Common time management problems (+ how to solve them)

Last updated on: November 17, 2022

How good are your time management skills ?

No matter where you are on the scale — whether you’re struggling with it or you’re close to mastering it (or you’re anywhere in between) — there’s always room for improvement.

In this article, we’ll go over:

  • The signs of poor time management (so you’ll be able to recognize them in yourself and others),
  • What problems poor time management can cause (so we can recognize the importance of good time management ), and
  • Common time management mistakes and how to solve them (because we all make them sometimes).

problem solving time management

Table of Contents

Signs of poor time management

If you fail at completing your tasks repeatedly or can’t seem to finish anything on time — perhaps you are not distributing your time accordingly. Poor time distribution may cause a series of mistakes that we’ll discuss later in the article (as well as offer solutions, of course).

But for now, here are the most common signs of poor time management:

Easily distracted

It’s hard to find a space that is completely free from distractions, but we can do our best to optimize our working space to be as distraction-free as possible.

The first step is to find out what distracts you the most: 

  • Are those notifications on your phone? 
  • Talking to your coworkers? 
  • Street noises?

After you figure out what it is, it will be easier to manage distractions and avoid them.

💡 Clockify Pro Tip

Learn about the most common workplace productivity killers and how to beat them:

  • The most common workplace distractions and tips on how to tackle them

Poor punctuality

We all know how it feels to be stuck in traffic and rush through the morning because our alarm didn’t go off. We’re human, and accidents happen. But, being constantly late is more than a slight accident — it’s disrespectful to others and their time. 

As Anna Musson, the etiquette expert, told The Huffington Post Australia , 

“ There are a multitude of reasons as to why [someone is late], but the overriding reason is, it suggests deep down you think your time is more valuable than others. ”

Few minutes of waiting here and there tends to add up quickly, which results in a lot of wasted time.

Missing deadlines

Just as being late, if missing deadlines happens rarely and for a good reason, it can be filed under “things happen”. On the other hand, frequently missing deadlines could  seriously impair your professional reputation.

To avoid this, it’s important to be able to rely on the people you work with and trust them that they’ll do their part, so you can do yours. If people can’t rely on you, they won’t want to work with you.

If you happen to miss deadlines often — you should try to figure out why. Some of the most common reasons include:

  • Procrastination,
  • Inability to manage your time effectively ,
  • Not knowing how to delegate or outsource, and more.

Everything you need to know about procrastination — what it is, reasons why it happens, how to beat it, and more in this article:

  • Dealing with procrastination: Why it happens and how to fix it

Always rushing

Do you feel like you’re constantly in a rush? Does it seem like there’s never enough time to do everything you’ve planned? 

This could be either because you’re waiting until the last minute, or because you have too many things on your plate, so you’re struggling to complete all the tasks.

At the same time, you could be going through an ongoing uneasiness because you feel like you’re constantly wasting your time. If this is the case, you might be dealing with time anxiety .

Whichever it is, it’s stressful, and it can certainly negatively affect the quality of your work. 

Perhaps the worst sign of poor time management is your health being at risk. One of the unfortunate consequences of poor time management is burnout. Burnout is a state of both physical and mental exhaustion. It’s most commonly work-related and happens due to prolonged stress and overworking .

According to one study, burnout shows itself in a variety of symptoms :

  • Physical (shortness of breath, dizziness, weakened immune system),
  • Emotional (mental exhaustion, feeling anxious, lack of empathy), and
  • Behavioral (loss of motivation, poor performance at work, irritability).

💡 Clockify Pro Tip:

Find out more about burnout and how to cope with it:

  • Career burnout and its effects on health

What problems can poor time management cause?

Now that you’ve recognized some signs of poor time management, we want to draw your attention to the problems that may occur due to inability to distribute your time effectively. 

Problem #1: Stress

Poor time management causes us to rush, which results in a lot of additional stress. Sometimes, you’re already aware that you need to do something, but you avoid starting it. Other times, you might know deadlines are approaching, but you’re not even close to being done, so you have to squeeze two weeks’ worth of work into a day or two. Whichever the cause of your rush, it can be avoided by organizing your time better. 

Problem #2: Low productivity and performance

When you’re leaving everything for the last minute, it’s very likely that your work will be of poor quality, as you’ll rush to get everything done. Racing against the clock  will most likely negatively affect your performance and results.

Problem #3: Having too much on your plate

You are in danger of overextending yourself if you don’t have a clear idea of:

  • The time you need to complete your tasks, and 
  • The time you have available.

To avoid this, only accept projects that you’re completely sure you’ll be able to complete successfully.

Problem #4: Poor work-life balance

When you don’t have a set schedule, you’re probably always working, but rarely engaging in deep work . This results in a poor work-life balance , which can affect your mental health.

💡 Clockify Pro Tip:  

Not juggling life and work properly may lead to even more detrimental consequences to your health. Read about mental exhaustion here:

  • Mental fatigue: what it is and how to overcome it

How to solve the most common time management mistakes

Since the concept of time management consists of so many different aspects, most of us have difficulties with at least one of them.

Here are some of the most common time management mistakes we tend to make and tips on how to solve them:

  • Not having a plan,
  • Being bad at estimating time,
  • Being overwhelmed, 
  • Letting distractions interfere with work,
  • Procrastinating, 
  • Thinking busy and productive are the same, and
  • Not taking breaks and time off work.

Time management mistake #1: Not having a plan

Do you want to be productive, but you feel a little lost? Are you unmotivated? Do you often have a feeling that you have forgotten something?

If you answered yes more than once — you’re probably aware that this usually happens when you don’t have a plan and you are just going with the flow and being reactive.

Tips on what to do when you don’t have a plan

Start by being proactive and making long-term and short-term goals. Sit down and think about things you want to get done and goals you want to achieve.

However, in order to set goals correctly, make sure they are SMART :

  • M easurable,
  • A ttainable,
  • R elevant, and
  • T ime-bound.

For example, “become rich ” is not a SMART goal. Rich means something different to everyone. Trying to achieve the goal of “becoming rich” means running aimlessly with no finish line in sight.

Try something like this instead: 

“Have X amount of money in my bank account by the end of the year.” 

“Start earning (X amount) monthly by (a certain date).”

When your goal is, like the previous example, measurable, it will be easier to make a plan on how to get there, too.

Learn more about setting SMART goals here:

  • How to set SMART goals (+ examples and templates)

Time management mistake #2: Being bad at estimating time

This used to be one of my biggest problems. I had no idea how much time I needed to get ready or how much exactly it would take me to get from point A to point B. My assumptions were often a little off, which sometimes resulted in being late.

Tips on what to do when you are bad at estimating time

When I realized I tend to underestimate the amount of time I need to get something done, I started to measure it.

If you’re troubled by the same issues, you can simply use a stopwatch. Or, if you want to keep track of your time in a more organized way, try going with a time tracking app .

Tracking your time will help you estimate the time much more accurately, as you’ll have a lot of data to rely on and make an educated guess. This habit will also facilitate planning, as you’ll have a clear overview of where your time goes and what you should be doing more or less.

Here are some time management techniques and games that you may find useful to break bad time management habits:

  • The 26 most effective time management techniques
  • 40+ Best Time Management Games & Activities (2021)

Time management mistake #3: Being overwhelmed

First of all — take a deep breath.

You can’t do everything. It’s completely fine. No one can.

Having a busy schedule can take a toll on you, so you should be gentle with yourself and accept that you’re not superhuman. Also, good news — there’s a solution for this.

Tips on what to do when you are being overwhelmed

It’s important to learn to prioritize.

Not prioritizing is a sure way to get overwhelmed or waste time doing random tasks at the expense of more important and/or urgent ones.

The Eisenhower matrix is a great method that will help you divide important from unimportant things.

All you need is a piece of paper that you’ll divide into four parts:

1) Important and urgent tasks — do them first.

2) Important but not urgent — schedule to do them later.

3) Urgent but not important a.k.a. it’s not you who must do them — delegate them.

4) Tasks that are neither urgent nor important — can be deleted from the list.

Also, make sure you leave a buffer between the things you scheduled to make sure you’ll finish a task before the next one starts and your schedule won’t get messed up.

Read the following article to learn how to say “No” and set your priorities more wisely:

  • How to say “No” at work and save time for priority tasks

Time management mistake #4: Letting distractions interfere with work

Do you know what distracts you the most?

If you don’t, take this short assessment published by Harvard Business Review to find out which of the six most common types of distractions interfere with your productivity and ability to focus.

Tips on what to do when you are dealing with distractions

If you finished the first step of figuring out what your worst distractions are — it’s time to deal with them.

Here are some suggestions to reduce distractions and increase your focus:

  • Work in a productive environment such as a library or shared workspace. 
  • Break tasks into chunks so they seem more doable and less intimidating.
  • Turn off the notifications or put your phone in ‘do not disturb’ mode.
  • Have a set time for checking emails (don’t read and respond to them throughout the whole day, as they break your concentration).
  • If you work in a noisy environment, invest in good noise-canceling headphones.

Time management mistake #5: Procrastinating

What causes procrastination? It’s not “just being lazy”, often there’s a bigger reason — usually perfectionism and/or being afraid of failure.

Tips on what to do when you are procrastinating

There are several ways to approach procrastination, depending on the cause of it.

Here are our suggestions to beat procrastination:

  • Accept that done is better than perfect

It’s probably easier said than done. However, nothing we ever do will be perfect, so it’s better to accept it sooner rather than later. That doesn’t mean we should stop putting effort into our work. It means we should stop endlessly fixing it, stressing over every detail, or not even beginning because we’re scared it won’t turn out exactly as we imagined.

  • Break down big projects into small steps

Sometimes we procrastinate because we’re overwhelmed, and we put off starting because it seems like too much work. 

But, when you break down your projects into smaller tasks, they seem much more doable. Just try focusing on one task at a time, and it won’t be nearly as scary.

  • Ask for feedback

Do you procrastinate because you’re not sure if you’re able to complete the project successfully, or if you’re skilled enough for it? Ask your manager or a trusted person from your team for feedback every now and then to make sure you’re going in the right direction. Be open to advice and criticism and use them as learning opportunities.

Time management mistake #6: Thinking busy and productive are the same

Do you equal being busy with being productive? Spending a lot of time working with getting a lot of things done? Do you think there’s no difference between working hard and working smart?

Contrary to popular belief, being busy and being productive are actually not the same. Thus, you can work the whole day only to realize that you haven’t accomplished anything significant. 

Tips on what to do when you are confusing being busy with being productive

Here are some applicable tips that may help you distinguish between being busy and productive once and for all:

  • Keep your goals in mind 

When you’re writing your to-do list, ask yourself: Will this task bring me closer to my goals? Is this important to me? Can I delegate this task? This way, you’ll have a clearer idea of what your goals are. 

  • Again — prioritize your work

If you have some minor tasks to do, do them towards the end of your workday. Don’t waste your brain’s prime time on them — use it wisely, for more important tasks.

  • Group tasks together

It’s wise to group tasks according to their complexity, type, or priority. This way, you don’t lose a lot of focus when you’re switching from task to task .

Time management mistake #7: Not taking breaks and time off work

Working all the time actually won’t make you more productive — it will only lead you to burnout.

Your mind needs to be well-rested and fresh so it can focus and be efficient. You do your job better when you’re not exhausted and sleep-deprived, believe it or not.

Tips on what to do when you are not taking breaks and time off work

The solution to this one is pretty obvious — take breaks and use your vacation days.

Prevent yourself from working outside your working hours and thinking about work when you’re not actually working. There’s more to life than productivity and making money.

Conclusion: Effective time management is beneficial to both your work and personal life

Building time management skills takes time and effort. It’s a process, but it’s worth it, as your life will become easier as you learn to manage your time better.

Make sure you’re: 

  • Planning your time, 
  • Setting clear goals, 
  • Setting priorities, and 
  • Minimizing procrastination. 

Also, don’t forget to:  

  • Do your best to avoid distractions, 
  • Take time off work, 
  • Accurately estimate your time, and 
  • Focus on being efficient instead of being busy.

This way, you’ll be able to avoid stressing over time but still manage to get everything done.

✉️ How would you rate your time management skills? What problems do you encounter while managing your time? Write to us at [email protected] for a chance to be featured in this or one of our future articles. Also, if you liked this article, share it with someone else you know will find it useful.

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Dunja is a content manager passionate about time management and self-improvement. After years of trying out all the productivity techniques she managed to come across, her goal become to share her knowledge and help others to become the best, most successful versions of themselves.

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Common Time Management Problems and Solutions

Common Time Management Problems and Solutions

How many times have you told yourself, “I want to excel in time management?” Probably too many to remember! Smart time management allows you to work smarter, not harder, which means you get to complete a project in less time.

Unfortunately, time is the only thing you can’t reverse, and if you want to accomplish more, you need to learn how to make the most of it. This article will name the most common time management problems and suggest a couple of solutions. Make sure to save this list to go through it whenever you feel the need for additional time management ideas.

Why do we fail to manage time?

You would be surprised to know how easy it is to fail at time management. Do you always have that nagging feeling that you have forgotten an important piece of work? If that’s the case, you probably failed to use a to-do list or never used it effectively.

The trick lies in prioritizing the tasks , and many project managers apply A-F coding system, A for high priority items, and F for less important. Alternatively, you could use numbers or other letters.

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If you have many projects on your to-do list, their descriptions can be ineffective and vague if you aren’t careful enough. For instance, you might have written down “start planning the budget,” but what does that mean? Without necessary details, you might miss key steps or procrastinate.

As you can see, the main reason why we fail to manage time is that we don’t have a system put up in place. There are a couple of strategies or solutions project managers can use to avoid time management issues.

The effects of poor time management

Low quality of work: when trying to finish a job at the last minute, you are more likely to sacrifice the quality of your work for speed. You can easily avoid this by setting some time aside to go through any last-minute changes or mistakes at the end of each day.

Missed deadlines: this can happen to the best project managers, and sometimes you will take on too much work, which will lead to missed deadlines. It’s essential to keep your schedule in check and delegate or cut out unnecessary tasks .

Bad working relationships: your poor time management skills could potentially affect your coworkers, for instance, when you are late for a meeting. Planning is a must if you want to avoid awkward situations. Always plan enough time for correction at work.

Procrastination : we are all guilty of pushing off work to the last minute. If you have trouble getting started, sometimes all it takes is a little push. For example, if you want to start exercising and going to the gym, you just need to leave your house. You can apply the same rule to your work. Don’t postpone things just because you have a hard time getting started.

Lack of sleep: are working hours affecting your sleeping habits? While not everyone is a morning person, and you might be more comfortable with alternative working hours, try to maintain a consistent sleep schedule.

Common time management mistakes

Not prioritizing. Identifying and focusing on top priority tasks can be challenging because it requires a certain level of dedication. For instance, let’s say you just started working on a high-priority task. In the middle of a brainstorming session, your coworker steals your attention by pointing out that you need to focus on another pressing matter.

Getting a late start. All your efforts to complete tasks on time will fail if you don’t start your day early. Even the most influential leaders and CEOs follow this unwritten rule, and starting your day early will ensure you don’t have to rush through tasks to complete everything on time.

Not scheduling tasks effectively. While our productivity level changes during the day, it can significantly vary from one person to another as well. Even though some people are at the peak of their productivity when they wake up, others not so much. The easiest way to balance your time is to discover your peak and leave it for top-priority tasks.

Failing to avoid distractions. Even though various social media platforms and communication channels allow you to stay connected and communicate more efficiently, they are also a major distraction.

Not making the correct estimate. One of the most common problems many project managers face is miscalculating the time and energy needed to complete the task. This behavior is typical for overachievers who believe that everything is under their control.

The solution for poor time management

One way to improve poor time management skills is to make a schedule and stick to it. For example, you could start planning your time days or weeks in advance. While there will always be time management challenges and surprises, it’s better to have an idea of the tasks and responsibilities you have to deal with every day.

Next on your list should be prioritizing. If you want to execute any project successfully, you have to decide which components and strategies are crucial to your business and whether they will have short-term or long-term effects.

Make sure to establish some boundaries. Let your team know that you are focusing on your tasks and aren’t available during specific hours. They can’t read your mind, so set up boundaries when necessary.

Go for good distractions because regardless of how hard you try, you will get distracted here and there. Additionally, no one can work for hours without a break. The best solution would be to accept distractions and try to pencil them into your schedule.

Time management strategies

To avoid time management obstacles, you need to accept strategies that will improve your time management skills fully. As you will soon discover, the hardest workers aren’t always the best managers.

