ref:
- http://www.discoverbusiness.us/time-management/
- http://www.success.com/article/john-c-maxwell-5-qualities-of-people-who-use-time-wisely
- http://facilethings.com/blog/en/laws
The time management matrix made popular by the late Stephen R. Covey will help you identify what you really spend your time on. It's a particularly useful tool if you want to know how to prioritize work, personal roles, goals and commitments.
The Pickle Jar Theory illustrates how relatively unimportant tasks or commitments can easily take up much of a person’s time. Filling one’s day with small trivial tasks that are not important prevents one from using that time to complete larger or more important tasks and projects.
The theory uses a pickle jar and its contents to represent time management. The inside of the pickle jar represents a person’s time, and all the different tasks and commitments that take up that time are represented by rocks, pebbles, sand and water that are placed into the jar.
- Rocks are the important things that require immediate, significant attention, and produce a huge benefit when they are accomplished.
- Pebbles produce a benefit, but they are not as important as the tasks represented by the larger rocks.
- Grains of sand signify small, time-consuming tasks that are relatively easy to do but are of little importance, filling in the leftover space. Things like text messages, constant email checking, and idle chit-chat all take time, but generate little benefit.
- The final component, water, fills in what little space remains, and represents the tasks and idle moments that fill all the remaining space.
- The key to using the Pickle Jar Theory is to be aware of which tasks are “rocks,” providing large benefits and requiring immediate attention. Once you know which tasks are “rocks,” you can turn your attention to the “sand,” paring it away to make room for more rocks. Various techniques can be used to diminish the number of grains of sand in the jar.
Pareto's principle suggests people can work smarter by concentrating on the important things from which they derive the most benefit. The 80/20 rule, in its broader form, says that a small number of causes is responsible for a large percentage of the effect, in a ratio of about 20:80. In time management, 80% of your results come from 20% of the time and effort you invest or that 20% of tasks absorb 80% of available time. By finding the ideal 20% of your tasks to spend 80% of your energy on, you can avoid wasting time or effort.
3. Parkinson’s Law - Reduce the Time Assigned to Each Task
Parkinson’s Law is simple and straightforward: the time required to complete a particular task will expand according to the amount of time it is allotted. In simple terms, a task will expand to fill any deadline. Giving yourself less time to do something will lead to faster completion. Slowly reduce the time allotted for any given task, and eventually you’ll find the sweet spot in which it gets completed without feeling rushed. Like the other theories, this changes the way you approach using your time, illustrating that less time can lead to better, more effective work.
The secret to massive productivity can therefore be drawn out of this principle: give yourself impossibly short deadlines. If you must finish it in a day, you will.
4. Newton’s First Law of Motion - What is at rest remains at rest; what is in motion continues in motion
When you’re procrastinating, you’re at rest and, as a rather pleasant state, it’s hard to start doing things. But it also happens that when you’re doing things, you enter in a state of motion, and it’s equally difficult to stop because, after all, the fact of completing tasks is also satisfactory. So keep this in mind, and get to work soon every day. Learn to take the first step doing whatever task is at hand. Tasks in motion tend to get done. So just start ..
