Time management by:
Juan Carlos Peña and Alcibiades Almengor
What are time management techniques?
Time management itself revolves around choices - you decide what you need to do, when
you need to finish, and what tasks you need to tackle in order to reach your goals.
If you choose to make high-value, goal-oriented tasks a priority, finish them before the
deadline, but also leave time for leading a healthy life, you'll be able to say that you've
managed your time successfully. But how do you do that?
Well, by using the right time management techniques.
Time management techniques are a set of rules and principles you need to follow in order
to be more productive and efficient with your time, make better and faster decisions, as
well as accomplish more in less time and with less effort.
There are plenty of time management techniques based on approved time management best
practices:

Writing down what you need to do today

Working on important and urgent tasks first

Saving time for priority tasks, routine tasks, but also breaks

Proper stress management

Proper team management

Tracking project progress and identifying lags
Most time management techniques deal with one or more of the listed points, and you can
make the choice for your time management techniques by looking over what you want to
improve in your routine.
Apart from that, you'll also need to consider the time management skills you need to
improve and your personal time management style.
Time management skills
Effective time management skills include:

Setting SMART goals - make sure the goals you set for yourself are
Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

Effective planning - make sure you have clear objectives, as well as
defined tasks and resources in order to make a clear plan that will lead
you to your goals.

Stress management - make sure you manage your stress with stress
relieving strategies and tactics, in order to feel more relaxed while
doing your work.

Proper task delegation - delegating tasks helps you ease the workload
and share it with competent colleagues and employees.

Avoiding distractions - distractions take away from the time you
should be working (or even relaxing), so you should learn how to avoid
them.

Single-tasking - focusing on one task at a time helps you deliver
quality end results much better than when you multitask.

Saying "No" - this little two-letter word will help you save more time
for your own priorities.

Setting priorities - Investing time into the right tasks will ask for less
effort, but bring better results. This is also known as the 20/80 rule, or
the Pareto principle.

Beating procrastination - Identify the causes of your
procrastination and tackle them.
In order to improve your time management efforts, you'll need to practice these skills.
01.
Pomodoro
OVERVIEW
You parse your work into 25-minute work sessions (pomodoros), and 5-minute
breaks. After 4 cycles, you take a 20-minute break.
Developed by Francesco Cirillo, the Pomodoro technique got its name after the
Pomodoro-shaped kitchen timer Francesco used to track progress in his work.
Time management skills it improves: effective planning, stress management,
avoiding distractions, single-tasking, setting priorities, saying "No"
Issues it solves: ineffective scheduling, skipping breaks, multitasking, missed
deadlines
HOW IT WORKS
1. Set your timer for 25 minutes
2. Focus on your work during these 25 minutes
3. Stop as soon as the alarm goes off
4. Take a 5-minute break
5. Resume work for another 25 minutes after the break
6. After four 25/5 minute cycles, take a 20-minute break
7. Repeat the process until finished with task or project
For this purpose, you can try the Pomodoro Timer in Clockify, or learn more
about how to start using Pomodoro.
ADVANTAGES

Better time estimates for your work

Fixed work time - you'll be more likely to focus

Regular breaks help eliminate burnout and improve performance

Pomodoros are an easy way to track profitability and productivity
DISADVANTAGES
You have to stop working once the 25 minutes run out - If you're doing particularly
well, this is counterproductive
Following fixed intervals - the prescribed 25/5 minute sessions may not work for
you
and now we share a video about pomodoro.
02. Kanban OVERVIEW
A visual time management technique that helps you follow the progress with your
projects - you track how the tasks move across differently labeled columns.
This technique was developed in the 1940s in Japan by Taiichi Ohno, for Toyota
Automotive, to help increase their productivity, and effectiveness in manufacture.
Time management skills it improves: effective planning, SMART goals, proper
task delegation, single-tasking
Issues it solves: multitasking, missed deadlines, ineffective scheduling
HOW IT WORKS
You can use project management software, a pen and paper, or a whiteboard and
sticky notes.
Determine the number of stages in your project or task, and create the columns.
For example, you can create four columns, and move tasks within a project across
these stages:

Backlog - you brainstorm, and define all your tasks here. You
then decide what tasks you're supposed to move to the To Do
column, and what tasks can wait their turn.

