Time management and Project
Management
Undergraduate Research Skills
Nayda G. Santiago
ARG - CAHSI
Outline

Time Management

Project Management
Why manage your time?
Is this the picture that
represents you in your
normal state?
Or is it more like…

We need to manage
time because:




?
?
?
What is your reason?
Understand your time

Time is your most valuable
resource.

Analyze your time to understand the
most efficient way to use it.
To understand the value of time

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Value Every Minute
Author Unknown
To realize the value of one year: Ask a student who has failed a final
exam.
To realize the value of one month: Ask a mother who has given birth
to a premature baby.
To realize the value of one week: Ask an editor of a weekly
newspaper.
To realize the value of one hour: Ask the lovers who are waiting to
meet.
To realize the value of one minute: Ask the person who has missed
the train, bus or plane.
To realize the value of one second: Ask a person who has survived an
accident.
To realize the value of one millisecond: Ask the person who has won a
silver medal in the Olympics.
Time waits for no one.
Treasure every moment you have. You will treasure it even more
when you can share it with someone special.
Taken from: http://www.worldofquotes.com/
Calculate

Calculate the cost of your time*
1.5  annual salary
 cost per hour
working hours per year
cost per hour
 cost per minute
60

Calculate one of my minutes



My salary (secret): $75,000.00
My hours per year (10 months): 1500
$75 per hour, $1.25 per minute
*Taken from [1]
Analyze your time

Taken from Kathleen Riepe,
University of Wisconsin, Parkside,
“Time Management” presentation

Compute your leisure quotient
What’s your “LQ”
Leisure Quotient?

Sometimes we just
don’t realize how
much time we
spent in non
productive ways.

Here are some
examples of
leisure:



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Chat
Listening to CD’s
Watching tv
Daydreaming
What others can
you think of?
Exercise: Finding your LQ


Keep a close record
each day of how much
time you spend on
leisure activities.
Divide this number by
960* minutes to get
your “LQ”.
 *960 minutes
equals 16 waking
hours per day.
 Leisure activities
are important to
help you recharge,
but too much can
be detrimental.
Exercise


Fill the document with yesterday’s
tasks.
Find out your leisure quotient.
The WADE Method

W – Write it down


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Record everything you have to do
Use a planner or to-do pad
A – Add it up

Estimate how long your tasks will take
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D – Decide
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Best, Worst, typical?
What will you actually do?
Are you overloaded? Delete, delegate, delay,
diminish (to shorter tasks)
E – Execute your plan

Do not procrastinate, do not do things perfectly
Taken from [2]
Mark Twain
“If you want to kiss a frog, kiss it
fast”
Do difficult tasks first.
They grow.
Not sleeping a solution?

Student lag

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Jet lag
Are you creating the equivalent of jet lag
by keeping an inconsistent sleep
schedule?
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Do you get up at about the the same time each
morning?
Do you almost always get 7-9 hours of sleep
per night?
If you answered no to any of the questions,
you are compromising your body’s efficiency.
Decreased Sleep

Cumulative sleep loss can lead to decreased waking
alertness, impaired performance and worsened mood.


Decreased performance related to sleep loss has been
implicated in some major disasters.


Fatigue Among Clinicians & the Safety of Patients, David M. Gaba,
MD and Steven K. Howard, MD, New England Journal Med;
Vol.347 No 16; 10/17/02
24 hrs of sustained wakefulness is equivalent to 0.10 % Blood
Alcohol Concentration.

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Exxon Valdez
Sleep deprivation is equivalent to the effects of alcohol
intoxication


Bonnett, 1985; Broughton and Ogilvie, 1992
Dawson and Reid , 1997
“Surgeons awake all night had 20% more errors and took
14% longer to complete the task than those who had a full
night’s sleep.”