That’s why following time management strategies include incorporating tactics into your working routine. On top of that, you need to carefully balance and manage time wisely to get everything done, but without putting too much pressure on yourself. Here are a couple of strategies you might find beneficial:

  • Keep in mind that you aren’t perfect.
  • Plan each day, don’t make excuses.
  • Prioritize your daily, weekly, and monthly tasks.
  • Don’t be afraid to use time management tools.
  • Don’t multitask.
  • Find out when you are most productive.
  • Avoid distractions or try to remove them.
  • Use a timer.
  • Divide massive projects into pieces.
  • Learn when to say no.
  • Delegate when you can.
  • Take a break and charge your batteries.

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How to Get Better at Time Management and Problem Solving

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Top 10 time management activities and games for productivity

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Looking for the best time management activities for your team? 

With only twenty-four hours per day, it can be challenging to complete all routine activities on our daily schedule — especially when we spend a lot of time on social media.

So how can you manage your busy schedule?

Simple: with effective time management . 

Like any skill, time management can be improved, and efficient management can have compounding effects on both your personal and professional life. 

In this article, you’ll learn how to tackle your list of tasks and beat time wasters with some simple yet effective time management techniques and activities.

This article contains:

(click on the links to jump to a section)

What is time management?

  • What are the benefits of time management? 
  • Offline time management activities
  • Online time management activities

Let’s get started.

Time management strategies involve planning your available time and being aware of the amount of time you spend on each task. 

Time management can have a tremendous effect on your life. With effective time management, you’ll be able to complete each task more quickly and to the required standards. 

It’ll increase your value to the company and can be essential in furthering your career, especially when your performance review comes around.

For your company as a whole, time management can aid in the growth of the business by freeing up extra time to capitalize on available opportunities (sales, marketing, networking, etc.) 

However, it can be challenging to get employees to better manage their time. 

With different personalities responding to different methods, lecturing your employees on time management may not be the best idea. 

Instead, involve your employees in some fun and effective time management activities.

What are the benefits of time management?

Here are three key benefits of having a firmer grasp on the management of your time:

1. Relieves stress 

By employing practical time management skills, you’ll get more done during the workday. 

You won’t need to pull all-nighters to meet deadlines and can even steer clear of time wasters . As a result, your quality of work will gradually improve — without having to stress about deadlines.

2. Improves your decision-making ability 

Having solid time management skills can improve your ability to make the right decisions. This can boost your control over your life and provide opportunities to achieve your career goals .

3. Enhances your work/life balance

By completing each task more efficiently, you’ll have more time for yourself. You’ll be able to focus on your family life and personal relationships. Which, in turn, will improve your overall happiness and productivity.

Top 10 time management activities

There are two different types of time management activities you should consider: offline and online. Let’s take a look at both of them:

A. Offline time management activities

Best done in the office, offline time management activities boost employees’ productivity by improving their time management skills. This way, they’ll be able to knock off items on their daily task list much faster.

Here’s a quick look at some great offline activities:

1. The big picture puzzle challenge

big picture puzzle challenge

Jigsaw puzzles are proven to be excellent team-building and problem-solving exercises and can be adapted to be an effective time management game too. 

Here’s how this fun activity works: 

Step 1 : Divide your group into several smaller teams.

Step 2: Give each team a puzzle of similar difficulty without showing them what the completed image (“big picture”) looks like .

Step 3: Teams must work together to finish the puzzle without an idea of the final image.

Step 4: Managers should watch as teams try to complete the puzzle.

Step 5: Ask them to stop after a set time, and then explain the importance of having a ‘big picture’ in place.

You can play a Jigsaw puzzle online on  I’m a Puzzle .

This activity is designed to give employees an idea of the importance of planning and how having an idea of the bigger picture can help them prioritize and achieve goals.

2. Finding the ace of spades

ace of spades

Finding the Ace of Spades is a time management activity best suited for a small group. Two individuals, one team leader, and some decks of cards are required for this activity. 

Here’s how it works: 

Step 1: Shuffle one pack of cards so they’re random, and organize the other in ascending order.

Step 2: Give each player a pack of cards.

Step 3: Players must try to find the Ace of Spades in the deck as quickly as possible.

Step 4: The player with the organized deck will find the challenge much easier than the player with the mixed deck.

This activity highlights the importance of:

  • Spending a little time organizing a schedule for the day.
  • Improving productivity by tackling priority tasks first.

3. Circadian rhythm 

circadian rhythm

Different team members might be productive at different times.

The goal of the Circadian Rhythm activity is to help your employees synchronize their body clock ( circadian clock) with their work. This way, they’ll be able to identify specific times that’s best for them to do a specific activity. 

Here’s how it works:

Step 1: Ask each team member to write down their daily routine on a piece of paper, beginning from when they wake up to when they go to bed.

Step 2: Players must then label the hourly blocks with the headings like on fire, vibrant, cruise control, at 70%, distracted, slowing down, tired , and hungry to indicate how they feel during certain times of the day.

Step 3: Employees assign hourly blocks to time management. 

Step 4: Discuss the following points: 

  • When do you get the most work done? 
  • At which time are you most distracted?
  • At which time of the day is it better to tackle a specific task?
  • When is it the best time to take a break?
  • Which team members have similar productivity hours?

The activity can help build teams with similar work/non-productive time while improving communication — as employees get to know each other. 

The circadian time management exercise also effectively helps people determine when they are at their ideal energy level. This way, they can schedule their time well and complete the most important thing first.

4. The blind polygon

the blind polygon

The Blind Polygon is an excellent activity or icebreaker for helping your employees cope when working in new groups or projects. It requires one leader and several smaller groups. 

Step 1: Blindfold each player and give the team a length of rope.

Step 2: Groups fold or adjust the rope into a shape specified by the leader, like a rectangle.

Step 3: The team leader should set a time limit.

Step 4: No one may remove the blindfold, and every individual must be touching the rope at all times.

Step 5: Give the groups some time to make their shape.

Step 6: Once the time is up, let the groups look at their shapes before tackling it again.

The activity is excellent for team-building and forces groups to analyze how they handle a task within a set timeframe. 

Initially, employees might perform poorly. But once they develop the required critical thinking and analytical skills, their performance will gradually improve. 

writing down

The $86,400 time management activity is excellent for changing how your employees perceive time. This can be demonstrated individually or in groups. 

Step 1: Ask each person or group, ‘If you had $86,400 only for a day, how would you spend it?’

Step 2: Tell them to write down a schedule of their day. Ask them what they would spend on and when.

Step 3: Explain to them that they can’t bank the money, and it doesn’t carry over. Anything that they haven’t assigned to be spent over twenty-four hours is gone.

This activity is a visual representation of time, as there are 86,400 seconds in a day.

It shows the importance of time by making employees more aware of the limited time they have. This helps them understand how to prioritize and complete important tasks first. 

6. Colored blocks 

colored blocks

All that’s required for this activity is a set of colored blocks . The amount of blocks you need depends on how many people are playing the game. 

Step 1: Place the colored blocks on a table and explain to the participants that they must pick up as many blocks as they can in one minute.

Step 2: Participants can only use their non-dominant hand, and they may only pick up one block at a time.

Step 3: Once the time is up, give each participant a point for every block they have and write down the results.

Step 4: Spread the blocks on the table again, this time assigning a point value to each color, and repeat the exercise, marking the points on a separate sheet.

Step 5: Employees will have to think about the number of blocks they can collect and the number of points associated with each block.

This activity is great for:

  • Teaching the importance of good organizational skills.
  • Demonstrating the value of doing important tasks first. 
  • Showing how planning can help them finish their to do list quicker.

7. The mayo jar lesson

container jar

The Mayo Jar Lesson is often used as a demonstration to highlight the value of time to kids and college students. However, it can be conducted as a great office team activity too. 

Step 1: Assemble the following items:

  • A large jar, like a mayo jar
  • Some large rocks or shells
  • Gravel 

Step 2: Fill the jar with the rocks first.

Step 3: Ask the group if the jar is full, they’ll likely say yes.

Step 4: Fill the jar with the gravel and sand.

The jar represents your life, and the rocks are your most important things — like your family, health, work, and so on. The gravel represents things like your house and car, and the sand represents everything else. 

Which objects you put in first determines how many of the other items you can include. 

It highlights the importance of prioritizing each urgent task and getting those done first; otherwise, we may not have time for the smaller tasks. 

B. Online time management activities

Video games have become great tools useful for improving cognitive functions. Some games can teach organizational and business skills, and more importantly, time management. 

Here are some online time management games that can help improve your time management skills:

1. Overcooked!

overcooked game

The basic premise of Overcooked! is to serve your restaurant’s customers while dealing with events that create ridiculously stressful situations. 

The game provides numerous obstacles and lots of recipes. It’s a great tool to teach time management and multitasking. 

Here’s what else you can learn from this game: 

  • Team coordination and organization as the game throws multiple tasks at the player.
  • Quick decision making as players have to deal with random events like portals, fires, and moving floors.
  • Dealing with time constraints, as every level is timed.

2. Game Dev Story

game dev story

In this game, you play as a video game developer in charge of making new games and consoles in your startup. You need to juggle between hiring new developers, developing each new game, and dealing with critics. 

Having to juggle so many tasks at once, demonstrates the value of prioritization . 

The app is also great for teaching: 

  • Leadership skills: The player is placed in the role of the boss and is in control of workers, project management, and hiring of new employees.
  • Business skills: The player has to analyze new products’ profit potential and handle the advertising and sales operations.

3. 12 Labors of Hercules

12 labors of hercules

Players take the role of the Greek God, Hercules, and must complete his 12 labors. One such labor includes battling the Nemean Lion and the Lernean Hydra to rescue Hercules’s wife from Hades. 

 The game is excellent for teaching:

  • Timing skills, as you have to complete each task in a certain amount of time to collect stars.
  • Quick decision making, as players will be faced with various obstacles.
  • Critical thinking, as players will need to determine which task to complete and in which order.

Final thoughts  

Time management is an important skill, not just to individuals but to businesses as a whole. And like any skill, time management can be improved with practice.

While there are plenty of useful time management tips on the internet, sometimes, showing is better than telling.

Try these different management activities, and help your employees make the most of their day and avoid procrastination. And more importantly, have fun!

Time Doctor - start a free trial

Liam Martin is a co-founder of Time Doctor which is software to improve productivity and help keep track and know what your team is working on, even when working from home.

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Essential Tools: Organization Prioritization, Time Management, Decision Making and Problem Solving

Learning Objectives:

  • Build trust through productive organization, prioritization, and time management
  • Identify strategies to increase organization and prioritization
  • Manage commitments to build trust and respect with peers and supervisors
  • Choose appropriate strategies and make sound and well-grounded decisions

Watch these videos on time management :

http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=Most+Popular+Time+Management+Funny&Form=VQFRVP#view=detail&mid=ED2A635BF1F59E96BB81ED2A635BF1F59E96BB81 time management techniques

https://youtu.be/0245yIOjdDk    Eisenhower matrix

https://youtu.be/tT89OZ7TNwc    Eisenhower matrix

Watch the Jar of Life Video—setting priorities :

https://youtu.be/v5ZvL4as2y0    Rocks, pebbles, sand story

Watch these videos on decision making :

https://youtu.be/lm9gOxnX5XM    Big Bang Theory decision making; funny

https://youtu.be/VrSUe_m19FY decision making – take action; funny

Making and Keeping Commitments

Our relationships with other people are vital to our effective participation in the world. We live in a world of engagement and the language we choose to use creates a power that ripples outwards. Somewhat similar to the reaction that occurs when we drop a pebble in a pond. We use language to not only describe our world but to create it. And effective communication, including keeping our commitments is central to that. Keeping commitments is a crucial factor for every family, friendship or partnership, and for every team, association, or organization. Every one of these groups is comprised of us, and others, engaging in a continuing cycle of conversations and commitments

Of all the types of conversations we have, the most potent and productive is when we make an offer to another, or when we request a commitment from another. And when that offer or request is accepted this can be characterized as ‘The Promise Cycle’ .  This simple act of making and managing promises then creates a mutual commitment from one person to another to take a specific future action.

And the responsibility that accompanies a promise is to do ‘what’ we said we would do, do it to the ‘standard’ to which we committed, and to do it at the ‘time’ we committed to. In other words, we must deliver what we promise, to the standard we promise and when we promise. The effectiveness of this process relies on the clarity of the conditions. In other words, how well formed and well expressed the commitment is, and how well it’s understood by both people.

The promise cycle can be described this way. It occurs when you offer to do something for another as an: Offer + Acceptance = Promise , or when another makes a request of you as a: Request + Acceptance = Promise . In life we bind ourselves to each other through promises and we begin to drift when we don’t deliver on those promises. Therefore the making and keeping of commitments is an important element of our communication. It determines predictability, certainty and continuity in all our various relationships.

Now imagine the profound impact that would occur in every aspect of life if all members of your family, your team, your associations, or your organization kept their commitments? Mutual trust would increase, and as a result efficiency, effectiveness and productivity would grow exponentially. Trust is central to our identity; such a simple process; such a profound impact. And In an organizational setting; understanding and using this process allows team and business leaders to develop a committed, collaborative, high- performance culture .

Reflection:

Now think of one instance in both your personal life and professional life where you have made a promise and delivered on that promise.

Then think of one instance in both your personal and professional life when you have made a promise and not delivered on that promise.

What were the implications and results?

Ada pted from: Robert Dunham, Institute for Generative Leadership, Boulder, CO   (C) 2015, Institute for Generative Leadership – http://generateleadership.com/

Excerpt from the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, 1989

Personal management has evolved in a pattern similar to many other areas of human endeavor. Major developmental thrusts, or ‘waves’ as Alvin Toffler calls them, follow each other in succession, each adding a vital new dimension.

Likewise, in the area of time management, each generation builds on the one before it – each one moves us toward greater control of our lives. The first wave or generation could be characterized by notes and checklists, an effort to give some semblance of recognition and inclusiveness to the many demands placed on our time and energy.

The second generation could be characterized by calendars and appointment books. This wave reflects an attempt to look ahead, to schedule events and activities in the future.

The third generation reflects the current time management field. It adds to those preceding generations the important idea of prioritization, of clarifying values, and of comparing the relative worth of activities based on their relationship to those values. In addition, it focuses on setting goals – specific long-, intermediate- and short-term targets toward which time and energy would be directed in harmony with values. It also includes the concept of daily planning, of making a specific plan to accomplish those goals and activities determined to be of greatest worth.

While the third generation has made a significant contribution, people have begun to realize that “efficient” scheduling and control of time are often counterproductive. The efficiency focus creates expectations that clash with the opportunities to develop rich relations, to meet human needs, and to enjoy spontaneous moments on a daily basis.

As a result, many people have become turned off by the time management programs and planner that make them feel too scheduled, too restricted, and they “throw the baby out with the bath water,” reverting to first or second generation techniques to preserve relationships, spontaneity, and quality of life.

But there is an emerging fourth generation that is different in kind. It recognizes that “time management” is really a misnomer – the challenge is not to manage time, but to manage ourselves. Satisfaction is a function of the expectation as well as realization. And expectation (and satisfaction) lies in our Circle of Influence.

Rather than focusing on things and time, fourth generation expectations focus on preserving and enhancing relationships and on accomplishing results – in short, on maintaining P/PC Balance [P stands for production of desired results and PC stands for the capacity to produce the desired results].

General Organizing Skills

Along with communication and computer skills, organizational skills are some of the most important transferable job skills a worker can possess. People need organizational skills at work to be more productive. Workers who know where to find notes or certain resources can save time. Therefore, they tend to get more done. There are a number of organizational skills for work, including those noted below.

Physical Organization

Clutter is often the culprit when it comes to disorganization in a work space. Make a point to clear out unneeded papers, file documents in the appropriate places and put unused supplies back in the supply closet. You don’t have to be a neat freak to be successful with physical organization. You might find that it fits your working style to designate a weekly session for busting through the accumulated clutter. Get into the habit of putting papers, gadgets, business cards, files, magazines, newspapers and supplies in their proper places. Throw away or shred items that are past their usable life.

Mental Organization

Keeping your mind organized can be a challenge when you are juggling the varied demands of performing a job. Prioritize projects and make to-do lists to keep yourself on track. Understand your personal working style and play to your strengths. Not everyone is cut out to be an accomplished multi-tasker. You might work best by focusing on finishing off one project at a time rather than balancing multiple tasks.

Planning is a needed workplace skill, and it is particularly important as person advances into more supervisory or managerial roles. Most work is centered on certain projects that must be completed within a specific time period. Projects are usually divided into many different tasks, and workers must plan their tasks ahead of time to bring the project to fruition. A person can also plan ahead in case certain problems come up that could potentially delay the project.

Set goals and outline the steps you need to take to reach them. Focus forward on goals that you may have set with your supervisor. Schedule time to work through the tasks involved so that you are making constant progress.