To Do - these are the tasks you'll work on

In Progress - tasks you are currently working on

Done - tasks you've finishe
d
ADVANTAGES

No one-size-fits-all template, which means you can customize
the principles to fit your own needs

Clear visual representation of your entire work situation:
straightforward representation of your progress with a project

You can break the project into small, manageable tasks, and
track their progress across the board

The team is likely to focus on progressing with their tasks, in
order to reach the "Done" column
DISADVANTAGES

No one-size-fits-all template, which means creating a Kanban
board can be time-consuming, as you have to decide how many
columns to include and how to name them

Kanban doesn't help your order tasks directly, in terms of
importance and urgency

May be difficult to predict when your team will finish the tasks
(and project) because the only measure of progress is moving
across columns; there is no time component
03. Getting
Things Done
OVERVIEW
A five-step method that allows you to brainstorm your tasks, and make them into a
straightforward to-do list.
Getting Things Done (GTD) was introduced by David Allen in his book Getting
Things Done: The Art of Stress Free Productivity.
Time management skills it improves: effective planning, setting
priorities, SMART goals
Issues it solves: ineffective scheduling
HOW IT WORKS
1. Capture - note every task that springs to mind
2. Clarify - determine whether the task is actionable and whether it has
concrete steps you can lay out and follow
3. Organize - file tasks under different labels, and provide them with
context (eg. home, office, request from Tom)
4. Reflect - from time to time, review your tasks: What is the next step for
the task? Do you really need to finish it this week?
5. Engage - once you have noted, identified as actionable, properly filed,
and reviewed your tasks, simply start working on them
ADVANTAGES

You'll keep all your tasks, assignments and projects in
perspective

You'll clear your head once you lay out every task you can think
of in front of you

You can use GTD to boost both your personal, and professional
productivity
DISADVANTAGES

You have to use your willpower to progress with your work - GTD
doesn't provide guidelines for dealing with distractions

Organization of tasks happens by context, and not by project,
which may be unhelpful for people who are used to parsing tasks
in relation to their project

Too many items on the list can render it ineffective, as you'll be
less likely to structure your day properly
04. Eat that Frog OVERVIEW
This time management technique is aimed at prioritizing tasks. You pick out your
most important, or worst task (this is your "frog"), and tackle it first thing tomorrow.
Once you have finished with your "frog", you can move on to other tasks for the
day, but not before.
This may be a task that requires all your attention (due to its importance or
difficulty), one that you've been avoiding (because it's boring, demanding or
difficult).
The "Eat that Frog" premise was developed by Brian Tracy, in his book "Eat that
Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time".
Time management skills it improves: effective planning, setting
priorities, SMART goals
Issues it solves: ineffective scheduling, multitasking, missed deadlines
HOW IT WORKS
You have to identify tasks based on their priority, and label accordingly:

Task A - most important task, the one you should tackle first, or
suffer the consequences.

Task B - second most important task, the one you should tackle
after Task A. Less important, but still vital.

Task C - a task you could do, but you wouldn't suffer
consequences if you didn't do it.

Task D - a task you should ideally delegate to someone else,
and allocate this time to Task A.

Task E - a task you don't really need to do, so you're free to
eliminate it.
ADVANTAGES

Doing the most important or worst task first thing in the morning
guarantees the rest of the items in your daily schedule will be
easier to accomplish - this will motivate and energize you

Prioritizing tasks becomes easier

You'll have the rest of the day left for more enjoyable tasks
DISADVANTAGES

A difficult and demoralizing start of the day

It may be rigid and impractical if your most important task
changes during the course of the day
05.
Timeboxing
OVERVIEW
You allocate time periods (timeboxes) to activities; you work within this time period,
and then stop once the set time runs out. Timeboxing often includes fixed
deadlines, so it's used in project management.
Timeboxing works as a more general approach to the Pomodoro technique instead of 25-minute sessions (timeboxes), the period of time within a timebox isn't
as fixed.
James Martin was the first to explain the technique in more detail, in one of the
chapters of his book Rapid Application Development.
Time management skills it improves: effective planning, avoiding distractions,
single-tasking, setting priorities
Issues it solves: missed deadlines, ineffective scheduling, multitasking, skipping
breaks
HOW IT WORKS
1. Lay out all your activities and tasks on a list
2. Decide what you want to accomplish with these tasks - define your
goals
3. If a task is important and requires great focus, allocate a longer time
period to it (for example, 1 or 2 hours)
4. If it's a difficult task, parse it, and allocate shorter time periods (for
example, 20-30 minutes) to parts of it, to make the task easier to
manage
5. Start from your first task, and work your way down
6. When the allocated time for a task is up, stop working in it
7. Take a break
8. Review what you've managed to accomplish
9. Turn your attention to other time boxes in your schedule
ADVANTAGES

Great for a large number of small tasks - it'll be easier to keep
track of them and tackle them, once you have them laid out in
timeboxes

Deadlines are an important component, so you'll be focused on
achieving as much as you can until the timebox expires

Natural perfectionists will have less time to tweak every detail, as
they'll have to move on to the next task in the schedule

Timeboxing doesn't allow multitasking, so you'll be able to focus
on one task at a time
DISADVANTAGES

You have to stop working on a task when the time for it expires,
which is counterproductive when you find yourself immersed in a
task

It may be challenging to stick to a strict schedule determined by
timeboxes, when you consider unavoidable interruptions, such
as phone calls

Your timeboxing calculations may be off. Too short timeboxes you may have to stop before you're even immersed in a task.
Too long timeboxes - you may lose focus, or start procrastinating
to pass the time until the end of the timebox