Mastering Time Management and Beating Procrastination

with

Richard Spacek

Time Management

Tonight: I. Five Principles of TM

II. Step by Step SchedulingIII. Timely Tips

Why do we fear time management?Why do we fear time management?

Memento Mori

Tempus Fugit

Time Fears

• Emphasis on time management and productivity diminishes our freedom and humanity

• Scheduling time means imprisoning time

• TM’s origins in F. W. Taylor’s “scientific management”

Taylorism

• Reduction of “life” to “time segments• Pursuit of “efficiency”• “mechanistic” TM• Congressional Committee: humans

naturally resent “any system which deals with [them] the same way as a beast of burden or an inanimate machine”

What About Self-Imposed TM?

• “Top down” TM is oppressive and dictatorial!

• Self-discipline can increase autonomy and satisfaction

Rate Your Time Style

• Perhaps you are already a very efficient time user

• Try the “Time Style Survey,” p. 2

II. Five Key TM Principles

1. Avoid Multitasking2. Emphasize Productivity3. Avoid Time Traps4. Maintain Physical Efficiency5. Schedule/Build Routines

A

First Principle: AVOID multi-tasking

• “multi‑tasking is a formula for shoddy work, mismanaged time, rote solutions, stress, and forgetfulness”

• Rubinstein, Meyer, & Evans (2001):• “For all but the most routine tasks, it

will take more time for the brain to switch among tasks than it would take to complete one and then turn to the other”

Why Is Multi-Tasking a Disaster?

• Moving from one task to another: “task switching”

• Each switch has a cost• Productivity is reduced in

proportion to the number of switches

• Switch penalty is greater for more complex tasks (and increases with age)

Long-Term Costs:

• a prolonged period of extreme multi‑tasking may lead to a shorter attention span, poorer judgment and impaired memory.

• Federal Aviation Administration & U. of Michigan study: “multi-taskers perform too inefficiently to justify the practice”

Do You Multi-task?

• Talking on the telephone while answering email (or driving)?

• Editing several documents (unrelated) at the same time?

• Completing forms while answering questions?

• Facebooking during a lecture???

Legitimate Multi-Tasking

Neither one requiressignificant cognitionNeither one requiressignificant cognition

• Television and washing dishes• Why?

Multitasking Is a Lie

• Exercise on p. 3

• Write “Multitasking is worse than a lie”

• After each letter, write a number corresponding to the position of the letter in the sentence on the line below

• After “M” you would write “1,” after “u,” “2,” and so on

Multitasking Is a Lie

• Part 2

• Write “Multitasking is worse than a lie”

• THEN write the numbers corresponding to the position of the letters on the line below

• Which is faster?

Five Key TM Principles

1. Avoid Multitasking2. Emphasize Productivity3. Avoid Time Traps4. Maintain Physical

Efficiency5. Schedule/Build Routines

2. Emphasize Productivity, NOT Time• "time on task" is only 30 to 50%

of total time applied• more time is not always the

solution• time used well is crucial

2. Emphasize Productivity

• Robert Kriegel: work habits of highly productive people

• How to Succeed in Business Without Working So Damn Hard: people work at their peak levels for only 5-6 hours/day

• Keys: Intensity/Intentionality

Efficiency Window

• A few hours after waking, you reach peak efficiency

• Duration: c. 4 hours

• Recognize this time, protect it, and USE IT!

• Eliminate distractions and work INTENSELY!

Intensity=Productivity

• Think of a time when you worked FAST

• Consider the triggers that drove you and the techniques that worked for you

• Approach routine work with the same emergency intensity

• Intensity replaces time

Final ExaminationProject DeadlineParents return early from vacation

Grant application due date

Five Key TM Principles

1. Avoid Multitasking2. Emphasize Productivity3. Avoid Time Traps4. Maintain Physical Efficiency5. Schedule/Build Routines

3. Avoid Time Traps

• Anything can fill our time:• Procrastination is on the rise. . .

3. Avoid Time Traps

• socializing is necessary—but a great time trap because it has no inherent limit

• Pales in comparison with the BIG THREE:

• TV, email, and the Internet• There are thousands of individual

extra time traps

Procrastination

• 1970: 4 - 5 % procrastinators

• 2010: 20-25 %

• Setting aside the possibility that we are less ashamed or more honest—what has happened?

• Increased temptation . . . More time traps

How Do You Rate?

• Try the two-part “Procrastination Rating” survey on pp. 4-5 (out of 100)

• Part 1: add all scores

• Part 2: add 2, 6, and 9, and subtract that total from the sum of the others

• Add Parts 1 and 2

Piers Steel on Time Traps

• TV watching: – US—4.7 hours per day– CAN—3.3 hours per day

• Reading: 24 min. per day• Email consumes 40% of our work life• Microsoft study: after interruption by

email, workers took 15 minutes to refocus on core tasks

Cost of Time Traps

• Piers Steel: 2 hours per day per worker

• $1.3 trillion US

• $130 billion CA

• We are inherently susceptible to procrastination

“procrastination occurs when the limbic system vetoes the long term

plans of the prefrontal cortex in favor of the more immediately realizable” (Steel, 2010, p. 45)

Procrastination Excuses

• See the list on p. 6—and the replies to them

Five Key TM Principles

1. Avoid Multitasking2. Emphasize Productivity3. Avoid Time Traps4. Maintain Physical Efficiency5. Schedule/Build Routines

4. Maintain Efficiency

•Sleep: rest your planning organ: the hippocampus needs sleep!