A goal is something you want to do, have or be or something your employer expects to happen over time.

The way you set your goals affects their effectiveness. Goal setting is deciding what you want to do, why you want to do it, when you are going to do it and how you are going to do it. Setting goals helps you to accomplish things which are important in both your work and home life. Plan the Plan and not the results. As you begin to think about your goals, keep the following things in mind.

  • Be Positive: have a good attitude
  • Be Realistic: know yourself and your comfort level
  • Set Deadlines: be realistic so you don’t become frustrated
  • Prioritize: make lists, break things into smaller pieces
  • Write down your goals & keep them visible: this will help you stay on task
  • Make your goals small and achievable : for better success
  • List your values : What’s important to you?
  • Plan for the future and place yourself there: visualize, fantasize

  Time Management

Having good organizational skills is about making the best use of your time. Being organize reduces the amount of time you have to dig to uncover important work related information. Understand where your time goes. For example, if you check email every five minutes, you might want to create a twice-a-day email schedule to more effectively handle your inbox. Maintain a calendar so you don’t miss important deadlines.

Thinking about time management can generate many questions for exploration and reflection.

Do we manage time or manage capacity? Do we manage time or manage our values and what we care about? Do we manage time or manage our choices? Do we manage tasks or manage outcomes? Do we manage our time or our energy?

Use of time is clearly a choice. When those choices lack grounding in a larger purpose and clear discernment of what we care about and what’s really important, the choices of how we spend our time can sometimes fail to deliver purposeful outcomes.

Taking time to consider at a more than superficial level what we care about and centering our focus on those cares generates different outcomes. Those who are grounded in a clear purpose and who allow that purpose to drive conversations for action and commitments make different choices that enable personal as well as customer satisfaction. These commitments are grounded in outcomes that matter rather than task completion. Spending time on tasks without connection to a greater purpose can cause frustration, a sense of overwhelm energy depletion, disappointment, exhaustion, and loss of clear direction.

Meeting Deadlines

One of the most important organizational skills is the ability to meet deadlines and use time wisely. It usually takes a little experience before an individual can properly assign tasks, allocate resources and complete a project on time. Meeting deadlines requires time management skills, which is an important organizational skill itself

Employees need time management organizational skills to keep track of meetings, appointments, tasks and deadlines. Time management skills will help you stay on schedule with everything you do. Time management skills will also help you avoid the last minute rush to complete tasks, eliminating potential stress in the process

Tracking Tasks

Organizational skills are needed to keep track of projects. Finding a way to track tasks will help keep you ahead of the game. Projects require a lot of individual tasks. These tasks need to be completed on time to reach the project deadline. If you work with project deadlines, use a project log to keep track of your progress. You can keep the project log on file in your computer or on paper. There is no right way. The important point is to do it to simplify your life as well as that of others.

Good organizational skills can help lead to success through many paths. Time is money. Organization saves time by keeping valuable data easily accessible, goals in focus and everyone on the same page. Employees who have good organizational skills are efficient at covering the demands of their jobs. This directly relates to a company’s bottom line. Poor organization leads to frustration on the part of a business owner, employees and customers. Keep an orderly office, work space, computer and mind to cultivate an environment that is focused on meeting business goals in a timely manner.

Organizational Skills: Prioritization

Prioritization is a valuable organizational skill. Some tasks may require immediate attention, others can wait. This skill set is closely linked to time management. We only have a limited amount of time to utilize during our workday, so place those tasks that have to be completed first at the head of a list. In the military, on the battlefield, doctors apply the organizational skill of “triage”; injured soldiers are placed into one of three categories, since it is physically impossible for the doctor to get to everyone at once. Wounded soldiers who are going to die, no matter what is done to them, are placed in one category. Soldiers who have serious, but non-life-threatening injuries, go into another category. Finally, those soldiers who require immediate attention and can be saved go into the third category. This is prioritization.

Organizational skills such as prioritization, organizing the workspace, time management , form the core basis of good organizational habits. Practical organizational skills include wise planning, time optimization, detail orientation, and prioritization . Last, but not least, would be to relieve stress ! A stressed out worker makes more mistakes, and may say something to a co-worker or subordinate in the “heat of the moment”, that they will later regret! Do whatever it takes for you personally to be relaxed, yet professional, in making your business decisions and conducting efficient operations. Implementing these organizational skills will contribute to a healthy work environment.

There are five steps to prioritizing your work

  • Think about what needs to be done– First, think about what needs to be done. How do you juggle (prioritize) your daily activities? Make a list of daily activities, and think about how you work to accomplish them.
  • Decide and prioritize what to do– Now it is time to decide which goals are important to you, and how you can achieve them. Before you do, remember that relaxation is a key. How do you relax? Have you given yourself time to relax? What do you do to relax? Before you continue, think about relaxing and make a list of the things you do to relax. As you plan your day, allow time for yourself to relax and refresh.

By now, you have an idea of your goals. You should also have a list of how you organize your daily life and what your work style is. As a reminder, this list should tell you the following:

  • What your distractions are
  • When do you work best
  • What are your daily activities (commitments) are
  • When you work best

Keep your list in mind as you begin to set goals, break the goal into manageable pieces, order (prioritize) those pieces and achieve your goal. Learn to say no to distractions and extra demands on your time. Saying no can be difficult at first, but as you prioritize and work to achieve your goals you will see how important this can be.

  • Monitor and Evaluate : How am I doing? It is important to think about what you do while you do it.

It takes commitment to design a plan and stick to it. Remind yourself often of your objectives. Write short lists or put up photographs or articles to help remind you of our goal and your progress.

If you keep veering from the goal, maybe the objective is not something you want badly enough. If so, change it. Be flexible. Setting and achieving goals is a lifelong process. Set new objectives that are consistent with who you are and what you want. Objectives may change over time.

Here are some suggestions for monitoring and evaluating the way you work. Ask yourself the following questions:

  • What am I doing well?
  • What could I improve?
  • What are the opportunities facing you?
  • What is getting in your way?
  • Practice Prioritizing —Write a list of things you need to accomplish. Decide what is most important and most urgent.       Prioritize list in order of importance Then, breakdown each item into a list of tasks that need to happen to complete it. Check off the tasks as you complete them.
  • Reward Yourself — Celebrate when you have completed your task.

Set up a reward system for yourself. It may be calling a friend, reading a couple of chapters of your favorite book, taking a bubble bath, shooting a few hoops, or taking a walk. Whatever it is should be meaningful to you.

Time Management: The Eisenhower Method

The Eisenhower Method helps you decide which action you should or shouldn’t do. It aids you to divide actions into one of four categories. The quadrants are divided by importance and urgency.

“What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

How to Use the Eisenhower Method

Using the Eisenhower quadrant is very easy. You pick an item from your to-do list and ask yourself these two questions.

  • “Is it urgent?”
  • “Is it important?”

You can now put the action into the correct quadrant.

Below is an explanation of each quadrant.

  • Not Urgent and Not Important Examples:
  • Time wasters (Ex: Facebook, checking e-mails all the time…)
  • Busy work (Ex: Work that doesn’t need to be done)
  • Procrastinating

You should not spend any time on activities in this quadrant. When is something not important? If it doesn’t progress you toward your goals, then why should you spend time doing it?

When is something not urgent? If it doesn’t matter when it is done, then it’s not urgent. It can be done today, or it can be done next week or even next year, it doesn’t matter.

The combination of not urgent and not important is the worst quadrant to spend your time in. Decrease your time in this quadrant and put it somewhere else. I prefer you put it in ‘not urgent and important’ .

  • Urgent and Not Important
  • Answering e-mails
  • Incoming phone calls
  • Interrupting colleagues

Since the tasks are still not important and you’re still not progressing towards your goals’ it’s better to not spend time here either. However, these tasks are urgent, therefore you can’t schedule them. They’re also hard to ignore, since urgent action often demands attention. Ex: A phone call or an interrupting colleague. Find a way to deal with these as quickly as possible.

  • Urgent and Important
  • Emergencies
  • Troubleshooting

You have to do these actions. They’re important. They progress you toward your goals, however, since they’re urgent, they’re often unplanned and unwanted.

You will always spend some time here, since emergencies will always happen. When they do, you have to deal with them. No excuses. After you deal with the situation, spend time to make sure it never happens again, minimize its occurrence or make preparations for when it happens again.

  • Not Urgent and Important
  • Building quality relationships with other people
  • Doing actual work to progress toward a major goal
  • Physical exercise

This is the quadrant in which you should spent most of your time. Most people however, don’t do this and spend most of their time in any of the other quadrants. Because these important tasks don’t scream to you like a ringing phone, they’re often neglected in favor of more urgent matters.

If you spend almost no time here, then your first important task is to save some time each day to work on the important things.

Urgent activities are often the ones we concentrate on and often forget about really important ones. If you spend all of your time concentrating on the urgent and important tasks you will just be firefighting. Managing time effectively, and achieving the things that you want to achieve, means spending your time on things that are important and not just urgent.

We can categorize tasks on two scales according to their importance and urgency. Making 4 categories and placing them in matrix known also as Time Matrix below.

time matrix

What is Decision Making?

People often find it hard to make decisions – inevitably we all have to make decisions all the time, some are more important than others.

Some people put off making decisions by endlessly searching for more information or getting other people to offer their recommendations.  Others resort to decision making by taking a vote, sticking a pin in a list or tossing a coin.

Regardless of the effort that is put into making a decision, it has to be accepted that some decisions will not be the best possible choice.  This page examines one technique that can be used for effective decision making and that should help you to make effective decisions now and in the future.

Although the following technique is designed for an organisational or group structure, it can be easily adapted to an individual level.

In its simplest sense: ‘ Decision Making is the act of choosing between two or more courses of action ‘.   However, it must always be remembered that there may not always be a ‘correct’ decision among the available choices.

There may have been a better choice that had not been considered, or the right information may not have been available at the time.  Because of this, it is important to keep a record of all important decisions and the reasons why these decisions were made, so that improvements can be made in the future.  This also provides justification for any decision taken when something goes wrong.

Hindsight might not be able to correct past mistakes, but it will aid improved decision making in the future.

Effective Decision Making

Although decisions can be made using either intuition or reasoning, a combination of both approaches is often used.  Whatever approach is used, it is usually helpful to structure decision making in order to:

  • Reduce more complicated decisions down to simpler steps.
  • See how any decisions are arrived at.
  • Plan decision making to meet deadlines.

Stages of Decision Making

In psychology, decision-making is regarded as the cognitive process resulting in the selection of a belief or a course of action among several alternative possibilities. Every decision-making process produces a final choice that may or may not prompt action. Decision-making is the study of identifying and choosing alternatives based on the values and preferences of the decision maker. Decision-making is one of the central activities of management and is a huge part of any process of implementation.

Many different techniques of decision making have been developed, ranging from simple rules of thumb, to extremely complex procedures.  The method used depends on the nature of the decision to be made and how complex it is.

The method described here follows seven stages:

  • Listing all possible solutions/options.
  • Setting a time scale and deciding who is responsible for the decision.
  • Information gathering.
  • Weighing up the risks involved.
  • Deciding on values, or in other words what is important.
  • Weighing up the pros and cons of each course of action.
  • Making the decision.
  •  Listing Possible Solutions/Options

In order to come up with a list of all the possible solutions and/or options available it is usually appropriate to work on a group (or individual) problem-solving process. This process, could include brainstorming or some other ‘idea generating’ process (see our page: Problem Solving for more information). 

This stage is important to the overall decision making processes as a decision will be made from a selection of fixed choices.  Always remember to consider the possibility of not making a decision or doing nothing and be aware that both options are actually potential solutions in themselves.

  • Setting a Time Period and Deciding Who is Responsible for the Decision

In deciding how much time to make available for the decision making process, it helps to consider the following:

  • How much time is available to spend on this decision?
  • Is there a deadline for making a decision and what are the consequences of missing this deadline?
  • Is there an advantage in making a quick decision?
  • How important is it to make a decision?  How important is it that the decision is right?
  • Will spending more time improve the quality of the decision?

Responsibility for the Decision

Before making a decision, it needs to be clear who is going to take responsibility for the decision.  Remember that it is not always those making the decision who have to assume responsibility for it.  Is it an individual, a group or an organisation?  This is a key question because the degree to which responsibility for a decision is shared can greatly influence how much risk people are willing to take.

If the decision making is for work then it is helpful to consider the structure of the organization that you are in.  Is the individual responsible for the decisions he or she makes or does the organization hold ultimate responsibility?  Who has to carry out the course of action decided?  Who will it affect if something goes wrong?  Are you willing to take responsibility for a mistake?

Finally, you need to know who can actually make the decision.  When helping a friend, colleague or client to reach a decision, in most circumstances the final decision and responsibility will be taken by them.  Whenever possible, and if it is not obvious, it is better to make a formal decision as to who is responsible for a decision.  This idea of responsibility also highlights the need to keep a record of how any decision was made, what information it was based on and who was involved.  Enough information needs to be kept to justify that decision in the future so that, if something does go wrong, it is possible to show that your decision was reasonable in the circumstance and given the knowledge you held at the time.

3.  Information Gathering

Before starting on the process of making a decision, all relevant information needs to be gathered.

If there is inadequate or out-dated information then it is more likely that a wrong decision might be made.  Also, if there is a lot of irrelevant information then the decision will be difficult to make, it will be easier to become distracted by unnecessary factors.

There is a need for up-to-date, accurate information on which to make decisions.  Such information needs to be gathered so that a well-informed decision can be made.  The amount of time spent on information gathering has to be weighed against how much you are willing to risk making the wrong decision.  In a group situation, such as at work, it may be appropriate for different people to research different aspects of the information required.

  • Weighing up the Risks Involved

One key question is how much risk should be taken in making the decision? Generally, the amount of risk an individual is willing to take depends on:

  • The seriousness of the consequences of taking the wrong decision.
  • The benefits of making the right decision.
  • Not only how bad the worst outcome might be, but also how likely that outcome is to happen.

It is also useful to consider what the risk of the worst possible outcome occurring might be, and to decide if the risk is acceptable.  The choice can be between going ‘all out for success’ or taking a safe decision.

  • Deciding on Values

Everybody has their own unique set of values – what they believe to be important.

Many people decide to buy a car for themselves but different people buy different cars based on their own personal values.  One person might feel that price is the most important feature, whereas another person might be more concerned with its speed and performance.  Others might value safety, luggage space or the cars impact on the environment or a combination of these features.

Depending on which values are considered important, different opinions may seem more or less attractive.  If the responsibility for a decision is shared it is possible that one person might not have the same values as the others.  In such cases, it is important to obtain a consensus as to which values are to be given the most weight.  It is important that the values on which a decision is made are understood because they will have a strong influence on the final choice.

People do not make decisions based on just one of their values.  They will consider all their values which are relevant to the decision and prioritise them in order of importance. If you were to buy a car, what would be the five most important factors to you?

  • Weighing the Pros and Cons

It is possible to evaluate the pros and cons of each possible solution/option by considering the possible advantages and disadvantages. 

One aid to evaluating any solution/option is to use a ‘balance sheet’, weighing up the pros and cons (benefits and costs) associated with that solution. Having listed the pros and cons, it may be possible to immediately decide whether the option is viable.

However, it may be useful to rate each of the pros and cons on a simple 1 to 10 scale (with 10 high – most important to 1 low – least important):

In scoring each of the pros and cons it helps to take into account how important each item on the list is in meeting values.  This balance sheet approach allows both the information to be taken into account as well as the values, and presents them in a clear and straight forward manner.

  • Making the Decision

There are many techniques that can be used to help in reaching a decision.  The pros and cons method (as above) is just one way of evaluating each of the possible solutions/options available.

There are other techniques which allow for more direct comparisons between possible solutions.  These are more complicated and generally involve a certain amount of calculation.  These can be particularly helpful when it is necessary to weigh a number of conflicting values and options.

For example, how would you decide between a cheap to buy but expensive to run car and another more expensive car that is more economical to keep on the road?

Intuitive Judgments:   In addition to making reasoned decisions using the techniques shown above, in many cases people use an intuitive approach to decision making.  When making a decision many influences, which have not been considered, may play a part.  For example, prejudice or wishful thinking might affect judgment.  Reliance is often placed on past experience without consideration of past mistakes.  Making a decision using intuition alone should be an option and not done merely because it is the easy way out, or other methods are more difficult.

Intuition is a perfectly acceptable means of making a decision, although it is generally more appropriate when the decision is of a simple nature or needs to be made quickly.  More complicated decisions tend to require a more formal, structured approach.  It is important to be wary of impulsive reactions to a situation and remember to keep a record of the decision for future reference, no matter whether the decision was made intuitively or after taking a reasoned approach.

