirillo. It's now a popular time tracking or management technique among students, but could also be used at work or on personal projects.

To implement the technique, divide work into 25-minute slots followed by a five-minute break. The process is repeated five times, at which point you take a 20-minute break. The entire process is then reset.

Pomodoro is applied as follows:

1. Select a task from your to do list.
2. Set a timer or stopwatch to 25 minutes (the timer is the "Pomodoro"), or a slightly longer or shorter period.
3. Work on the task until the 25 minutes is up.
4. Make a note or tally the 25-minute block.
5. Take a five-minute break. If your tally is at four or five, take a longer break.

52/17 by Draugiem Group

Based on a study undertaken by the Draugiem Group in 2012, it was found that 52-minute chunks of work followed by a 17 minutes break is the optimum sequence for achieving maximum productivity. Like the Pomodoro Technique, Draugiem found 52 minutes of work and a subsequent 17-minute break is the optimum focus and timeout partition of time for ultimate productivity.

It should be noted that the problem with timer-based techniques is that they are somewhat restrictive in that they count down. This can be a distraction when working on tasks that require deep concentration or flexibility that may lead to flow. We discuss several other ways a timer can be used later in this issue's Workspace article.

Eating the frog

Based on the book by Brian Tracy, to Eat That Frog! is to start the day with the task you've been avoiding, but that which is also the most important. Tackle it first thing in the morning or early in the day and be done with it. Everything that comes after is easy. It's a system that is based on prioritization and the book shares many more practical tips.

Breaks

Having no time is synonymous with being too tired and this is where the importance of breaks comes in. Fatigue affects focus, creativity and often leads to mediocre work and errors, which leads to rework and time lost. So although it sounds counterintuitive, taking a break will help you regain focus by regenerating energy and clearing your head.

It's also important to remember that time isn't a commodity that can be replenished – once it's gone, it's gone. You need to make the most of it in the moment, right now and always. That's not to say you should be working on your goals every minute of the day and that's not feasible for many anyway. But we should be more conscious of our time and choose how we spend it more wisely.

Selecting a technique to adopt is a personal choice. Your commitments, goals and workload will be unique to you and will affect your choice or concoction of techniques. Try, modify and mix until you figure out what works best for your unique situation and lifestyle.

Check out our Productivity Books list on the website books mentioned in this story.