Effective time management
Three techniques that put you back in control of your workday
A workday rarely ends where you planned it to. Urgent messages, quick calls and “just a second” questions chop time into pieces too small for any serious task. This lesson covers three techniques that give you back control: the Eisenhower matrix, time blocking and Pomodoro.
Where time goes
— Finding out what eats up the workday
Time is lost not to laziness but to switching. Every interruption costs a few minutes to get back into the task, and by evening those minutes add up to hours. To win those hours back, first you need to see what eats them.
The biggest time thieves
- Chat and email notifications
- Meetings without an agenda or outcome
- Tasks with no deadline or next step
- Trying to do several things at once
Planning is bringing the future into the present so that you can do something about it now.
The Eisenhower matrix
— What to do now and what to never do
The matrix sorts tasks by two criteria: important and urgent. Important tasks move you toward your goals; urgent ones demand attention right now. Most firefighting starts when important work is put off until it becomes urgent.
| Urgent | Not urgent | |
|---|---|---|
| Important | Do it now | Schedule it |
| Not important | Delegate it | Drop it |