If possible, it is best to allow time to reflect on a decision once it has been reached.  It is preferable to sleep on it before announcing it to others.  Once a decision is made public, it is very difficult to change.

Decision making is the act of choosing between a number of alternatives.  In the wider process of problem solving, decision making involves choosing between possible solutions to a problem.  Decisions can be made through either an intuitive or reasoned process, or a combination of the two.  There are usually a number of stages to any structured decision making.

You should always remember that no decision making technique should be used as an alternative to good judgement and clear thinking.  All decision making involves individual judgement, and systematic techniques are merely there to assist those judgements.

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Guidelines for Problem Solving and Decision Making

Much of what people do is solve problems and make decisions. Often, they are “under the gun”, stressed and very short of time. Consequently, when they encounter a new problem or decision they must make, they react with a decision that seemed to work before. It’s easy with this approach to get stuck in a circle of solving the same problem over and over again. Therefore, it’s often useful to get used to an organized approach to problem solving and decision making. Not all problems can be solved and decisions made by the following, rather rational approach. However, the following basic guidelines will get you started. Don’t be intimidated by the length of the list of guidelines. After you’ve practiced them a few times, they’ll become second nature to you — enough that you can deepen and enrich them to suit your own needs and nature.

(Note that it might be more your nature to view a “problem” as an “opportunity”. Therefore, you might substitute “problem” for “opportunity” in the following guidelines.)

  • Define the problem

This is often where people struggle. They react to what they think the problem is. Instead, seek to understand more about why you think there’s a problem.

Define the problem: (with input from yourself and others). Ask yourself and others, the following questions:

  • What can you see that causes you to think there’s a problem?
  • Where is it happening?
  • How is it happening?
  • When is it happening?
  • With whom is it happening? (HINT: Don’t jump to “Who is causing the problem?” When we’re stressed, blaming is often one of our first reactions. To be an effective manager, you need to address issues more than people.)
  • Why is it happening?
  • Write down a five-sentence description of the problem in terms of “The following should be happening, but isn’t …” or “The following is happening and should be: …” As much as possible, be specific in your description, including what is happening, where, how, with whom and why. (It may be helpful at this point to use a variety of research methods.

Defining complex problems:

If the problem still seems overwhelming, break it down by repeating steps 1-7 until you have descriptions of several related problems.

Verifying your understanding of the problems— it helps a great deal to verify your problem analysis for conferring with a peer or someone else.

Prioritize the problems— if you discover that you are looking at several related problems, then prioritize which ones you should address first.

Note the difference between “important” and “urgent” problems. Often, what we consider to be important problems to consider are really just urgent problems. Important problems deserve more attention. For example, if you’re continually answering “urgent” phone calls, then you’ve probably got a more “important” problem waiting.

Understand your role in the problem— your role in the problem can greatly influence how you perceive the role of others. For example, if you’re very stressed out, it’ll probably look like others are, too, or, you may resort too quickly to blaming and reprimanding others. Or, you are feeling very guilty about your role in the problem; you may ignore the accountabilities of others.

  • Look at potential causes for the problem
  • It’s amazing how much you don’t know about what you don’t know. Therefore, in this phase, it’s critical to get input from other people who notice the problem and who are affected by it.
  • It’s often useful to collect input from other individuals one at a time (at least at first). Otherwise, people tend to be inhibited about offering their impressions of the real causes of problems.
  • Write down what your opinions and what you’ve heard from others.
  • It’s often useful to seek advice from a peer or your supervisor in order to verify your impression of the problem.
  • Write down a description of the cause of the problem and in terms of what is happening, where, when, how, with whom and why.
  • Identify alternatives for approaches to resolve the problem

At this point, it’s useful to keep others involved (unless you’re facing a personal and/or other performance problem). Brainstorm for solutions to the problem. Very simply put, brainstorming is collecting as many ideas as possible, and then screening them to find the best idea. It’s critical when collecting the ideas to not pass any judgment on the ideas — just write them down as you hear them.

  • Select an approach to resolve the problem

When selecting the best approach, consider:

  • Which approach is the most likely to solve the problem for the long term?
  • Which approach is the most realistic to accomplish for now? Do you have the resources? Are they affordable? Do you have enough time to implement the approach?
  • What is the extent of risk associated with each alternative?

(The nature of this step, in particular, in the problem solving process is why problem solving and decision making are highly integrated.)

  • Plan the implementation of the best alternative (this is your action plan)
  • Carefully consider “What will the situation look like when the problem is solved?”
  • What steps should be taken to implement the best alternative to solving the problem? What systems or processes should be changed in your organization, for example, a new policy or procedure? Don’t resort to solutions where someone is “just going to try harder”.
  • How will you know if the steps are being followed or not? (these are your indicators of the success of your plan)
  • What resources will you need in terms of people, money and facilities?
  • How much time will you need to implement the solution? Write a schedule that includes the start and stop times, and when you expect to see certain indicators of success.
  • Who will primarily be responsible for ensuring implementation of the plan?
  • Write down the answers to the above questions and consider this as your action plan.
  • Communicate the plan to those involved in implementing it and, at least, to your immediate supervisor.

(An important aspect of this step in the problem-solving process is continual observation and feedback.)

  • Monitor implementation of the plan

Monitor the indicators of success:

  • Are you seeing what you would expect from the indicators?
  • Will the plan be done according to schedule?
  • If the plan is not being followed as expected, then consider: Was the plan realistic? Are there sufficient resources to accomplish the plan on schedule? Should more priority be placed on various aspects of the plan? Should the plan be changed?
  • Verify if the problem has been resolved or not

One of the best ways to verify if a problem has been solved is to return to normal. Watch to see that the solution implemented solved the problem. If not, revisit the process and make necessary corrections.

The Six Step Problem-solving Model

6-step model

Problem solving is the mental process you follow when you have a goal but can’t immediately understand how to achieve it. It’s a process that depends on you – how you perceive a problem, what you know about it, and the end-state you want to reach.

Solving a problem involves a number of cognitive activities:

  • determining what the problem really is
  • identifying the true causes of the problem and the opportunities for reaching a goal
  • generating creative solutions to the problem
  • evaluating and choosing the best solution, and
  • implementing the best solution, then monitoring your actions and the results to ensure the problem is solved successfully

Clearly, problem solving isn’t a one-step process. Your success will depend on whether you approach and implement each of the stages effectively. The best way to do this is to use a well-established, systematic problem-solving model.

The six steps of problem solving

Problems vary widely, and so do their solutions. Sometimes a problem and its solution are clear, but you don’t know how to get from point A to point B. At other times, you may find it hard to define what’s wrong or how to fix it. Regardless of what a problem is, you can use a six-step problem-solving model to address it. This model is highly flexible and can be adapted to suit various types of problems. It also comes with a flexible set of tools to use at each step. The model is designed to be followed one step at a time, but you may find that some stages don’t require as much attention as others. This will depend on your unique situation.

The steps in the problem-solving model are as follows:

Identify the problem – Defining the problem is a crucial step that involves digging deeper to identify what it is that needs to be solved. The more clearly a problem is defined, the easier you’ll find it to complete subsequent steps. A symptom is a phenomenon or circumstance that results from a deeper, underlying condition. It’s common to mistake symptoms for problems themselves – and so to waste a lot of time and effort on tackling consequences of problems instead of their causes. To define a problem, you can use gap analysis, which involves comparing your current state to the future state you want to be in, to identify the gaps between them.

Gather the data and analyze the problem – You decide what type of problem it is – whether there’s a clear barrier or circumstance you need to overcome, or whether you need to determine how to reach a goal. You then dig to the root causes of the problem, and detail the nature of the gap between where you are and where you want to be. The five-why analysis is a tool that’ll help you get to the heart of the problem. Ask “Why?” a number of times to dig through each layer of symptoms and so to arrive at the problem’s root cause. You can get to the root of a more complicated problem using a cause-and-effect diagram. A cause is something that produces an effect, result, or consequence – or what contributed to the current state of affairs. Categories of causes include people, time, and the environment.

Identify as many potential solutions as you can – Brainstorm creatively – ask lots of questions about who, what, where, when, and how of the causes to point to various possibilities. Don’t limit yourself by considering practicalities at this stage; simply record your ideas.

Select and plan the solution – In evaluating your ideas, more options could present themselves. You could do this by rating each possible solution you came up with in step 3 according to criteria such as how effective it will be, how much time or effort it will take, its cost, and how likely it is to satisfy stakeholders.

During the planning step, you determine what steps must be taken, designating tasks where necessary. And you decide on deadlines for completing the actions and estimate the costs of implementing them. You also create a contingency plan in case of unforeseen circumstances so that if anything goes wrong with your plan, you have a “plan B” in place. Typically, this stage involves narrowing down the possible ways to implement the solution you’ve chosen, based on any constraints that apply. You also should draw up an action plan. The complexity of the plan will depend on the situation, but it should include the who, what, and when of your proposed solution.

Implement the solution – This is an ongoing process. You need to ensure the required resources remain available and monitor progress in solving the problem; otherwise, all the work you’ve done might be for nothing.

Evaluate the results —Check to see that your gained a favorable outcome and continue to monitor over time. If the result is not exactly what you hoped for, evaluate the places that may have contributed to the lesser outcome, revise your plan and try again.

Remember that this model is highly adaptable. Although you shouldn’t skip any of the six steps, you can tailor the amount of time you spend on each stage based on the demands of your unique situation.

The six-step problem-solving model, and the tools it provides, is an effective, systematic approach to problem solving. By following each step consciously, you can ensure that generating solutions is a fact-driven, objective, and reliable process. It encourages you to dig deeper to the root cause, allows you to get input from others, to be creative when finding solutions, and to monitor your solutions to make sure they’re working. So by following this model you’re more likely to come up with good, original, lasting solutions.

To solve problems effectively, you need to use a good problem-solving model. The six-step model is a tried-and-tested approach. Its steps include defining a problem, analyzing the problem, identifying possible solutions, choosing the best solution, planning your course of action, and finally implementing the solution while monitoring its effectiveness.

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Michael W. Wiederman Ph.D.

The Psychology of Time Management and 5 Strategies

The answer isn’t more time or efficiency, but managing your natural tendencies..

Posted September 10, 2023 | Reviewed by Abigail Fagan

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  • Awareness is the first step to avoid the lure of task completion bias, multitasking, and the planning fallacy.

Do you feel as though you don’t have enough time to get everything done? It’s natural to think, “If I just had a little more time, or had less to do, or could get caught up, it wouldn’t be a problem.” Because time is the one “thing” that everyone has the same amount of, regardless of wealth or status, what varies is how much is expected (or demanded) from each of us during a designated span of time. Because time itself cannot be managed, it comes down to what you do in that designated span of time (behavior management ), and this is where psychology comes into play. A suite of psychological phenomena work in concert to undermine our sense of accomplishment and satisfaction with our time management .

Beware of Task Completion Bias

Let’s start with considering the large set of possible behaviors during our hypothetical span of time. We have our presumed large to-do list of things that need to get done now, soon, or at some future point. What do you tackle first? Chances are, smaller, easier tasks rise to the top. After all, you may be able to knock off the list several tasks in a relatively short period of time, so why not get those out of the way?

Psychologists refer to this tendency as task completion bias . Uncompleted tasks create psychological discomfort, and completing task provides relief, as well as a sense of accomplishment and a little hit of neurotransmitters that are reinforcing. It’s like scratching an instant lottery ticket and scoring a small prize – not going to change your life but provides a jolt of pleasure for the moment. So what’s the harm in starting with small tasks?

Much has been written about the daily flood of email, text, and other instant messages experienced by most people who work in offices. Responding to messages is just one example of small tasks that seem as though they have to be done, but a common and never-ending one. When you prioritize small tasks, the larger ones are delayed, sometimes indefinitely if there are no deadlines. The small tasks frequently seem urgent, and grab your attention , yet it is the larger tasks that are typically the most important for your success and satisfaction (though less urgent until a deadline looms).

The result is that we often fail to achieve the goals that most align with our values and sense of meaningful work (and recognition). Stuck on the treadmill of task completion bias, when the deadline for a larger, more complex task is soon approaching, we experience increased stress and the sense that there is never enough time.

Multitasking and the Enemy of Deep Work

The most important aspects of our work frequently require sustained attention or thought, which psychologists refer to as deep work . However, when stressed by too much to do, it is easy to be lured into multitasking. Unfortunately, a growing body of research consistently demonstrates the inefficiency and increased experience of stress that multitasking engenders. Perhaps even more troubling is that frequent multitasking and focusing our attention on small tasks trains the brain to function accordingly, making deep work more difficult over time.

Enter the Planning Fallacy

In addition to task completion bias and multitasking, other psychological factors may undermine prioritizing and successfully completing our important tasks. One is the human tendency to be overly optimistic in estimating how much time we have to work on something, as well as how long a task will take, a phenomenon psychologists refer to as the planning fallacy.

How many hours do you have to get work done at your job? A likely reply is “8 hours.” However, we know from experience that there will be interruptions, distractions, needed breaks, and so forth. Of the actual available work time, how much would you have available to work on something you prioritize? Whatever you answer, it is very likely too generous. One reason is that we tend to underestimate the nonproductive factors just mentioned, as well as unanticipated tasks and problems that pop up over the course of the day. And we tend to underestimate how long something will take to get done for the same reasons.

What Can You Do?

  • Start each day articulating the truly important things(s) to get done that day. Ask yourself, “If I could only work on one thing today, what should it be?” In this context, how do you define “important”? Consider nontraditional definitions such as, “most personally or professionally meaningful,” or “most likely to bring a sense of relief or a reduction in anxiety ,” or “having the largest or longest lasting impact.”
  • Break down larger tasks into defined achievable steps. Instead of planning time to “work on X,” specify a goal that can be identified as having been achieved. This way you are using task completion bias to your advantage. Reward yourself for completing that daily step.
  • Avoid the lure of multitasking and getting pulled into distractions and task completion bias. Schedule and protect blocks of time set aside for specific deep work, and alter your surroundings to minimize distractions and interruptions. This may include a sign on your door or cubicle, wearing headphones, and setting auto-replies that indicate when others might be able to expect a response to their messages.
  • Fight the planning fallacy. Estimate how much time you have for working on your designated task today, and how long it will take. Then cut the first one in half and double the second estimate. These revised estimates will not feel realistic, but track your actual experience during the course of the day and compare. Another fruitful strategy is to imagine that a coworker has the same designated task, and perform both estimates for that other person. These may still be overly optimistic, but they tend to be less so than personal estimates.
  • Anticipate interruptions and delays, and form simply behavioral responses. Psychologists refer to these little plans as implementation intentions , and they are highly effective at facilitating goal achievement. For example, “If a coworker interrupts my scheduled time to work on my priority task, I will explain and ask that we set a time to resume whatever they brought up.” Or, “While working on X, I will turn off my device notifications and not look at messages.”

problem solving time management

In the end, time management is not an all-or-nothing, or one-magic-strategy type of problem to be solved. Instead, like our other behaviors and life experiences, it is an ongoing dilemma to be managed. The process starts with raising awareness of your own tendencies, and experimenting with what works best for you. Hopefully the few psychological phenomena and strategies introduced here provide a fruitful starting place on your time management professional development path.

Michael W. Wiederman Ph.D.

Michael Wiederman, Ph.D., is a former clinical psychology professor who now works full-time applying psychology to the workplace.

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How to Improve Your Time Management for Better Mental Health

Learn how to improve your focus and time management to create an environment that is not only productive but also mentally healthy.

This article is based on reporting that features expert sources.

How to Improve Your Time Management

If you’re struggling to improve your time management skills, you’re not alone. Time management seems like one of those skills we should possess naturally, but most of us don’t. The end result? You end up feeling unfocused and unaccomplished by the end of your day. Over time, this can impact your mental health .

Poor time management could also affect your physical health: If you feel so overwhelmed, you don't get regular exercise or you're always downing fast food in a hurry.

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You can make an effort to improve your time management skills and your focusing skills – after all, the two are often intertwined. It helps knowing these are areas where just about everyone faces some challenges, says Lia Garvin, author of “Unstuck” and founder of The Workplace Reframe organizational consulting and coaching firm in the San Francisco area.“We’re all being pulled in so many directions,” she says.

10 Tips for Better Time Management

Here are 10 time management tips that also help you to reduce distractions and improve your focus:

  • Write down what you need to get done.
  • Turn off distractions.
  • Set and follow your calendar.
  • Write a to-do list for tomorrow.
  • Use the Pomodoro technique.
  • Take brain breaks.
  • Schedule your work around when you're most productive.
  • Make time for physical activity.
  • Be patient.
  • Measure your progress.

