Time Management

Personal and Project

Why is it important Time management is directly relevant to Project

Management If we cannot manage our own time effectively, how

can we expect those working for us to manage theirs? Good time management requires

Planning – goal settings and time allocation Estimation – setting time allocations based upon experience

and knowledge Monitoring – collecting data to determine if things are

progressing as they should be Responding – changing priorities and resource allocations if

required Planning and Monitoring your own time will help to

develop your Project Management Skills

Working Assumptions Future activities will follow similar patterns of

effort as past activities These activities can be grouped into different

categories Productivity on a given category of task will be

consistent (may be a slight increase over the long term)

The amount of work you can achieve in a given week will be consistent and can therefore be planned

Many exceptions to the patterns can be foreseen so you can take action if you know you have a week off on the horizon (holidays for example)

How is time managed Collection of detailed information on time

usage Summarising the data for planning

purposes Producing well documented plans Monitoring and reacting to deviations

from the plan (short-term) Reviewing the planning process as a

whole (long-term)

Analysing the use of time Work must be grouped at a sensible level for effective

analysis These groups must not be too small

Too much data for the whole project to managed effectively Not enough useful information for future planning

Or too big Not enough data to produce realistic tracking of the project Information at too high a level (of abstraction) to be useful for

future planning If in doubt, it is better to over-plan in the beginning, this can

then be amalgamated into higher level categories of work activity if necessary

The categories and level of planning may well be different on different types of project

Experience is key to this process Experience can only be gained by making and recognising our

mistakes

Identify regular goals Set regular goals which will allow a quick and easy review of

progress Identify what will need to be done to achieve these goals in

the given period of time available Identify the importance and urgency of goals Importance is measured by the worth of achievement (to you

or to other goals) The urgency is about timing, urgent things need to be done

by a very specific time if they are to be of any use Classify goals (tasks) by their importance and urgency

Important Not Important

Urgent Submitting latest assignment Watching tonight's News

Not Urgent Getting a job Going Swimming

Analysing the collected data

Collecting data on time management can be tedious, but it is a necessary step in effective time management

For personal work patterns this may be a choice that you decide not to make

For Project Management, this is an imposed activity which must be done

What to look for in the data?

Have stated objectives been achieved on time?

Where is most time spent? What can you identify as

wasted time? Are you surprised by any of the

information? Are you spending enough time

on the important tasks Do you procrastinate (put off

important or difficult tasks)

Logging your use of time

Date Start Stop Interruption Time Duration Activity Comments Completed? Size

                 

                 

                 

Start, Stop and Duration - the times you started and stopped the activity. Interruption - the total time lost due to interruptions – this can be very important Activity - the descriptive name for the task. Comments -a more complete note on what you're doing, the type of interruption, or

anything that would be useful when you later analyse the time data. Completed - tick this if the task is fully completed. Size - a measure of the size of a completed task (in units relevant to that task e.g. lines

of code, chapters of a book). The last one is really important – it is very useful for planning future work

Interruptions Can help you identify patterns of disruption These can lead to efficiency problems which have

serious effects on work patterns These disruptions can very often be removed or

reduced If you are disrupted regularly at home when doing

work, agree some ground rules with family about how long you will work and that you are not to be disturbed during this time

In work environments it may be useful to have time slots in the day when certain types of work (the interruption types) are not handled or responded to

Summarise the Information

Information recorded at the daily level is unlikely to be of much use (too detailed and too much of it)

Summarise to a higher level, a week, a month, a day over a given period, or per category of task

After a few months the information may begin to show some patterns

It may be possible to reduce the effort spent in data collection and analysis (i.e. do it less frequently, but still do it)

A Weekly Summary

Summarise the daily work done on different types of task

Determine if the proportions of activity are appropriate for the objectives you have set

Week Commencing:

Task           Daily Total

Sun            

Mon.            

Tue.            

Wed.            

Thur.            

Fri.            

Sat.            

TaskTotals

           

• Task - Enter the names of the principal tasks on which you spent time

• Columns - For each day of the week, calculate the total time spent on each task from the time recording log. Enter this number in the appropriate column for that day.

• Weekly totals - Add up the numbers for each task for the entire week

• Totals - For each row, total the task times to give the daily total in the right-most column

Summary Period Times and rates

Used for tracking and analysing time spent over the longer term Indicates long-term productivity Min, max etc help future estimations (better than a single figure) The data comes form the Weekly Summary Sheets Complete a new one every week

Task:

Total            

Time            

Avg.            

Max.            

Min.            

• Number of weeks - the number of weeks covered by the summary data. It is one more than the previous week.

• Total - calculated by adding this week's total for each column (task) to the period total for that column for last week.

• Average - calculated by dividing the total in each column by the number of weeks in row

• Maximum - Found by comparing for each task the maximum for last week with this weeks time

• Minimum - Found by comparing for each task the minimum for last week with this weeks time. Enter the smaller non- zero number

Total Number of weeks:

Measuring Size The units of size by which tasks are measured is

important and depends upon the nature of the task Some examples

Report – number of pages Program – lines of code Web Site – number of pages Essay – word count

Must take into account the difficulty and complexity of the task also

May have to split categories up e.g. Producing web pages may be split into Static

Pages (simple) and Dynamic Pages (complex) This sort of information helps to improve

estimation

A Job Log

A record of planned and actual time on a specific task or activity

Helps future planning Information should be available from time log forms

JobNumber

Date Category

Estimated ActualTo Date

(for this category of task)

Time Size Time Size Rate Time Size Rate Max Min

 

                       

Description:

Summary Planning

With reference to previous similar tasks, estimate size and complexity of the new task

From your previous productivity on similar tasks, estimate the time required for the new task

Adjust the estimate to take into account special features Performance

You should monitor your performance making use of summary charts to show the proportion of time you use

Use job logs to monitor your performance on specific tasks.  An analysis of the use of time against your objectives should

help you to find ways to improve your performance.