Techniques & Tips for Time & Resource Management

Objectives: At the end of this session the participants will be able to

Define Time & Resource Management.
Describe importance of time & resource management in their daily life.
Explain essential habits for time & resource management.
State the activities that waste their time.
Plan their daily schedule.
Organize the resources rightly.
Delegate and share their jobs effectively with others.
What is Time Management?
• Time management has five main aspects:
– Planning & Goal Setting
– Managing Yourself
– Dealing with Other People
– Your Time
– Getting Results
– The first 4 all interconnect and interact to generate the fifth - results
Characteristics of Time
• Time is the most precious thing we have
• Time is ultimately the most valuable resource
• Time and how we spend it within the organization must be managed effectively
• Time is totally perishable
• Time cannot be stored up for use later
• Most of what is called 'cost' is the cost of time
• It is a flow from past to present to future in the context of experience
• It is a flow from future to present to past in the context of planning
• The flow is one way and irreversible
• It is quantifiable (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years)
• All processes that we manage are time processes
• Time is the dimension in which change takes place

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Essential Habits
• Essential habits for good time management are:
– Know where the hours are going
– Keep focused on the end result
– Work to defined priorities
– Schedule time for important issues
– Delegate routine tasks and responsibility for them
– Confront your own indecision and delay
– Take the stress out of work
– Keep applying the essential habits!
Types of Time
• Time can be categorized into two types:
– Fast time
• when absorbed in, or enjoying an activity
– Slow time
• when bored with an activity or having a bad time
• when scared
Over- & Under-estimating Time
• Time for tasks or activities can be over- or under-estimated due to
– Intensity of activity
– Level of brain function
– Length of gaps between enjoyments
– Fear or ecstasy
Effects of Estimating Time Incorrectly
• Under-estimation of time
• Stress due to committing to too many tasks
• Poor quality output
• Deadlines may be missed
• Over-estimation of time
• Stress due to people pressing to have activities completed
• Poor quality output
• Deadlines set may not match requirements

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How and why we Waste Our Time:
You cannot really save time; you only buy it and spend it. Saved time is bought or spent by
reinvesting it in other activities. Here are some examples of how we waste our time: -
o We do our own photocopying and filing
o Make our own flight and hotel reservations
o Find it easier to do things ourselves than train someone else to do repetitive tasks
o Socialize instead of communicate
o Work at tasks for satisfaction of physical accomplishment
o Haven't the courage to say no nicely and take on too much work
o Don't distinguish between important and urgent
o Procrastinate (Delay) and/or are indecisive
o React to constant external impacts with no planned system to shield us to help get results
Controlling Demands on Your Time:
Delegation
Our inability to delegate creates the biggest bottleneck in our work and personal lives. Try to
achieve results through others. The do-it-myself syndrome may result from: -
o Preference for operating not managing
o Demand to know every detail
o Refusal to allow mistakes, know as perfection syndrome
o Disinclination to develop subordinates
o Lack of organizational skill
Delegation can produce major benefits such as: -
 Extending results from what a person can do, to what a person can control
 Releases your time for more important work
 Develops subordinates initiative, skill, knowledge, and competence
 Maintains the decision level
What to Delegate:
1. Duties that can be assigned on a temporary basis
2. Fact-finding assignments
3. Preparation of rough drafts of written material, such as reports, resumes, policies, procedures
4. Problem analysis and possible solutions
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5. Routine tasks
6. Collection of data for reports and/or presentations
7. Tasks that will challenge the subordinate
8. Tasks to test your subordinate's ability in specific areas of responsibility
9. Small units of work, assignments from your responsibilities and functions
What’s the Most Important?
Let’s face it. 24 hours in a day is not enough time for many people to do everything in their
schedule. It is therefore imperative that people perform their activities in the order of priority.
The art of prioritizing covers 4 major task groups:
1. Important and Urgent
2. Not Important but Urgent
3. Not Urgent but Important
4. Not Important and Not Urgent
Important and Urgent
These tasks are the ones that must be done right away, or consequences may result. An example
would be bills that are due today. If you don’t pay your bills on time, you would incur additional
charges or they might cut off their services to you. Activities belonging to this category need to
be acted upon without delay. You should give them the highest priority.
Not Important but Urgent
The significance of an activity falling in this category depends on the individual.
Whereas someone who always wants to buy a Harry Potter book but cannot previously afford
one may treat a book sale as both important and urgent.
One thing you can do to determine its significance is to analyze the negative effects that may
occur as a result of not doing it. If you consider the consequences too immaterial upon
nonperformance of the task, then just don’t do it at all.
Not Urgent but Important
You might often put off tasks in this category, but these are the ones that require your attention
more. These involve planning, organizing, and implementing your objectives.
The real danger in delaying these activities lies on the possibility that you may engage in more
unimportant tasks that you see as more urgent. This would therefore eat up a lot more of your
time. For example, instead of planning on how to increase your sales or minimize your expenses,

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you tend to put most of your time in entertaining customers (which, by the way, can be done by
other people).
Not Important and Not Urgent
You might think activities in this section are not worth people’s time, so they won’t engage in
these activities much. Think again. You would be surprised to know that people spend most of
their time doing things that are both unimportant and non-urgent, such as watching TV and
movies, playing video games, senseless chatting for hours on the phone, shopping for new
clothes, etc.
Treat activities belonging to this section with the lowest priority. If you really want to succeed,
strictly limit your time in doing these activities or don’t do them at all. Focus on those that will
bring you fruitful results.
Be Efficient and Productive
Certain factors may negatively affect the employee’s performance, the effect of which could be
disastrous to both the employee and the organization.
Listed below are some of the things you need to pay attention to if you want to become efficient
at your job:
1. Do not accept more than you can handle.
2. Organize your files and office supplies well.
3. Move it. Your body, that is. Exercise has been proven to reduce workrelated stress and
anxiety.
4. Get enough sleep.
5. Use devices or supplies that save time.
6. Eat light lunch.
7. Delegate.
Planning and Time Management
Planning means preparing yourself with theories, ideas and concepts that will lead you in
executing your task. A carefully crafted planning procedure doesn’t waste time and effort.
Planning involves management of resources and tracking down the logical steps in executing a
task or project. This also involves creativity and patience since you would not want to start with
an empty hand or pocket.