Write Down What You Need to Get Done

The cornerstone of better time management is having a to-do list. Think of when you try to keep a list in your head of what you need to do for the day. You may be in a meeting for work or making a meal, yet that mental list is getting longer and taking up mental energy, Garvin says. Without writing it down, you also may tend to forget some things you need to finish.

A centralized to-do list gives you a place to write down your tasks. You also can use note-taking apps on your phone or sticky notes if you need to jot down a to-do item on the go. Writing down your tasks helps improve your focus so you’re not carrying them around in your brain.

If you make a plan for your future goals – something else you can do with to-do lists – you're more likely to reach your goals and be less distracted by what you need to get done, according to a 2011 study published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology.

Turn Off Distractions

How many times does your phone buzz hourly? When you're getting those notifications from apps, text messages and email are you like Pavlov’s dog, scurrying to see what they say? You’re not alone in doing so, but it’s also not the best use of your time. Many apps, especially social media platforms, are designed to draw us in and keep us using them longer , says organizational psychologist Rik Nemanick of Nemanick Leadership Consulting in St. Louis.

When you need to focus, turn off those notifications except perhaps one that may be truly important – say, receiving text messages about or from your children. Smartphones are now offering more ways to choose how often you want to receive notifications, making it a little easier to focus, Nemanick says.

Set and Follow Your Calendar

You may already use a calendar to note deadlines or meetings. However, one calendar component that will help make you a ninja at time management is to plan time for other deliverables you need to complete. This may include projects or reports, for instance. Consider what smaller steps are needed to get these done, estimate how much time each step take you to complete and add that time to your calendar. Look for blocks of time for each task related to what you must complete, advises Amie Devero, founder and CEO of Beyond Better Strategy and Coaching in Tampa.

“Initially, just doing this makes a huge difference to the uncertainty of what you should do next. It also signals your brain to settle in for a specific task until the time block is complete,” she explains. Surrendering to your calendar and doing what’s scheduled provides more structure to get things done.

This may be challenging if you work in a setting where coworkers can loop you into meetings that you didn’t plan to attend, Devero says. Still, try your best and talk to your manager about your concerns if needed.

Write a To-Do List for Tomorrow

One strategy often advised by time management experts is to make a to-do list of what you need to do the next day. Choose one to three things that take top priority, and write them down. Try not to schedule too much. It’s common when you’re new to this. You’ll write enough tasks to fill a couple of days, Garvin says. Plan some extra time to make room for that unanticipated phone call or other disruptions.

Doing your next-day plan today keeps you focused and relieves some of the anxiety over what you’ll be doing – barring unforeseen interruptions, of course.

Use the Pomodoro Technique

The Pomodoro technique has been around since the late 1980s, offering a way to stay focused in short but productive chunks of time, says productivity specialist Melissa Gratias of Savannah, Georgia. This technique involves setting a timer (you can use the timer app on your phone) and working for 25 minutes. When you complete that chunk of time, you can take a five-minute break.

In the Pomodoro technique, you can follow this routine four times – so for two hours total – and then take a 15- to 30-minute break. During your 25 minute periods of work time, stay focused and avoid distractions. If you get an unavoidable distraction, take a five-minute break and start over. In the next tip, Gratias shares some ideal ways to use your five-minute break.

You may not be able to follow four sessions using the Pomodoro technique if your work involves frequent meetings, but even 30 minutes of using the Pomodoro technique can help your time management and concentration, Gratias adds.

Take Brain Breaks

Sometimes, taking a break is the best thing you can do to help your focusing skills and time management. Without a break, you may be getting work done but you feel tired or overwhelmed. If you’re using the Pomodoro technique, you're giving your brain the best type of break – one that gives your brain's pre-frontal cortex a break, Gratias says. This is the part of your brain that’s involved with problem solving and decision making.

Some options for your brain break:

  • Stretching or yoga .
  • Meditation .
  • Looking at an object at least 20 feet away and really noticing it. You may decide to look at a tree. Spend time noticing the branches, leaves and seeing it in detail. Doing this gives both your eyes and brain a break from screens.

A brain break shouldn't involve checking social media, which would continue use of your prefrontal cortex, but there can still be a place for social media checks, Gratias says. The point is to be intentional and think of it as a reward versus something you do every time you take a work pause. If you get done with a certain task you wanted to finish, you can plan for a few minutes of social media use or playing your favorite phone-based game.

Schedule Your Work Around When You're Most Productive

Consider what time(s) of the day you feel most productive. If you’re not sure, pay attention to how much you typically get done and when on most days. Are you more productive earlier in the morning? Or maybe at night after your children go to sleep? Identify those strongest time points and if you have the flexibility to work around those productive time points, do so, Garvin advises. During times when you’re not as alert – maybe for the hour or so after lunch – you can schedule work that takes less brain power.

Make Time for Physical Activity

If you’re feeling overwhelmed with things to do, self-care, especially in the form of physical activity , is usually the first thing that gets dropped off the to-do list, Garvin says. Not so fast. Regular exercise helps give you more energy, helps with stress management and provides other health benefits, such as boosting your overall physical fitness and building muscle.

As you design your schedule, include time for exercise, Devero suggests. This could be as simple as a 30-minute walk during lunch or scheduling an at-home workout to start or end your day.

“If you don’t have a history of actively managing your time, it’s easy to fall off the wagon and go back to managing your time haphazardly and randomly,” Nemanick says. Forgive yourself and try again, just as you might when trying a new exercise or diet routine. Ask for help and support from loved ones to keep motivated and hold yourself accountable.

Commit to trying time management techniques for three weeks, which should give you enough time to make them habits. Don’t aim for perfection from the start, and any progress is still progress. Following better time management and focusing practices even 80% of the time can make a huge difference, Nemanick adds.

Measure Your Progress

With any goal, measuring your progress can be motivating as it helps you to see how far you've come and where you want to proceed next. That also applies to improving your time management skills.

There are a few ways to tell if your time management skills are improving:

  • You’re able to relax more .
  • At the end of each day, you feel as if you’re getting more done. You may not get everything from your to-do list completed, but you’ve finished what’s most important.
  • You’re keeping up with deadlines better.
  • You have a strong sense of accomplishment.

Best Ways to Practice Self-Care

Young man meditating in nature on autumn day.

The U.S. News Health team delivers accurate information about health, nutrition and fitness, as well as in-depth medical condition guides. All of our stories rely on multiple, independent sources and experts in the field, such as medical doctors and licensed nutritionists. To learn more about how we keep our content accurate and trustworthy, read our  editorial guidelines .

Devero is founder and CEO of Beyond Better Strategy and Coaching in Tampa.

Garvin is author of “Unstuck: Reframe Your Thinking to Free Yourself From the Patterns and People That Hold You Back” and founder of The Workplace Reframe organizational consulting and coaching firm in the San Francisco area.

Gratias is a productivity specialist based in Savannah, Georgia. She holds a PhD in industrial and organizational psychology.

Nemanick is an organizational psychologist and founder of Nemanick Leadership Consulting in St. Louis.

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problem solving time management

Table of Contents

What is time management, the importance of time management, top 16 time management skills, how to improve your time management skills, choose the right program, final words, top 16 time management skills to help you become a success.

Top 16 Time Management Skills to Help You Become a Success

Do you often feel stressed out with too much work to do when there’s not enough time in the day? How is it then that some people seem to have enough time to do everything? The secret seems to be controlling time instead of letting time control you. In other words, the difference lies ineffective time management. 

This blog discusses how you can improve your  time management skills  and increase productivity.  

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Time management is a technique for using your time productively and efficiently. It means organizing and planning how to divide your time between various tasks. You’ll have time to do everything you need without being stressed out about it with good time management skills. You can work productively and prioritize your time to work out the urgent or important tasks first while following up with things that are not urgent but still important. Thus, you can focus your time and energy on things that matter the most. You’ll end up working smarter, not harder, to increase productivity.

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6% Growth in PM Jobs By 2024 - Upskill Now

Time management skills  are essential because it helps us use time wisely and stop wasting time. We become more focused and productive when we are in charge of how we use our time. Productivity leads to profitability. So, good time management can add to your bottom line. The benefits of effective time management are immense:

  • Less stress or anxiety
  • Better work-life balance
  • Increased focus
  • Higher levels of productivity
  • More free time
  • Makes things simple and easy
  • Less distraction
  • Greater energy and motivation

Good time management begins with the right set of skills. You cannot manage your time better if you don’t develop the essential time management skills. These skills take time to create and will vary from person to person. Finding what works best for your personality trait is necessary. 

Let’s analyze the core time management skills and how to develop them.

1. Make a Plan

Effective time management isn’t achieved randomly. It involves a good amount of planning. Developing a strategy for which tasks are important, task sequences, calendar management, meetings, project plans, etc., can help you calibrate the course of the day and not go astray. 

2. Create a Priority List Rather Than a To-Do List

Think about what needs to be done and prioritize the most critical tasks. 

Refrain from creating to-do list of all tasks to be done. Instead, create a list of the tasks based on priority and check off items as you complete them. This helps to drive a sense of accomplishment and motivation. The best way to develop planning skills is using calendar tools like Google calendar. 

3. Start Early

Start your day early to take full advantage of the day. Most successful people get up early in the morning and do some quick exercising before heading to work. If you start early, you have plenty of time to think and plan the day. Early in the morning, you are more calm, creative, and clear-headed. This means you have all the ingredients to be more productive.

4. Breakdown Every Task Into Small Chunks

Zero in on what you want, and build smaller goals that ladder up to your desired goal. Group all related tasks into smaller groups that are easy to manage and tackle. Thus, you can better visualize and take steps to reach your goal.

5. Practice Decision Making 

What we do with the 24 hours in a day is what makes the real difference in time management. The ability for good decision-making about time is one of the top time management skills. Prioritize and decide which tasks to handle first and say no to. 

6. Delegate tasks

Task delegation means proper management of tasks. Learning how to delegate is very important in developing time management skills. Delegating work to your subordinates depending on their skills and abilities will free up time for you and make your team members feel valued and motivated to perform well. By delegating or outsourcing whenever possible, you give yourself time to take on the most challenging tasks. Thus you move closer to the goal of becoming the most efficient version of yourself possible. 

7. Set SMART Goals

Set goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and secured within a time frame. Be specific with the outcomes you want to achieve and allocate the time needed to reach that outcome.  

8. Set Up Deadlines

Set realistic deadlines for task completion and stick to them. Try to set a deadline before the due date to deal with other tasks that may get in the way.

9. Be Mindful of When You’re Going Off-Track 

Procrastination affects productivity and causes wastage of time and energy. We tend to procrastinate when bogged down or feeling bored. Break up challenging tasks into smaller activities to stay engaged and on track.   

10. Learn to Set Boundaries and Say No

Time is your most precious asset, and good time management means getting comfortable with saying ‘no’ to tasks that are not your priority. Saying no on-time saves you time to focus on more important things. Learn how to set boundaries for yourself, so you don’t end up biting more than you can chew. 

11. Minimize Distractions

Anything that distracts you – emails, texts, social media – can make you lose focus and become less productive. Eliminate these distractions and take control of your time so you can get more work done. 

12. Deal With Stress Wisely

Stress can affect our productivity. We often feel stressed when we take on more work than we can accomplish. It’s crucial to identify what works for you when it comes to managing stress response. Find effective ways to deal with stress, including taking a short break, exercising, meditating, practicing a hobby, calling up a friend, or listening to music.

13. Avoid Multitasking

Multitasking sounds like you’re getting more tasks at once. But, studies have proven that it actually hampers productivity. Therefore, rather than multitasking and splitting your attention between a few different tasks, focus on getting one task done and moving on to the next. This small change can improve your outcomes. Bonus: You’ll feel less drained! 

14. Use the 20-Minute Rule

The 20 minute increment block is one of the most essential time management skills. Prepare to tackle an important task and set the alarm for 20 minutes. Focus singularly on the task and give it your best shot until the alarm rings. Now decide if you’re going to put the task down or finish it. Repeat until you’ve completed the task.   

15. Take Time Off

Sometimes the best thing to do is give your mind a break from the task at hand. Taking a break is a great way to give your brain a chance to reset. It enhances focus and creativity and results in better problem-solving.  

16. Build a System and Follow It Diligently

Try out different techniques and figure out what suits you the best. Put the selected methods together to build a system that works and helps you improve. Follow the system regularly to get the most value out of it. 

 Here are some effective strategies to improve your time management skills:

  • Prepare and follow a schedule strictly: Create a daily or weekly schedule outlining your tasks and commitments. Understand the time needed for each task and assign specific time slots. Make a conscious effort to adhere to your schedule as closely as possible to maintain organization and focus.
  • Set boundaries for yourself: Learn to say no to tasks or activities that don't align with your priorities or goals. Set clear boundaries with others to avoid unnecessary interruptions or distractions. Protect your time by minimizing time-wasting activities such as excessive social media browsing or aimless web surfing.
  • Fix deadlines: Assign deadlines to your tasks, whether they are personal or work-related. Assigning deadlines helps create a sense of urgency and enables you to prioritize your work effectively. Be sure to set realistic deadlines considering each task's complexity and importance.
  • Set long- and short-term goals: Define your long-term goals clearly and break them into smaller, actionable short-term ones. Having specific goals provides clarity and motivation. Set deadlines for achieving your goals and regularly review your progress.
  • Manage your calendar effectively: Use a calendar or a digital planning tool to manage your appointments, deadlines, and important dates. Dedicate specific blocks of time for different activities, including work, breaks, and personal time. Regularly review and update your calendar to stay on top of your commitments.
  • Prioritize your assignments: Determine which tasks are most important and need immediate attention. Prioritizing helps you focus on high-value activities and prevents you from getting overwhelmed by less important tasks. Consider using techniques like the Eisenhower Matrix to categorize tasks based on urgency and importance.
  • Practice effective delegation: Learn to delegate tasks to others when appropriate. Identify and assign tasks that can be done by someone else. This will help you focus on higher-priority tasks and improves overall productivity.
  • Minimize multitasking: While it may seem efficient, multitasking often leads to decreased productivity and lower-quality work. Instead, focus on one task and then move on to the next. This approach helps maintain concentration and produces better results.
  • Take regular breaks: Avoid long stretches of continuous work as it can lead to burnout and decreased productivity. Take short breaks between tasks to recharge your mind and body. Use these breaks for relaxation, physical activity, or any activity that helps you rejuvenate.
  • Learn from your experiences: Engage in self-reflection to evaluate how you allocate your time and identify areas where you can make improvements. Assess your productivity patterns and identify any recurring time-wasting activities or habits. Use this self-reflection to adjust your approach and continually refine your time management skills.

Remember, improving time management skills is an ongoing process that requires self-discipline and commitment. By implementing these strategies consistently, you can achieve your goals more effectively.

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These practical time management skills can lead to a happier, more successful life because you’ll be able to focus and achieve your goals in less time. Use these strategies on a regular basis to extract maximum value out of them. With the everyday practice of prioritizing tasks and organizing them, you’ll be able to build a healthy relationship with time — which is key to a successful and more fulfilling life.  

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1. What is the best time management skill?

The best time management skill is subjective and may vary for each individual. However, one widely recognized effective skill is prioritization. Prioritizing tasks helps you identify and focus on the most important and urgent activities, ensuring you allocate your time and energy to the right things.

2. How can I manage my time?

To manage your time effectively, you can employ several strategies:

  • Create a schedule or to-do list to organize your tasks.
  • Set clear goals and deadlines for your activities.
  • Break down large tasks into smaller, manageable task.
  • Eliminate or delegate non-essential tasks.
  • Use productivity techniques and tools such as time-blocking or the Pomodoro Technique.
  • Minimize distractions and set boundaries to maintain focus.
  • Regularly review and adjust your schedule based on progress and changing priorities.

3. How can I improve my management skills?

To improve your management skills, you can consider the following actions:

  • Seek opportunities for professional development and leadership, communication, and problem-solving training.
  • Learn from experienced managers or mentors through observation and seeking guidance.
  • Develop strong organizational and planning skills to coordinate tasks and resources effectively.
  • Enhance your interpersonal skills, including effective communication, conflict resolution, and teamwork.
  • Continually seek feedback and reflect on your performance to identify areas for improvement.

4. Is time management a technical skill?

Time management is not typically categorized as a technical skill. Instead, it is considered a soft skill, which refers to personal attributes and behaviors that enable individuals to interact effectively with others and accomplish tasks efficiently. Time management involves abilities such as prioritization, planning, and self-discipline.