Lancet, 1998
Symptoms
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Feeling tired; not rested
Mood changes
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Impaired Cognitive Functioning
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Irritability
Affective liability
Poor concentration and memory
Decreased attention
Calculation problems
Difficulty in making quick, correct decisions
Inability to reliably estimate your
ownalertness due to above symptoms
Sleep Deprivation
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
Gilberto Colon Latimer
QEPD
Are you working you’re A’s off?
How would prioritize this list of daily tasks?
Write the underlined word of the tasks
which would be on your
“A” List
“B” List
“C” List
Buy laundry detergent.
Write a eight page essay for English.
Prepare for a Biology quiz.
Dust the videos on the bookcase.
Review for midterm test that counts for 50% of
grade.
Schedule an appointment with a Professor.
Complete a journal entry.
Email a high school friend on another campus.
Shop for a new pair of athletic shoes.
“Armor-al” the dashboard of the car.
Are you working your “A’s” Off?
or
Do You Have C-Fever?
“A” LIST
1 Midterm test that counts for 50% of grade.
2 Write a eight page essay for English.
“B” LIST
3 Prepare for a quiz in Biology.
4 Schedule an appointment with a Professor.
5 Complete a journal entry.
“C” LIST
6 Buy laundry detergent.
7 Dust the videos on the bookcase.
8 Email a high school friend on another campus.
9 Shop for a new pair of athletic shoes.
10 “Armor-al” the dashboard of the car.
“C” Fever
 Have
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

you ever noticed?
That the videos must be alphabetized
before you can settle in to review for a
test.
That rumpled pile of clothes left in the
corner since Thursday night just has to
get folded and put away before you can
start that English essay.
If so, you may be suffering from “C”
Fever
Conquer Procrastination
5. Conquer Procrastination

Why is “C” fever as common as
the cold?

The “A” tasks may :
 Produce minimal endorphins
 Be too lengthy
 Be too difficult
 Be too threatening because of the
possibility of failure
 Be too threatening because of the
possibility of success
It’s All about Endorphins - The Feel Good Hormone
•
•
•
•
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Develop a Conditioned Response to the Tasks you
Procrastinate
Set a goal to complete a task/project
After completing the task, reward yourself with
something that is pleasurable for you
The body releases endorphins- the feel good
hormone
Over time with repetition, you will come to associate
feeling good with completing a task/project
You won’t procrastinate as much
Pacing
Athletes know the
phenomenon of running
with someone ahead of
them to increase their
times.
The same effect can be
achieved with studying
and completing
schoolwork.
Because work expands or contracts to fit the time allotted, make
pacing work for you by doing the following:
Estimate the time needed to complete a
task.
Subtract 15% from that estimate.
Set a timer to help you reach the goal
of completing the task in reduced
time.
Take the Offensive With a Planner
Take the Offensive with a PLANNER
A planner helps
you:
See the big picture
Be time efficient
Record deadlines, appointments, etc.
Be Realistic in your Expectations
Be Realistic

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Examine your
schedule.
Be realistic about
what you can
accomplish.
Don’t try to juggle too
many things.
Don’t set yourself up
for failure.
Is The Jar Full?


Stephen Covey in his
book, First Things First,
"Okay, time for a quiz."
He reached under the
table and pulled out a
wide-mouthed gallon jar.
He set it on the table
next to a platter with
some fist-sized rocks on
it. "How many of these
rocks do you think we
can get in the jar?" he
asked.
ROCKS
IS
THE JAR FULL?
Gravel
IS THE JAR FULL?
Sand
"Is
this jar full?"
Water
Is
the Jar Full?
What is the point?
“If
you work really
hard you can always
fit some more things
into your life."
No, that is not really the point
The point is this:
Put the
Big
Rocks
in First
References
1.
2.
3.
Tim Hindle, Manage Your Time,
Essential Dk Managers, DK
Publishing, Inc., 1998.
Julie Morgenstern, Time
Management From Inside Out,
Second Edition, Owl Books, 2004.
Kathleen Riepe, University of
Wisconsin, Parkside, “Time
Management” presentation