How to Manage Time?

Frameworks on how to manage time

Time is the most important resource at our disposal. Once the moment passes, we can never ever get back lost time. On the one hand, there are several tools that have been introduced to enhance our productivity. On the other hand, technology has created far too many distractions that divert our time and energy away from our priorities. So, how do we address this issue and how to manage time?

Time Management frameworks can help us put things in perspective. A simple, yet powerful, framework can help change the direction of our lives. It can become our friend, philosopher and guide, which we need in order to control our time. Once we do this, we will have control over our destiny.

Stephen Covey’s Framework

Let us look at one such simple and powerful framework published by Stephen Covey in his book, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People“. The book has sold 25 million copies, making it one of the top selling business and self-help books. The third habit of putting first things first deals with time management.

In a nutshell, the core concept involves mapping activities on two dimensions – Urgency and Importance. People typically tend to spend a lot of time dealing with “urgent” tasks, or simply those priorities that are right in front of them. These urgent tasks may or may not be “important”. The importance of an activity should be judged from it’s relevance to your long term goals, plans and purpose.

Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four hour days.

Zig Ziglar

Four Quadrants of Time Management

The two dimensions of Urgent / Not Urgent and Important / Not Important lead to four quadrants. The fundamental principle is that we allow external circumstances to dictate how we spend our time. Consequently, we devote too much time to “urgent” things that require our immediate attention. The time spent in the two urgent quadrants is typically done at the expense of activities that are important in the long run, even though they may not be pressing or urgent.

These are activities in Quadrant II – Important but Not Urgent. We need to prioritize activities in Quadrant II in order to learn how to manage time. If we take care of these priorities, we will systematically reduce the time that we need to spend in Quadrant I – of dealing with crises, emergencies and fire-fighting on important issues. As we keep doing more of this and spend more time in Quadrant II, we will keep achieving more of our goals.

The key is not to prioritize what’s on your schedule; But to schedule your priorities.

Stephen Covey

How to Manage Time in practice?

You would imagine that with over 25 million books sold, millions of people would have implemented these concepts by now. I wish that were the case. Time management continues to be a burning issue. We are surrounded by distractions – notifications on our gadgets and the constant social media feed. There is an increasing onslaught of Urgent tasks that are simply not important. The reality is that even people who have read the book a few times can fail to put the concepts to practice and spend little time in Quadrant II.

Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.

M. Scott Peck

So, how can one go about adopting this framework and how to manage time in practice? This is as good a time as any to revisit the time tested concepts and review how you are spending your time. You can read more to get practical advice on how to manage time, and to obtain answers that will work for you!

And yes, before you jump on to reading more, remember to share this with your friends and colleagues. After all, delivering value to your network is “important”, isn’t it?

Editor’s Note:

If you enjoyed reading ‘How to Manage Time’ you may also enjoy reading about ‘Time Management in Practice‘ discussing in detail how to put the framework to manage time in practice by the same author.

You may like to read his much acclaimed ‘Year in Review‘ 2020 series. The Google’s Featured Snippet on this, painstakingly compiles key lessons from each of the 20 posts from the series. There is something in it for everyone, which is why this post is featuring ahead of billions of other search results.

About The Author

Rajiv Maheshwari is a business and start-up advisor, and the co-founder of From The Experts Mouth. He is a management professional with over 25 years of experience, and worked as CEO for a decade, and in leadership roles with NYSE listed companies such as Accenture and WNS.

He is a Chartered Accountant and MBA (Director’s Merit List from IIM Bangalore) and an autodidact, who is on the path of self-directed life long learning and sharing. He is a thought leader, author and keynote speaker and has developed several frameworks to bridge the gap between academia and industry.