5. Why is time management important?

Time management is important for several reasons:

  • Increased productivity: Effective time management allows you to accomplish more in less time, improving your productivity and efficiency.
  • Reduced stress: By organizing and prioritizing your tasks, you can minimize the feeling of being overwhelmed and reduce stress levels.
  • Improved focus and concentration: Proper time management helps you allocate dedicated time to each task, allowing you to concentrate and produce higher-quality work.
  • Achievement of goals: By managing your time effectively, you can allocate resources and efforts toward accomplishing your short-term and long-term goals.
  • Better work-life balance: Time management enables you to allocate time for work, personal life, hobbies, and self-care, leading to a more balanced and fulfilling lifestyle.

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  • Problem management: 8 steps to better p ...

Problem management: 8 steps to better problem solving

Alicia Raeburn contributor headshot

Problem management is an 8 step framework most commonly used by IT teams. You can use problem management to solve for repeating major incidents. By organizing and structuring your problem solving, you can more effectively get to the root cause of high-impact problems—and devise a solution. Solving the root cause prevents recurrence and creates a repeatable solution to use on similar errors in the future.

In an IT department, errors and mishaps are part of the job. You can't always control these problems, but you can control how you respond to them with problem management. Problem management helps you solve larger problems and reduce the risk that they’ll happen again by identifying all connected problems, solving them, and planning for the future.

What is problem management?

Problem management is an 8 step framework most commonly used by IT teams. Your team can use problem management to solve for repeating major incidents. By organizing and structuring your problem solving, you can more effectively get to the root cause of high-impact problems—and devise a solution. Problem management is a process—used mostly by IT teams—to identify, react, and respond to issues. It’s not for every problem, but it’s a useful response when multiple major incidents occur that cause large work interruptions. Unlike problem solving, problem management goes beyond the initial incident to discover and dissect the root causes, preventing future incidents with permanent solutions.

The goals of problem management are to:

Prevent problems before they start.

Solve for repetitive errors.

Lessen each incident’s impact. 

Problem management vs. incident management 

Example: Someone leaves their unprotected laptop in a coffee shop, causing a security breach. The security team can use incident management to solve for this one, isolated event. In this case, the team could manually shut down the accounts connected to that laptop. If this continues to happen, IT would use problem management to solve the root of this issue—perhaps installing more security features on each company laptop so that if employees lose them, no one else can access the information.

Problem management vs. problem solving

While similar in name, problem management differs slightly from problem-solving. Problem management focuses on every aspect of the incident—identifying the root cause of the problem, solving it, and prevention. Problem solving is, as the name implies, focused solely on the solution step. 

Example: You’re launching a new password management system when it crashes—again. You don’t know if anything leaked, but you know it could contain confidential information. Plus, it’s happened before. You start the problem management process to ensure it doesn’t happen again. In that process, you’ll use problem solving as a step to fix the issue. In this case, perhaps securing confidential information before you try to launch a new software.

Problem management vs. change management 

Change management targets large transitions within your workplace, good and bad. These inevitable changes aren’t always negative, so you can’t always apply problem management as a solution. That’s where change management comes in—a framework that helps you adjust to any new scenario.

Example: Your company is transitioning to a new cloud platform. The transition happens incident-free—meaning you won’t need problem management—but you can ease the transition by implementing some change management best practices. Preparing and training team members in the new software is a good place to start.

Problem management vs. project management

Project management is the framework for larger collections of work. It’s the overarching method for how you work on any project, hit goals, and get results. You can use project management to help you with problem management, but they are not the same thing. Problem management and project management work together to solve issues as part of your problem management process.

Example: During problem management, you uncover a backend security issue that needs to be addressed—employees are using storage software with outdated security measures. To solve this, you create a project and outline the tasks from start to finish. In this case, you might need to alert senior executives, get approval to remove the software, and alert employees. You create a project schedule with a defined timeline and assign the tasks to relevant teams. In this process, you identified a desired outcome—remove the unsafe software—and solved it. That’s project management.

The 8 steps of problem management

It’s easy to get upset when problems occur. In fact, it’s totally normal. But an emotional response is not always the best response when faced with new incidents. Having a reliable system—such as problem management—removes the temptation to respond emotionally. Proactive project management gives your team a framework for problem solving. It’s an iterative process —the more you use it, the more likely you are to have fewer problems, faster response times, and better outputs. 

1. Identify the problem

During problem identification, you’re looking at the present—what’s happening right now? Here, you’ll define what the incident is and its scale. Is this a small, quick-fix, or a full overhaul? Consider using problem framing to define, prioritize, and understand the obstacles involved with these more complex problems. 

2. Diagnose the cause

Use problem analysis or root cause analysis to strategically look at the cause of a problem. Follow the trail of issues all the way back to its beginnings.

To diagnose the underlying cause, you’ll want to answer:

What factors or conditions led to the incident?

Do you see related incidents? Could those be coming from the same source?

Did someone miss a step? Are processes responsible for this problem?

3. Organize and prioritize

Now it’s time to build out your framework. Use an IT project plan to organize information in a space where everyone can make and see updates in real time. The easiest way to do this is with a project management tool where you can input ‌tasks, assign deadlines, and add dependencies to ensure nothing gets missed. To better organize your process, define:

What needs to be done? 

Who’s responsible for each aspect? If no one is, can we assign someone? 

When does each piece need to be completed?

What is the final number of incidents related to this problem?

Are any of these tasks dependent on another one? Do you need to set up dependencies ?

What are your highest priorities? How do they affect our larger business goals ? 

How should you plan for this in the future?

4. Create a workaround

If the incident has stopped work or altered it, you might need to create a workaround. This is not always necessary, but temporary workarounds can keep work on track and avoid backlog while you go through the problem management steps. When these workarounds are especially effective, you can make them permanent processes.

5. Update your known error database

Every time an incident occurs, create a known error record and add it to your known error database (KEDB). Recording incidents helps you catch recurrences and logs the solution, so you know how to solve similar errors in the future. 

[product ui] Incident log example (lists)

6. Pause for change management (if necessary)

Larger, high-impact problems might require change management. For example, if you realize the problem’s root cause is a lack of staff, you might dedicate team members to help. You can use change management to help them transition their responsibilities, see how these new roles fit in with the entire team, and determine how they will collaborate moving forward.

7. Solve the problem

This is the fun part—you get to resolve problems. At this stage, you should know exactly what you’re dealing with and the steps you need to take. But remember—with problem management, it’s not enough to solve the current problem. You’ll want to take any steps to prevent this from happening again in the future. That could mean hiring a new role to cover gaps in workflows , investing in new softwares and tools, or training staff on best practices to prevent these types of incidents.

Read: Turn your team into skilled problem solvers with these problem-solving strategies

8. Reflect on the process

The problem management process has the added benefit of recording the process in its entirety, so you can review it in the future. Once you’ve solved the problem, take the time to review each step and reflect on the lessons learned during this process. Make note of who was involved, what you needed, and any opportunities to improve your response to the next incident. After you go through the problem management process a few times and understand the basic steps, stakeholders, workload, and resources you need, create a template to make the kickoff process easier in the future.

5 benefits of problem management

Problem management helps you discover every piece of the problem—from the current scenario down to its root cause. Not only does this have an immediate positive impact on the current issue at hand, it also promotes collaboration and helps to build a better product overall. 

Here are five other ways ‌problem management can benefit your team:

Avoids repeat incidents. When you manage the entire incident from start to finish, you will address the foundational problems that caused it. This leads to fewer repeat incidents.

Boosts cross-functional collaboration. Problem management is a collaborative process. One incident might require collaboration from IT, the security team, and legal. Depending on the level of the problem, it might trickle all the way back down to the product or service team, where core changes need to be made.

Creates a better user experience. It’s simple—the fewer incidents you have, the better your customer’s experience will be. Reducing incidents means fewer delays, downtime, and frustrations for your users, and a higher rate of customer satisfaction.

Improves response time. As you develop a flow and framework with a project management process, you’ll be better equipped to handle future incidents—even if they’re different scenarios.

Organizes problem solving. Problem management provides a structured, thoughtful approach to solving problems. This reduces impulsive responses and helps you keep a better problem record of incidents and solutions.

Problem management leads to better, faster solutions

IT teams will always have to deal with incidents, but they don’t have to be bogged down by them. That’s because problem management works. Whether you employ a full problem management team or choose to apply these practices to your current IT infrastructure, problem management—especially when combined with a project management tool—saves you time and effort down the road.

With IT project plans, we’ve made it easier than ever to track your problem management work in a shared tool. Try our free IT project template to see your work come together, effortlessly.

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The Peak Performance Center

The Peak Performance Center

The pursuit of performance excellence, time management, time management.

Time management is the process of prioritizing, planning, and methodically organizing the amount of time spent on specific activities or tasks in an effort to increase effectiveness, efficiency, productivity and/or performance.

Time management focuses on the way we use one of our most valuable resource; our time.  Without proper time management, people often do not meet their goals or finish tasks on time.   learning time management strategies helps to assess how you currently use your time and find effective ways to incorporate techniques or behaviors into your daily schedule to help you become more effective at managing demands on your time.  Planning is the key to making sure that your time is spent efficiently and effectively.

You can reserve more time for the more important activities and decrease your overall stress.

Time Management Strategies

Time management is a necessity and a key to success in business and education .  Strategies for managing time can be incorporated into business, school, athletic, and personal activities.  By utilizing time management strategies and techniques a person can;

  • learn to prioritize tasks and goals
  • determine the amount of time is spent on specific activities
  • identify those areas where time can be better managed
  • develop an continuous assessment plan of your activities relative to your priorities and goals

  Our Development Series

Our D ev elopment Series provides a range of skills, tools, and techniques used to manage time when accomplishing specific tasks, projects, and goals.  By developing these skills, you can institute minor changes into your daily behavior until it becomes second nature.

A time management system is a combination of processes, tools, techniques, and methods.  

skill builder Series

Our skill builder series encompasses a wide array of time management activities including;

  • Assessing and analyzing time spent on activities
  • setting goals to be achieved over specific time periods
  • Organizing activities to accomplish goals and objectives
  • Prioritizing activities on basis of importance
  • Balancing activities and goals to minimize stress
  • Allocating a certain amount of time to tasks and activities
  • Planning how to spend your time
  • Scheduling time for activities in to day, week, month, etc…
  • Monitoring the amount of time spent on activities
  • Evaluating results of activities and time spent

problem solving time management

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The Performance Review Problem

As the arcane annual assessment earns a failing grade, employers struggle to create a better system to measure and motivate their workers.

​After an annual review that lasted about 10 minutes, a New Jersey-based account coordinator knew it was time to leave the public relations agency where he had worked for almost a year. 

The 25-year-old, who requested anonymity, asked for the meeting because his boss had not mentioned any formal assessment process, nor had his manager ever critiqued his work. The coordinator says he sat with a trio of senior executives who did not ask him any questions beyond how he would rate himself. He says they ignored his requests for guidance on how to advance at the agency. 

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This example also illustrates one of the common failures in performance management: limiting reviews to once or twice a year without having any other meaningful career discussions in between. Nearly half (49 percent) of companies give annual or semiannual reviews, according to a study of 1,000 full-time U.S. employees released late last year by software company Workhuman. 

The only situation that is worse than doing one review per year is doing none at all, experts say. The good news is that only 7 percent of companies are keeping employees in the dark about their performance, and 28 percent of organizations are conducting assessments quarterly, the Workhuman study found.  

A Pervasive Problem

Reviews generally do not work.

That doesn’t mean that more-frequent formal meetings or casual sit-downs between supervisors and their direct reports are solving the performance review quandary, either. Only about 1 in 4 companies in North America (26 percent) said their performance management systems were effective, according to a survey of 837 companies conducted last fall by consulting firm WTW. And only one-third of the organizations said employees felt their efforts were evaluated fairly. 

Meanwhile, a Gallup survey conducted last year found that 95 percent of managers are dissatisfied with their organization’s review system.

The problem is not new, though it is taking on greater importance, experts say. Millennials and members of Generation Z crave feedback and are focused on career development. Meanwhile, the tight labor market has companies searching for ways to keep high-performing employees in the fold. Fewer than 20 percent of employees feel inspired by their reviews, and disengaged employees cost U.S. companies a collective $1.6 trillion a year, according to Gallup.

Lesli Jennings, a senior director at WTW, says part of the issue is that reviews are now so much more than a discussion of past performance. They include conversations about career development, employee experience and compensation. 

“The performance management design itself is not evolving as quickly as the objectives and the purpose that we have set out for what we want it to do,” Jennings says. 

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Poor Review Practices

Some argue that means it’s time to completely scrap annual reviews and stop using scales composed of numbers or adjectives to rate employees. 

“Every single human alive today is a horribly unreliable rater of other human beings,” says Marcus Buckingham, head of people and performance research at the Roseland, N.J.-based ADP Research Institute. He says people bring their own backgrounds and personalities to bear in the reviews in what is called the “idiosyncratic rating effect.” He says the ratings managers bestow on others are more a reflection of themselves than of those they’re reviewing.

Buckingham adds that very few positions have quantifiable outcomes that can be considered a measure of competence, talent or success. It’s possible to tally a salesperson’s results or test someone’s knowledge of a computer program, he says, but he’s baffled by attempts to measure attributes such as “leadership potential.”

“I’m going to rate you on a theoretical construct like ‘strategic thinking’? Everybody knows that’s rubbish,” Buckingham says. He adds that performance reviews that offer rankings give “data that’s just bad” and insists that companies rely on data analytics because they don’t trust their managers’ judgment. But instead of working on improving their managers’ skills, he says, they put data systems in place. 

“Because we don’t educate our managers on how to have some of these conversations, we’ve decided that the solution is to give them really bad ratings systems or really bad categorization systems,” Buckingham says. 

R eviewing the Data

A mong North American employers:

  • More than 9 in 10 (93 percent) cited driving organizational performance as a key objective for performance management, yet less than half (44 percent) said their performance management program is ­meeting that objective.
  • Nearly 3 in 4 (72 percent) said ­supporting the career development of their employees is a primary objective, but only 31 percent said their performance management program was meeting that objective.
  • Less than half (49 percent) agreed that managers at their organization are ­effective at assessing the performance of their direct reports. 
  • Only 1 in 3 indicated that employees feel their performance is evaluated fairly. 
  • Just 1 in 6 (16 percent) reported having altered their performance management approach to align with remote and hybrid work models, which are rapidly becoming more prevalent.

Source: WTW 2022 Performance Reset Survey of 837 organizations worldwide, including 150 North American employers.

Data Lovers

Ratings aren’t likely to disappear anytime soon, however. “Data-driven” has become a rallying cry for companies as they seek to operate more efficiently. Organizations are trying to measure everything from sales to productivity, though such efforts can cause turmoil and hurt some individuals’ careers.

A June 2022 study of nearly 30,000 workers at an unnamed North American retail chain found that women were more likely to receive higher overall ratings than men, though women were ranked lower on “potential.” 

In that study, women were 12 percent more likely to be given the lowest rating for potential, as well as 15 percent and 28 percent less likely to receive the middle and highest potential ratings, respectively, according to the professors who conducted the study, Alan Benson of the University of Minnesota, Danielle Li of MIT and Kelly Shue of Yale. The authors also said women were 14 percent less likely to get promoted than men. “Because potential is not directly observed,” they noted, “these assessments can be highly subjective, leaving room for bias.” 

Screen Shot 2023-03-15 at 85749 AM.png

Birmingham left abruptly one afternoon and did not go in to work the next day, which he says Blizzard interpreted as his resignation. Blizzard did not respond to requests for comment.

Stack ranking became popular in the 1980s after it was embraced by General Electric. Its adoption has waned, though several tech companies continue to use it. Google and Twitter relied on stack ranking to decide who to let go in their recent rounds of layoffs, according to published reports.

Birmingham says that the system can cause anxiety and competition, which can kill team cohesion, and that arbitrary lower ratings adversely affect compensation and promotion potential. These systems can also suggest that a manager is ineffective, he says. “It implies that as managers, we basically have not done our job to hire them and train them appropriately or terminate them if they really aren’t working out.”

Birmingham says he is not opposed to ranking systems but doesn’t think they’re necessary. “I feel like the conversation about how to improve your career, what the expectations are for your job and what it will take to get to the next level are all things you can do without a rating,” he says.

Measurements Matter

Grant Pruitt, president and co-founder of Whitebox Real Estate, does not give any type of rating in his performance reviews, though he believes in using data to track his employees’ performance. “What isn’t measured can’t be managed,” says Pruitt, whose company has about 20 employees in several offices across Texas. 

At the beginning of the year, Whitebox employees set goals with their managers. Discussions are held about what benchmarks are reasonable, and these targets can be changed if there is a meaningful shift in business conditions. Team leaders hold weekly department meetings with their direct reports to discuss what’s happening and track progress. Managers hold quarterly private reviews with individuals to dig deeper into whether they’re meeting their goals and if not, why.