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A good plan is not enough unless it is executed well. You will just end up with a good plan and
not with the best result if you will just keep on reading and re-reading your plans. In the
strategies of time management, you should:
1. Know your strengths and weaknesses.
2. Try to veer away from complications.
3. Avoid mental contradictions.
These three important aspects will help you know your best moves. By looking at your strengths
and weaknesses as an individual, you would also know what to avoid (like procrastination,
boredom, laziness, low self-esteem) and what to bank on (creativity, flexibility, or cheerfulness).
You would also work with your best effort because you want to finish the said task and succeed.
By knowing yourself, you would also know how to adjust during trials and testing.
Focus on Time & Resources
• For effective management of time there needs to be a reasonable attempt made to look at
the time and resources required to complete a task:

• The quality of the outcome is directly influenced by the resources and time constraints
involved

Resources – The availability of your resources may affect the execution of your plan. In
estimating the time frame, you need to get to the end of it all. Good managers are insightful
about the limited conditions due to the limited quantity of materials, manpower, and most
importantly time. But because there are expected limitations, a good plan can help an individual
who is expecting these possible problems or scenarios prepare better. Time, though not a basic
resource, is a factor itself that affects the availability of the said requirements. For example,
delays in delivery or the absence of a particular reference material would mean a lot of things for

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an entrepreneurial venture. To manage this situation effectively, a good estimate or an initial
expectation would cause less panic on the part of the people involved in the operation.
On the other hand, it would also help an individual in avoiding pressures, mistakes, and obstacles
from unfit spaces and conditions.
Here are some ways to help you create an ergonomically better working space and lifestyle:
1. Avoid clutter. Neatness doesn't only give an impression of human cleanliness but it also
makes a room free from dangers and oversights. It would also be easier to find a tool or a
document if things are in their proper order. This would minimize your time looking for such
objects.
Examples:
· Keep a handy box
· Clean as you go.
· Never put garbage anywhere.
· Your table should be your soul. A clean and organized working table will help you become
more efficient.
· Do not buy bulky appliances or office equipment.
· Always follow the "On the fly" philosophy:
· Check the items if they are arranged according to their proper grouping.
· Compartmentalize, organize each box, label them and arrange them in such a way that no heads
will suffer bumps from falling objects.
2. Keep updated on the ergonomically designed houses or office spaces.
3. Use colors that will motivate or encourage people to become cheerful, happy, and
interested with their works.
4. Make the temperature just right. Temperature is also a factor that could either irritate
or motivate a person to work.
5. Use modern gadgets and equipment.
Activity 1
How You Relate to Time
We each have a personal perspective of time, but most of us aren’t even aware that we have
subconscious feelings about time at all.
Read the following list, then choose five words that you feel best apply to time. Allow yourself a
little creativity in your choices.

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spent white friendly
opportunity lively unclaimed
exhausting hollow ready
busy handy effective
mountainous relentless tense
valley-like available empty
energetic restless bumpy
jammed blank exciting
How can you interpret your choices?
If you selected valley-like, white, hollow, available, unclaimed, ready, blank, or empty, you view
time as something to be filled. On the one hand, this can be positive: you’re probably not under
very great time pressures. On the other hand, you may be too passive about time, allowing others
to dictate its use to you.
If the following terms dominate your choices—spent, exhausting, mountainous, jammed,
relentless, restless, tense, or bumpy—you view time as an enemy. This is dangerous. It can mean
that you’re presently overstressed by environment and responsibilities or that you feel that time
controls you. In either case, some change will be necessary before you can truly manage your
time.
Did the following words compose the majority of your choices: opportunity, busy, energetic,
lively, handy, friendly, effective, exciting? If so, you’re the kind of person who takes charge of
time, who reshapes it to fit your goals and lifestyle.
What if no one category won? Like many people, you probably have mixed feelings about time.
By the time you finish this book, those feelings should change. You should be able to view time
as an ally, not as a bully or an enemy.
Activity 2
Where Do the Hours Go?
An analysis of your time allocation experiment results should include:
• The two most time-consuming activities in your daily work life.
• The two most time-consuming activities in your personal life.
• The two activities most surprising to you in how much time they consume.
• The two activities most surprising to you in how little time they consume.
• An honest appraisal of which activities you feel should consume less of your time.

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• An honest appraisal of which activities you feel should consume more of your time.
The conclusions you draw from this exercise, and from an honest assessment of your time
management style, should aid you in identifying those areas of your professional and personal
life that could most benefit from change. You may find you need a renewed or decreased
emphasis on various factors that affect your time management approach. Or, perhaps, applying
more thoughtful time management techniques would be useful to you.
You might even decide you need a more comprehensive practice of organizational strategies
throughout all phases of your life. But to achieve any of these things, you must first sweep away
some time management myths that may be impeding your progress.