One of the most important skills to develop in your career is time management. Check out this presentation for tips on how you can improve your personal time management skills. Even if you walk away with just one tip, it’ll be worth your time.

1. Personal Time Management
Michael Papasevastos

2. TIME MANAGEMENT IS
IMPORTANT
• Increase productivity
• Maximize your ROTI
• Improve your organization
• Increase your happiness
• Increase others happiness

3. KNOW THYSELF
• What drives me?
• How do I spend my time?
• What would I like to change?
• What is important to me?
• What time of the day am I at
my best?
• What do I want to be
remembered for?
• What will I regret not having
done?

4. Effort
Outcomes
Situation

5. PERSONAL TIME
MANAGEMENT TIPS
(In no particular order)

6. TIP: DETERMINE DESIRED
OUTCOMES
• What three things do I want to
accomplish this [TIME PERIOD]?
• “Rule of Three” from J.D. Meier’s
“Getting Results the Agile Way”
• Outcomes for work
• Outcomes for everything else that
is important to you
• Outcomes are results or
achievements, not tasks
• Keep a daily, weekly and long-term
plan
• Shaping time to your vision

7. TIP: DETERMINE DESIRED
OUTCOMES

8. TIP: USE LISTS
• Write down only the things that
matter
• Add outcomes to the top of your
list
• Use outcomes to drive
actions/tasks
• “What’s the next actionable step?”
• Make your lists accessible
• Avoid long lists
• Check and prune regularly
• Value is in helping you prioritize

9. TIP: USE LISTS

10. TIP: SCOPE TASKS
• Use level-of-effort estimates
• Not too small, not too big
• Purpose is for time allocation
• TARDIS the effort for unknown
tasks
• Know when to stop and when to
extend
• Decide up-front

11. TIP: SCHEDULE STUFF
• Use your calendar!
• Not just for meetings
• Lets others know
• Book time with yourself
• Do hardest tasks when most alert
• Give yourself time to get to
meetings
• Use ticklers to de-clutter your list
• Use color categories to enable at-
a-glance info

12. TIP: SCHEDULE STUFF

13. TIP: DON’T PROCRASTINATE
• Don’t wait
• Work your list when it makes
sense
• Do it, even if you get it wrong the
first time
• If you never get to it, get rid of it
• Prune, prune, prune

14. TIP: PRIORITIZE ACCORDINGLY
• Relevancy
• Timeliness
• Dependencies
• Leveragability
• Clarity
• Reliance

15. TIP: MANAGE EMAIL
• Prune your inbox
• 2 – 5 minutes “compute
time”/email
• Short (not curt) emails 
• Relevant info on top
• Check at set times
• Is face-to-face better?
• IM?

16. TIP: ELIMINATE INTERRUPTIONS
• Assess your environment
• What are the ways you personally
get interrupted?
• Buy yourself a good pair of
headphones
• Turn off Outlook
• Set your online status
• Remain flexible and opportunistic

17. TIP: TRACK AND ADJUST
• Where did your time go?
• Keep a log
• Reflection and adjustment
• J.D. Meier’s “Monday vision, daily
outcomes,
Friday reflection”
• Do you need to adjust your tasks?
• Do you need to adjust your
approach?

18. TIP: KNOW WHEN TO STEP AWAY
• Blocks of time + mental rest stops
• Rested mind = productive mind
• Multitask less mentally taxing
items
• Mind continues to work
• Shower insight
• Use your vacation

19. TIP: EFFICIENT LEARNING
• Trickle knowledge
• No such thing as wasted time
• Consider ROI of Knowledge
• Digital media
• Keep notes tidy
• Lunch and Learn!
• Teach to learn

20. “Yesterday is history.
Tomorrow is a mystery.
Today is a gift.
That's why it is called the present.”
Alice Morse Earle
Or
Master Oogway from Kung Fu Panda

21. THANK YOU FOR YOUR TIME!