“Was it an achievable goal? Realistic? If it was, then what do we need to do to make sure we don’t miss it the next time?” Pruitt says. Whitebox switched to quarterly reviews about four years ago to address problems earlier and avoid having issues fester, Pruitt adds.

It’s easier to set goals for people in sales than for those in other departments, Pruitt concedes. However, he adds that executives need to brainstorm about targets they can use for other roles. For example, administrative employees can be rated on how quickly and efficiently they handle requests.

Pruitt maintains that the goal system makes it easier to respond when an employee disagrees with their manager about their performance review because there are quantitative measures to examine. The data also helps eliminate any unconscious bias a manager may have and helps ensure that a leader isn’t just giving an employee a good rating because they work out at the same gym or their children go to school together.

“I think that’s really where the numbers and the data are important,” Pruitt says. “The data doesn’t know whose kids play on the same sports team.”

Whitebox employees are also judged on how well they embrace the company’s core values, such as integrity, tenacity and coachability. Some of those values may require more-subjective judgments that can be more important than hitting quantifiable goals. 

Pruitt admits that there were occasions when he looked the other way with a few individuals who were “hitting it out of the park,” even though he believed they lacked integrity. But eventually, he had to let them go and the company lost money.

“They really came back to bite me,” Pruitt says.

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Grades Are Good

Diane Dooley, CHRO of Iselin, N.J.-based World Insurance Associates LLC, also believes establishing quantitative methods to gauge employees’ performance is essential. “We are living in a world of data analytics,” she says. The broker’s roughly 2,000 employees are rated on a scale of 1 to 5.

World Insurance has taken numerous steps to remove bias from reviews. For example, last year the company conducted unconscious-bias training to help managers separate personal feelings from performance reviews. And all people managers convene to go over the reviews they’ve conducted. Dooley says that process gives everyone a chance to discuss why an employee was given a certain rank and to question some decisions. “We want to make sure we’re using the same standards,” she explains.

Currently, World Insurance conducts reviews only once a year because it has been on an acquisition binge and there hasn’t been time to institute a more frequent schedule. That will change eventually, says Dooley, who adds that she wants to introduce department grids that show how an employee’s rank compares to others’ on the team. 

“It’s just a tool that helps the department or the division understand where their people are and how we can help them collectively,” says Dooley, who has used the system at other companies. 

Dooley says she isn’t worried about World Insurance holding reviews only annually, because good managers regularly check in with their employees regardless of how frequently reviews are mandated.

Such conversations can easily fall through the cracks, however. “Managers want to manage the employees, but they get so caught up in the company’s KPIs [key performance indicators] and making sure that they’re doing everything that they need to do,” says Jennifer Currence, SHRM-SCP, CEO of WithIn Leadership, a leadership development and coaching firm in Tampa, Fla. “It’s hard to set aside the time.” 

WTW’s Jennings adds that managers sometimes avoid initiating conversations with employees who are not performing well. Such discussions are often difficult, and managers may not feel equipped to conduct them. 

“Having to address underperformers is hard work,” Jennings says. 

Additionally, experts say, coaching managers to engage in such sensitive discourse can be expensive and time-consuming.

Improve Your Performance Reviews

H ere’s how to make the review process more ­palatable for both managers and their direct reports:

  • Don’t limit conversations to once or twice per year. Every team is different, so leaders should decide what schedule is most appropriate for their departments. However, it’s important to deal with any problems as they arise; don’t let them fester.
  • Set performance goals and expectations at the beginning of the year so employees understand their responsibilities. This helps lend objectivity to the process by introducing measurable targets. However, the goals should be adjusted if there are major changes to the business or an employee’s circumstances. 
  • Explain how each employee’s position, as well as each department, fits into the company’s overall ­strategy. This will help employees understand why their job matters and why it’s important.
  • Simplify the process. There’s no need for a ­double-digit number of steps or numerous
  • questions that require long-winded answers. 
  • Consider a 360-degree approach. Input from employees’ colleagues or from other managers can help give a fuller picture of employees’ capabilities and contributions.
  • Eliminate proximity bias. You may not see some employees as often as others, especially if they work remotely, but that doesn’t mean they’re not working hard. 
  • End recency bias, which is basing a review on an employee’s most recent performance while ignoring earlier efforts. Don’t let recent mistakes overshadow the employee’s other impressive accomplishments.
  • Solicit feedback from employees. Reviews should be a two-way conversation, not a lecture.
  • Train managers to give advice calmly and helpfully. This is especially important when leaders must call out an employee’s subpar performance. 
  • Don’t discuss compensation during reviews. Employees are likely to be so focused on learning about a raise or bonus that they won’t pay much attention to anything else.

Increase Conversations

Finding the right formula for performance reviews is tricky. The company’s size, values, industry and age all play a role. Currence says businesses need to think about the frequency and purpose of these meetings. Some managers may have weekly discussions with their direct reports, but the conversations might center on status updates as opposed to performance. 

“We need to have more regular conversations,” Currence says. “There has to be a happy balance.”

San Jose, Calif.-based software maker Adobe Inc. was a pioneer when it eliminated annual reviews in 2012 after employees said assessments that look backward weren’t useful and managers lamented how time-consuming they were. Instead, Adobe introduced quarterly check-ins and did away with its numerical ratings system, even though the company is “data-driven,” according to Arden Madsen, senior director of talent management.

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Adobe’s system has changed over the years as the company grew from about 11,000 employees in 2012 to around 28,000 today. In the beginning, employees were not asked a universal set of questions and the information gathered was not stored in a central place accessible to all. In 2020, Adobe instituted three or four questions that must be asked at each quarterly meeting, one of which is whether the employee has feedback for the manager. Other topics covered depend on the employee, their role and their goals.

Madsen says asking consistent questions and making reviews easily accessible are important, as internal mobility within the company has grown. 

Adobe, like many businesses, separates conversations about performance from discussions about raises and bonuses, even though they’re intertwined. 

“Money is so emotionally charged,” says WithIn Leadership’s Currence. “When we tie performance review conversations with money, we as human beings do not hear anything about performance. We only focus on the money.”    

Theresa Agovino is the workplace editor for SHRM.

Illustrations by Neil Jamieson.

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MarketBeat

7 growth stocks that will prove growth is back in 2024

Posted: February 15, 2024 | Last updated: February 15, 2024

<p><span>If you've been investing for any length of time, you've probably heard a lot of time-honored investment maxims. Things like "time in the market beats timing the market." One that I like to keep in mind is to "skate where the puck is moving."</span> </p> <p><span>There's a reason for that. Investors frequently believe they need special knowledge to be successful at investing. Let's be clear: you do have to put in the work. But the information you need to be a successful investor is not unknowable, even without a background in finance or accounting. </span> </p> <p><span>However, investors can choose from thousands of stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds. And that's just equities. There are also bonds, precious metals, real estate, and – for those so inclined – cryptocurrency to consider. It's impossible to stay on top of every emerging story. </span> </p> <p><span>Sometimes you need a little nudge. </span> </p> <p><span>This special presentation focuses on growth stocks that may be flying under investor's radars. Some of these stocks are already growing – and have room to grow some more. Others haven't participated in the rally but have strong growth potential in 2024 and beyond.</span> </p> <br> <br>

If you've been investing for any length of time, you've probably heard a lot of time-honored investment maxims. Things like "time in the market beats timing the market." One that I like to keep in mind is to "skate where the puck is moving."  

There's a reason for that. Investors frequently believe they need special knowledge to be successful at investing. Let's be clear: you do have to put in the work. But the information you need to be a successful investor is not unknowable, even without a background in finance or accounting.  

However, investors can choose from thousands of stocks, ETFs, and mutual funds. And that's just equities. There are also bonds, precious metals, real estate, and – for those so inclined – cryptocurrency to consider. It's impossible to stay on top of every emerging story.  

Sometimes you need a little nudge.  

This special presentation focuses on growth stocks that may be flying under investor's radars. Some of these stocks are already growing – and have room to grow some more. Others haven't participated in the rally but have strong growth potential in 2024 and beyond.  

<p>The first company on this list is from the fintech sector. But <a href="https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NYSE/NU/"><strong>Nu Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: NU)</strong></a> may not be well-known to investors. That's because it's not a U.S. company. However, Nu is the largest fintech bank in North America.  </p> <p>The digital-first bank was founded in 2013 as a way to disrupt the Latin American banking system, which is dominated by a small number of large banks. Among other things, this trapped customers in an ecosystem of high fees for limited services. </p> <p>The company has already signed up five million customers and has a total addressable market that can potentially bring in millions more. Revenue is growing year-over-year, and the bank is solidly profitable. Nu Holdings is also projecting earnings growth of 75% in the next 12 months.  </p> <p>The concern is how much of that growth is priced into a stock up 97% in the last 12 months. The <a href="https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NYSE/NU/price-target/">Nu Holdings analyst ratings on MarketBeat</a> show that analysts are beginning to bid NU stock higher, with <a href="https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NYSE/UBS/"><strong>UBS Group AG (NYSE: UBS)</strong></a> reiterating its Buy rating with a price target of $11.50.  </p>

#1 - Nu Holdings (NYSE:NU)

The first company on this list is from the fintech sector. But Nu Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: NU) may not be well-known to investors. That's because it's not a U.S. company. However, Nu is the largest fintech bank in North America.  

The digital-first bank was founded in 2013 as a way to disrupt the Latin American banking system, which is dominated by a small number of large banks. Among other things, this trapped customers in an ecosystem of high fees for limited services. 

The company has already signed up five million customers and has a total addressable market that can potentially bring in millions more. Revenue is growing year-over-year, and the bank is solidly profitable. Nu Holdings is also projecting earnings growth of 75% in the next 12 months.  

The concern is how much of that growth is priced into a stock up 97% in the last 12 months. The Nu Holdings analyst ratings on MarketBeat show that analysts are beginning to bid NU stock higher, with UBS Group AG (NYSE: UBS) reiterating its Buy rating with a price target of $11.50.  

<p>Artificial intelligence is driving a super cycle in the chip sector. <a href="https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NASDAQ/QUIK/"><strong>QuickLogic Corporation (NASDAQ: QUIK)</strong></a> is a fabless chipmaker. That means the company designs and markets semiconductors and owns its intellectual property. But since it's a fabless company, it doesn't fabricate (i.e., fab) them.  </p> <p>QuickLogic has seen a sharp spike in revenue largely fueled by unprecedented demand for chips to handle AI applications. In its most recent quarter, the company posted positive earnings. And the company is projecting a full year of positive earnings.  </p> <p>QUIK stock up 116% in the last 12 months. So, it's logical to wonder if it can move any higher. And the company is not widely covered by analysts. However, here's something to consider. QuickLogic is mainly known for designing chips for industrial and defense applications. That niche is likely to grow due to demand from aerospace and defense contractors. The company also has a history of beating analysts' expectations.  </p>

#2 - QuickLogic (NASDAQ:QUIK)

Artificial intelligence is driving a super cycle in the chip sector. QuickLogic Corporation (NASDAQ: QUIK) is a fabless chipmaker. That means the company designs and markets semiconductors and owns its intellectual property. But since it's a fabless company, it doesn't fabricate (i.e., fab) them.  

QuickLogic has seen a sharp spike in revenue largely fueled by unprecedented demand for chips to handle AI applications. In its most recent quarter, the company posted positive earnings. And the company is projecting a full year of positive earnings.  

QUIK stock up 116% in the last 12 months. So, it's logical to wonder if it can move any higher. And the company is not widely covered by analysts. However, here's something to consider. QuickLogic is mainly known for designing chips for industrial and defense applications. That niche is likely to grow due to demand from aerospace and defense contractors. The company also has a history of beating analysts' expectations.  

<p>Chinese stocks took a beating in 2023. <a href="https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NASDAQ/LI/"><strong>Li Auto Inc. (NASDAQ: LI)</strong></a> was a notable exception. The stock is up 18% in the last 12 months despite being down 25% in the last three months. Li Auto is the leading manufacturer of electric vehicles (EVs) within the People's Republic of China.  </p> <p>However, this appears to be a case of a rose getting buried among the thorns. A lack of demand in the United States has beaten down the EV sector. The same can't be said of China. In the company's third quarter 2023 earnings report, Li Auto reported a <a href="https://www.marketbeat.com/originals/li-auto-smashes-estimates-proving-evs-can-be-profitable/">271% year-over-year increase in revenue</a>. And the bottom line grew at a similar year-over-year pace.  </p> <p>Elon Musk has already sounded the alarm about the <a href="https://www.axios.com/2024/02/14/chinese-ev-electric-vehicles-sold-america">potential dominance of Chinese EV makers</a>. In fact, Li Auto outsold <a href="https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NASDAQ/TSLA/"><strong>Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA)</strong></a> in October 2023 and now leads China in EV sales.  </p> <p>The <a href="https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NASDAQ/LI/price-target/">Li Auto analyst ratings on MarketBeat</a> project a stock price gain of 164% in that same time. That's likely due to the company's expectation that it will increase earnings by more than 83.5% in the next 12 months. </p>

#3 - Li Auto (NASDAQ:LI)

Chinese stocks took a beating in 2023. Li Auto Inc. (NASDAQ: LI) was a notable exception. The stock is up 18% in the last 12 months despite being down 25% in the last three months. Li Auto is the leading manufacturer of electric vehicles (EVs) within the People's Republic of China.  

However, this appears to be a case of a rose getting buried among the thorns. A lack of demand in the United States has beaten down the EV sector. The same can't be said of China. In the company's third quarter 2023 earnings report, Li Auto reported a 271% year-over-year increase in revenue . And the bottom line grew at a similar year-over-year pace.  

Elon Musk has already sounded the alarm about the potential dominance of Chinese EV makers . In fact, Li Auto outsold Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) in October 2023 and now leads China in EV sales.  

The Li Auto analyst ratings on MarketBeat project a stock price gain of 164% in that same time. That's likely due to the company's expectation that it will increase earnings by more than 83.5% in the next 12 months. 

<p>No matter how you feel about <a href="https://www.marketbeat.com/cryptocurrencies/bitcoin/"><strong>Bitcoin (BTC)</strong></a> as an asset class, you must acknowledge that it's been one of the best-performing assets in 2024. <a href="https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NASDAQ/RIOT/"><strong>Riot Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: RIOT)</strong></a> gives you a way to invest in a blockchain future without owning the digital currency.  </p> <p>Here's why. Bitcoin is "mined" via specialized, high-speed computers that compete to solve complex cryptographic problems. Riot operates one of the largest blockchain mining networks in the world. As a result, it has the lowest mining costs, which means it's a very efficient company. That's not the case with many Bitcoin miners. </p> <p>The company's low mining costs will stand out as the next Bitcoin halving occurs in April 2024. This means miners' profits will be cut in half (as Bitcoin nears its maximum supply of 21 million). This will benefit efficient operators like Riot even as RIOT stock is up 161% in the last 12 months.  </p>

#4 - Riot Platforms (NASDAQ:RIOT)

No matter how you feel about Bitcoin (BTC) as an asset class, you must acknowledge that it's been one of the best-performing assets in 2024. Riot Platforms Inc. (NASDAQ: RIOT) gives you a way to invest in a blockchain future without owning the digital currency.  

Here's why. Bitcoin is "mined" via specialized, high-speed computers that compete to solve complex cryptographic problems. Riot operates one of the largest blockchain mining networks in the world. As a result, it has the lowest mining costs, which means it's a very efficient company. That's not the case with many Bitcoin miners. 

The company's low mining costs will stand out as the next Bitcoin halving occurs in April 2024. This means miners' profits will be cut in half (as Bitcoin nears its maximum supply of 21 million). This will benefit efficient operators like Riot even as RIOT stock is up 161% in the last 12 months.  

stock chart graphic

#5 - Enphase Energy (NASDAQ:ENPH)

Solar stocks zigged when they were supposed to zag last year. And if you were an investor in Enphase Energy Inc. (NASDAQ: ENPH) , you know how painful it's been. ENPH stock is down 39.5% in the last 12 months, and that's after a 41% increase in the stock price in the last three months.  

The issue was the company's guidance, which became prescient in its most recent quarter as revenue and earnings fell sharply year-over-year. However, the maker of solar-focused semiconductor-based home energy solutions continues to have a strong long-term story as the United States continues its transition to renewable energy.  

Enphase is forecasting 87% earnings growth in the next 12 months. A reason to believe in that forecast is that the company has the highest margins in the industry. Lower interest rates could also be a potential catalyst. And the E nphase Energy analyst ratings on MarketBeat show a 16% upside for ENPH stock.  