•Exercise: often first cut!

• Micro: Use active breaks• Macro: Maintain general fitness

8 hours

Self-Regulation & Exercise

• Regular exercise reduces procrastination, increases self-regulation

• Regular exercise improves cognition, planning ability

• Regular exercise improves time management

Self-Regulation & Exercise

• Regular exercise reduces procrastination, improves self-regulation

• Regular exercise improves cognition, planning ability

• Regular exercise improves time management

Oaten, M., & Cheng, K. (2006). Longitudinal gains in self-regulation from regular physical exercise. British Journal of Health Psychology, 11(4), 717-733.

Oaten, M., & Cheng, K. (2006). Longitudinal gains in self-regulation from regular physical exercise. British Journal of Health Psychology, 11(4), 717-733.

About Sleep . . .

• Sleep deprivation increases likelihood of developing a cold roughly threefold (Cohen, Doyle, Alper, Janicki-Deverts, & Turner, 2009).

• If your exposure is high, get plenty of sleep.

• Nothing wrecks TM like a cold!

Five Key TM Principles

1. Avoid Multitasking2. Emphasize Productivity3. Avoid Time Traps4. Maintain Physical Efficiency5. Schedule/Build Routines

5. Schedule/Build Routines

• Some "accidents" don’t have to happen

• Schedules build habits and habits can work for you!

• Day-timer, PDA, Blackberry, scrap of paper—choose your weapon!

Face Scheduling Problems

• Recognize the problem of “the Tyranny of the Urgent (but unimportant)” (Stephen Covey term)

• Schedules are constantly under attack

• Remember: scheduling initially takes more time & energy but EVENTUALLY pays off!

Schedules: Advantages

• Schedules reduce stress, ensure performance

• They must be designed realistically and they must suit you

• Late night/all night work is bad, but if it is the only time you DO work. . . .

• Next: Step by Step Scheduling

II. Step by Step Scheduling

• Piers Steel: use an “unschedule”—“schedule your recreational activities in your calendar first” in order to “breathe energy back into life’s grind” (p. 169)

• Either before or after this, try the following:

Timelog

• If you are really unsure where your time is going, try a timelog (p. 7)

• Track what you do for a few days and ask--

1) what do you spend the most time on?

2) Are you satisfied with this?

3) Can you see how to change your time use?

Scheduling

1. Begin with a “HOT LIST” of high-priority items, dated and ordered

2. Plot your regular, pre-scheduled activities (e.g., classes) on a weekly schedule

3. Block off time required by your job or other regular commitments

4. Find spaces to work on the HOT LIST items (see p. 8)

Scheduling Guidelines

• Set priorities• Tackle high-priority tasks first—unless

you benefit from “warming up,” BUT do not use low-priority tasks for avoidance

• Arrange crucial work sessions at times when you know you will be alert and motivated (remember the “window of maximum effectiveness”)

Guidelines on Time

• Each hour of daytime work = 1.5 night hours (in terms of productivity)!

• Use “small times”—orphaned portions of time between activities

• Include non-work activities (NWAs)—or they’ll find their way in anyway!

Non-Work Activities

• Remember to include NWAs:• Physical recreation• Sleep• Eating & food preparation• Extra time: double the time you expect

projects to take (we base estimates on our BEST times)

Dealing with Email

• Review email at set times and for set periods (e.g., 2:00 to 2:30)

• Ignore email the rest of the time.

• Keep your HOT LIST at the forefront; never let incidental tasks push these aside

Last Guidelines

• Set pre-deadlines!

• Schedule your days completely (i.e., schedule even “slack”)!

• Limit distractions!

• Never admit "waste time"; keep "pocket work" with you always:

• Remember Parkinson’s Law--

Parkinson’s Law:

• work expands to fit the time available

• Set deadlines!

Stick to Your Schedule

Once you have a schedule, maintain it• keep it with you, modify it, and if you fall

off it, get back on as soon as you can• Set aside some time DAILY for

updating/checking your schedule• Assess your effectiveness at least

WEEKLY and change your plan if you need to (see checklist, p. 9)

Professional TM Training?

• Perhaps . . .

• The commitment of time and money does increase motivation, but the results are not clear. . . .

The Secret

• The only SURE way to get more time is to work with greater intensity

• Act NOW and act FAST

• Either create a system that suits you, or commit to a system someone else has created

Remember—Keep Trying!

Time flies. . . .

III. TEN TIME TIPS

1. Keep deadlines handy; they are great motivators.

2. Build momentum: warm up with an easy task—but NO BUSYWORK

3. Avoid crowds: go early, go late4. Burn daylight: getting up early

is better than staying up late.

Time Tips

5. One Good Container: nothing wastes more time than looking for things

6. Turn it off: computer, telephone, whatever is stealing your time

7. Don’t waste time worrying. Work off the worry.

Time Tips

8. At the day’s end, spend 10 minutes on something you just don’t get . . . then sleep on it

9. Learn the best places to hide from people

10.People underestimate what they can do in an hour—and overestimate what they can do in a month

Want to know more?

go.unb.ca/wss

www.unbwritingcentre.ca/Workshops