<p>Lithium stocks were expected to be attractive investments in 2023. But as supply outpaced demand on declining EV demand, many of these investments dragged down portfolios. <a href="https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NYSE/SQM/"><strong>Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (NYSE: SQM)</strong></a> was no different. SQM stock is down over 55% in the last 12 months.  </p> <p>The Chilean-based company has a diversified portfolio, but about 75% of its revenue comes from lithium. That could hold the stock price down as lithium prices are expected to be down through at least the first half of 2024. </p> <p>However, the opportunity for the company comes in its brine asset, the Salar de Atacama, which has the highest lithium concentration in the world. The company is also taking steps to secure more lithium production in Australia and China. </p> <p>As the lithium supply-demand dynamic flips in its favor, SQM stock is an attractive long-term investment, trading at just 5.4x forward earnings.  </p>

#6 - Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (NYSE:SQM)

Lithium stocks were expected to be attractive investments in 2023. But as supply outpaced demand on declining EV demand, many of these investments dragged down portfolios. Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile (NYSE: SQM) was no different. SQM stock is down over 55% in the last 12 months.  

The Chilean-based company has a diversified portfolio, but about 75% of its revenue comes from lithium. That could hold the stock price down as lithium prices are expected to be down through at least the first half of 2024. 

However, the opportunity for the company comes in its brine asset, the Salar de Atacama, which has the highest lithium concentration in the world. The company is also taking steps to secure more lithium production in Australia and China. 

As the lithium supply-demand dynamic flips in its favor, SQM stock is an attractive long-term investment, trading at just 5.4x forward earnings.  

<p><a href="https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NYSE/HD/"><strong>Home Depot (NYSE: HD)</strong></a> is one part of a virtual duopoly with <a href="https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NYSE/LOW/"><strong>Lowe's Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW)</strong></a> in the United States. HD stock presents an anomaly for investors. The stock is up 11% in the last 12 months, even though revenue and earnings have fallen year-over-year.  </p> <p>But a closer look at the HD chart shows that much of the growth has come in the last three months. That might suggest that investors are becoming bullish on interest rate cuts that could boost the housing market.  </p> <p>However, with the amount and timing of those rate cuts in question, Home Depot still appears to be a buy because the company has successfully integrated e-commerce and omnichannel services into its business model. That's important because home improvement is a niche market that even <a href="https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NASDAQ/AMZN/"><strong>Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN)</strong></a> has been unable to successfully crack. </p> <p>The <a href="https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NYSE/HD/price-target/">Home Depot analyst ratings on MarketBeat</a> show that analysts are moving their price targets for the stock higher, and Home Depot offers a <a href="https://www.marketbeat.com/stocks/NYSE/HD/dividend/">solid dividend</a> that has increased for the last 14 years, has a 2.33% yield and an annual payout of $8.36 per share.   </p>

#7 - Home Depot (NYSE:HD)

Home Depot (NYSE: HD) is one part of a virtual duopoly with Lowe's Companies Inc. (NYSE: LOW) in the United States. HD stock presents an anomaly for investors. The stock is up 11% in the last 12 months, even though revenue and earnings have fallen year-over-year.  

But a closer look at the HD chart shows that much of the growth has come in the last three months. That might suggest that investors are becoming bullish on interest rate cuts that could boost the housing market.  

However, with the amount and timing of those rate cuts in question, Home Depot still appears to be a buy because the company has successfully integrated e-commerce and omnichannel services into its business model. That's important because home improvement is a niche market that even Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) has been unable to successfully crack. 

The Home Depot analyst ratings on MarketBeat show that analysts are moving their price targets for the stock higher, and Home Depot offers a solid dividend that has increased for the last 14 years, has a 2.33% yield and an annual payout of $8.36 per share.   

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Heavy Machinery Meets AI

  • Vijay Govindarajan
  • Venkat Venkatraman

problem solving time management

Until recently most incumbent industrial companies didn’t use highly advanced software in their products. But now the sector’s leaders have begun applying generative AI and machine learning to all kinds of data—including text, 3D images, video, and sound—to create complex, innovative designs and solve customer problems with unprecedented speed.

Success involves much more than installing computers in products, however. It requires fusion strategies, which join what manufacturers do best—creating physical products—with what digital firms do best: mining giant data sets for critical insights. There are four kinds of fusion strategies: Fusion products, like smart glass, are designed from scratch to collect and leverage information on product use in real time. Fusion services, like Rolls-Royce’s service for increasing the fuel efficiency of aircraft, deliver immediate customized recommendations from AI. Fusion systems, like Honeywell’s for building management, integrate machines from multiple suppliers in ways that enhance them all. And fusion solutions, such as Deere’s for increasing yields for farmers, combine products, services, and systems with partner companies’ innovations in ways that greatly improve customers’ performance.

Combining digital and analog machines will upend industrial companies.

Idea in Brief

The problem.

Until recently most incumbent industrial companies didn’t use the most advanced software in their products. But competitors that can extract complex designs, insights, and trends using generative AI have emerged to challenge them.

The Solution

Industrial companies must develop strategies that fuse what they do best—creating physical products—with what digital companies do best: using data and AI to parse enormous, interconnected data sets and develop innovative insights.

The Changes Required

Companies will have to reimagine analog products and services as digitally enabled offerings, learn to create new value from data generated by the combination of physical and digital assets, and partner with other companies to create ecosystems with an unwavering focus on helping customers solve problems.

For more than 187 years, Deere & Company has simplified farmwork. From the advent of the first self-scouring plow, in 1837, to the launch of its first fully self-driving tractor, in 2022, the company has built advanced industrial technology. The See & Spray is an excellent contemporary example. The automated weed killer features a self-propelled, 120-foot carbon-fiber boom lined with 36 cameras capable of scanning 2,100 square feet per second. Powered by 10 onboard vision-processing units handling almost four gigabytes of data per second, the system uses AI and deep learning to distinguish crops from weeds. Once a weed is identified, a command is sent to spray and kill it. The machine moves through a field at 12 miles per hour without stopping. Manual labor would be more expensive, more time-consuming, and less reliable than the See & Spray. By fusing computer hardware and software with industrial machinery, it has helped farmers decrease their use of herbicide by more than two-thirds and exponentially increase productivity.

  • Vijay Govindarajan is the Coxe Distinguished Professor at Dartmouth College’s Tuck School of Business, an executive fellow at Harvard Business School, and faculty partner at the Silicon Valley incubator Mach 49. He is a New York Times and Wall Street Journal bestselling author. His latest book is Fusion Strategy: How Real-Time Data and AI Will Power the Industrial Future . His Harvard Business Review articles “ Engineering Reverse Innovations ” and “ Stop the Innovation Wars ” won McKinsey Awards for best article published in HBR. His HBR articles “ How GE Is Disrupting Itself ” and “ The CEO’s Role in Business Model Reinvention ” are HBR all-time top-50 bestsellers. Follow him on LinkedIn . vgovindarajan
  • Venkat Venkatraman is the David J. McGrath Professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, where he is a member of both the information systems and strategy and innovation departments. His current research focuses on how companies develop winning digital strategies. His latest book is Fusion Strategy: How Real-Time Data and AI Will Power the Industrial Future.  Follow him on LinkedIn . NVenkatraman

Partner Center

Startup Stories: Expanding the Benefits of Automated Market Trading 

A conversation with David Campbell ’22, whose startup ICP Securities (ICPS) leverages its own algorithm to increase liquidity for small- and mid-cap stocks.

David Campbell outside Edward P. Evans Hall

In this series, Karen Guzman talks to student and alumni entrepreneurs about how they are making an impact with their startups.

Founders: David Campbell ’22 and Ian Clark

Venture: ICP Securities (ICPS) specializes in automated market making and liquidity provision. The firm uses its proprietary market making algorithm, ICP Premium, to deliver liquidity and execution services to public issuers and institutional investors in Canada.

What was the moment when you had the idea for this startup?

I work with my co-founder, Ian Clark, at Insight Capital Partners, a capital markets consulting firm. We both have extensive backgrounds in institutional trading. After graduating from Yale SOM in 2022, my experiences and MBA education helped me spot market deficiencies, particularly in liquidity and trading solutions being left behind in the cross-section of traditional and automated trading platforms for small- and mid-cap stocks. We wanted to address this. 

What’s the problem you’re trying to solve or the gap that you’re trying to fill?

In capital markets, automated trading is well established for larger cap equities. But small and mid-cap markets can be hindered by issues like low liquidity and inefficient trading. Investors too often pass on small- and mid-cap stocks that fly under the radar of larger institutions or automated trading strategy providers.

Our proprietary technology, ICP Premium, is a co-located, low-latency algorithm that provides an automated solution for this market segment. By speaking the “language of speed” and demonstrating a low-latency automated trading solution, we can give many of these securities significant improvement in average daily trading volumes and in quote health.

What was the most important resource Yale SOM contributed to your startup?

The Competitive Strategy, Managing Groups and Teams, the Future of Finance, Customer, Colloquia, Negotiations, Workforce, Legal Context of Management and Entrepreneurial Finance courses all played vital roles in helping us establish and shape our firm and our flagship product. The combination of resources, classmates, and faculty were key in supporting us to move boldly forward to create change in a 160-year-old industry

What’s the biggest milestone your startup has hit since graduation?

Our firm was the first to be evaluated and approved by a newly merged regulatory body in Canada, now called the Canadian Investment Regulatory Organization (formerly IIROC). Achieving our registration in an ultra-expedient fashion was an exceptional accomplishment noted by industry peers and regulators alike. 

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IMAGES

  1. Important Time Management Skills For Workplace Success

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  2. The Solution To Your Time Management Problem [Infographic]

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  3. The 5 Steps of Problem Solving

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  5. The Solution To Your Time Management Problem [Infographic] Time

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  6. The Productivity Wheel: How to Manage Your Time to Accomplish Your

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  1. Example 29 on Time & Work

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  3. TOP 5 SOFT SKILLS IN 2023

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COMMENTS

  1. 12 Time-Management Problems (and How To Fix Them)

    1. Low motivation Sometimes, finding the motivation to complete important tasks can be the first obstacle to good time management. For example, you might have experienced a situation when you have plenty of time to complete a particular task but you don't feel like doing so, and so it's left undone.

  2. Common time management problems and solutions

    How to solve the most common time management mistakes Time management mistake #1: Not having a plan Time management mistake #2: Being bad at estimating time Time management mistake #3: Being overwhelmed Time management mistake #4: Letting distractions interfere with work Time management mistake #5: Procrastinating

  3. How to Solve Any Time Management Problem in 4 Steps

    What are effective strategies for developing a problem-solving approach to time management? Powered by AI and the LinkedIn community 1 Identify the problem 2 Generate possible solutions 3...

  4. Common Time Management Problems and Solutions

    Common Time Management Problems and Solutions ActiveCollab Team Project Management How many times have you told yourself, "I want to excel in time management?" Probably too many to remember! Smart time management allows you to work smarter, not harder, which means you get to complete a project in less time.

  5. How to Get Better at Time Management and Problem Solving

    (8-minute read) Two of the most sought after skills in the workplace are time management and problem solving. Time management skills will improve your productivity and help you meet your targets and deadlines, while having problem solving skills will help you make better decisions when it comes to finding and applying the best solutions.

  6. The 8 most common time management challenges (and how to beat them)

    Procrastinating Using your cell phone to respond to communications Not having enough energy Being busy rather than effective Not taking breaks Why time management can be challenging Let's get started. 8 common time management challenges (with solutions)

  7. 20 Most Common Time Management Problems + Tips

    20 Most Common Time Management Problems + Tips No technique can improve your time management until you recognize your flaws. Learn about the most common time management problems and even more hacks and solutions to deal with them.

  8. How to Help an Employee Who Struggles with Time Management

    Identify the emotions you're feeling and why, and assess where there might be times you've contributed to the problem. Then, pinpoint the stress and communicate your needs to your direct ...

  9. Time Management Won't Save You

    Managing yourself Time Management Won't Save You by Dane Jensen June 23, 2021 MirageC/Getty Images Summary. Conventional time management often is ineffective in combating overload and reducing...

  10. How to Get Better at Time Management & Problem Solving

    These steps include: 1. Define the problem in specific terms. Be as specific as possible. 2. Generate as many solutions as possible by brainstorming. 3. Examine the advantages and the disadvantages of each possible solution. The goal is to evaluate all the solutions and identify the optimum.

  11. What Is Time Management? 6 Strategies to Better Manage Your Time

    1. Conduct a time audit. Start by assessing where you actually spend your time. Create a visual map of the approximate hours you spend on work, school, housework and chores, commuting, social media, and leisure activities. Then, you can drill in on school or work, dividing your previous week into days, then hours.

  12. 30+ Crucial Time Management Skills + How to Improve Them

    1 Time Management Skills Examples Time management skills are skills connected with the process of planning and organizing one's activities in order to enhance performance, maximize productivity, and increase efficiency. They allow you to work smarter and get complete more tasks in less time.

  13. Top 10 time management activities and games for productivity

    1. Relieves stress By employing practical time management skills, you'll get more done during the workday. You won't need to pull all-nighters to meet deadlines and can even steer clear of time wasters. As a result, your quality of work will gradually improve — without having to stress about deadlines. 2. Improves your decision-making ability

  14. 9 Key Time Management Skills and How To Improve Them

    Planning A fundamental part of time management is planning. Being efficient in planning out your day, meetings and how you will accomplish things will help you stick to your schedule. 6. Delegation While delegation is most often done by managers, you can also practice delegating tasks if you are managing a project.

  15. Essential Tools: Organization Prioritization, Time Management ...

    Organizational skills such as prioritization, organizing the workspace, time management, form the core basis of good organizational habits. Practical organizational skills include wise planning, time optimization, ... In the wider process of problem solving, decision making involves choosing between possible solutions to a problem.

  16. The Psychology of Time Management and 5 Strategies

    In the end, time management is not an all-or-nothing, or one-magic-strategy type of problem to be solved. Instead, like our other behaviors and life experiences, it is an ongoing dilemma to be ...

  17. 9 Popular Time Management Techniques and Tools

    9 Types of Time Management Techniques. Achieving work life balance is possible with effective time management. Learning time management tips will not only help you manage your time better but also boost personal productivity. With that said, here are some time management strategies you can try: 1. Pareto Analysis (a.k.a., the 80/20 rule)

  18. 7 Problem-Solving Skills That Can Help You Be a More ...

    1. Analysis As a manager, you'll solve each problem by assessing the situation first. Then, you'll use analytical skills to distinguish between ineffective and effective solutions. 2. Communication Effective communication plays a significant role in problem-solving, particularly when others are involved.

  19. How to Improve Your Time Management for Better Mental Health

    Here are 10 time management tips that also help you to reduce distractions and improve your focus: Write down what you need to get done. Turn off distractions. Set and follow your calendar. Write ...

  20. Top 16 Proven Ways to Improve Time Management Skills

    5. Practice Decision Making. What we do with the 24 hours in a day is what makes the real difference in time management. The ability for good decision-making about time is one of the top time management skills. Prioritize and decide which tasks to handle first and say no to. 6.

  21. Problem management: 8 steps to better problem solving

    Problem management helps you solve larger problems and reduce the risk that they'll happen again by identifying all connected problems, solving them, and planning for the future. What is problem management? Problem management is an 8 step framework most commonly used by IT teams.

  22. Time Management

    time management Time management is the process of prioritizing, planning, and methodically organizing the amount of time spent on specific activities or tasks in an effort to increase effectiveness, efficiency, productivity and/or performance.. Time management focuses on the way we use one of our most valuable resource; our time. Without proper time management, people often do not meet their ...

  23. Decision Making, Problem-Solving and Time Management

    We become agitated, apprehensive, and disappointed when we have difficulty managing time and making decisions. This free online time management course will teach you the correct tools and methods and how to apply them so you can rid yourself of the anxiety that comes with decision-making and problem solving. COURSE PUBLISHER -.

  24. The Performance Review Problem

    A mong North American employers:. More than 9 in 10 (93 percent) cited driving organizational performance as a key objective for performance management, yet less than half (44 percent) said their ...

  25. 7 growth stocks that will prove growth is back in 2024

    The first company on this list is from the fintech sector. But Nu Holdings Ltd. (NYSE: NU) may not be well-known to investors. That's because it's not a U.S. company. However, Nu is the largest ...

  26. Heavy Machinery Meets AI

    For more than 187 years, Deere & Company has simplified farmwork. From the advent of the first self-scouring plow, in 1837, to the launch of its first fully self-driving tractor, in 2022, the ...

  27. Startup Stories: Expanding the Benefits of Automated Market Trading

    In this series, Karen Guzman talks to student and alumni entrepreneurs about how they are making an impact with their startups. Founders: David Campbell '22 and Ian Clark Venture: ICP Securities (ICPS) specializes in automated market making and liquidity provision. The firm uses its proprietary market making algorithm, ICP Premium, to deliver liquidity and execution services to public ...