Task List

Time management refers to a range of skills, tools, and techniques used to manage time when accomplishing specific tasks, projects and goals. This set encompasses a wide scope of activities, and these include planning, allocating, setting goals, delegation, analysis of time spent, monitoring, organizing, scheduling, and prioritizing. Initially time management referred to just business or work activities, but eventually the term broadened to include personal activities as well. A time management system is a designed combination of processes, tools and techniques.

Some authors (such as Stephen R. Covey) offered a categorization scheme for the hundreds of time management approaches that they reviewed

• First generation: reminders based on clocks and watches, but with computer implementation possible; can be used to alert a person when a task is to be done.
• Second generation: planning and preparation based on calendar and appointment books; includes setting goals.
• Third generation: planning, prioritizing, controlling (using a personal organizer, other paper-based objects, or computer or PDA-based systems) activities on a daily basis. This approach implies spending some time in clarifying values and priorities.
• Fourth generation: being efficient and proactive using any of the above tools; places goals and roles as the controlling element of the system and favors importance over urgency.

Some of the recent general arguments related to "time" and "management" point out that the term "time management" is misleading and that the concept should actually imply that it is "the management of our own activities, to make sure that they are accomplished within the available or allocated time, which is an unmanageable continuous resource".

Time management literature paraphrased: "Get Organized" - paperwork and task triage "Protect Your Time" - insulate, isolate, delegate "set gravitational goals" - that attract actions automatically "Achieve through Goal management Goal Focus" - motivational emphasis

• "Work in Priority Order" - set goals and prioritize
• "Use Magical Tools to Get More Out of Your Time" - depends on when written
• "Master the Skills of Time Management"
• "Go with the Flow" - natural rhythms, Eastern philosophy
• "Recover from Bad Time Habits" - recovery from underlying psychological problems, e.g. procrastination

Time management and related concepts

Time management has been considered as subsets of different concepts such as:

• Project management. Time Management, can be considered as a project management subset, and is more commonly known as project planning and project scheduling. Time Management is also been identified as one of the core functions identified in project management .
• Attention management: Attention management relates to the management of cognitive resources, and in particular the time that humans allocate their mind (and organizations the minds of their employees) to conduct some activities.
• Personal knowledge management: see below (Personal time management).

Personal Time Management

Time management strategies are often associated with the recommendation to set goals. These goals are recorded and may be broken down into a project, an action plan, or a simple task list. For individual tasks or for goals, an importance rating may be established, deadlines may be set, and priorities assigned. This process results in a plan with a task list or a schedule or calendar of activities. Authors may recommend a daily, weekly, monthly or other planning periods, usually fixed, but sometimes variable. Different planning periods may be associated with different scope of planning or review. Authors may or may not emphasize reviews of performance against plan. Routine and recurring tasks may or may not be integrated into the time management plan and, if integrated, the integration can be accomplished in various ways.

Task list

A task list (also to-do list ) is a list of tasks to be completed, such as chores or steps toward completing a project. It is an inventory tool which serves as an alternative or supplement to memory.

Task lists are used in self-management, grocery lists, business management, project management, and software development. It may involve more than one list.

When you accomplish one of the items on a task list, you check it off or cross it off. The traditional method is to write these on a piece of paper with a pen or pencil, usually on a note pad or clip-board. Numerous digital equivalents are now available, including PIM (Personal information management) applications and most PDAs. There are also several web-based task list applications, many of which are free.

Task list organization

Task lists are often tiered. The simplest tiered system includes a general to-do list (or task-holding file) to record all the tasks the person needs to accomplish, and a daily to-do list which is created each day by transferring tasks from the general to-do list.

Task lists are often prioritized:

• An early advocate of "ABC" prioritization was Alan Lakein (See Books below.). In his system "A" items were the most important ("A-1" the most important within that group), "B" next most important, "C" least important.

• A particular method of applying the ABC method assigns "A" to tasks to be done within a day, "B" a week, and "C" a month.

• To prioritize a daily task list, one either records the tasks in the order of highest priority, or assigns them a number after they are listed ("1" for highest priority, "2" for second highest priority, etc.) which indicates in which order to execute the tasks. The latter method is generally faster, allowing the tasks to be recorded more quickly.

Alternatives to Prioritizing:

A completely different approach which argues against prioritising altogether was put forward by British author Mark Forster in his book "Do It Tomorrow and Other Secrets of Time Management". This is based on the idea of operating "closed" to-do lists, instead of the traditional "open" to-do list. He argues that the traditional never-ending to-do lists virtually guarantees that some of your work will be left undone. This approach advocates getting all your work done, every day, and if you are unable to achieve it helps you diagnose where you are going wrong and what needs to change. Recently, Forster developed the "Autofocus Time Management System", which further systematizes working a to-do list as a series of closed sublists and emphasizes intuitive choices.

Software applications

Modern task list applications may have built-in task hierarchy (tasks are composed of subtasks which again may contain subtasks), may support multiple methods of filtering and ordering the list of tasks, and may allow one to associate arbitrarily long notes for each task.

In contrast to the concept of allowing the person to use multiple filtering methods, at least one new software product additionally contains a mode where the software will attempt to dynamically determine the best tasks for any given moment.

Many of the software products for time management support multiple users. It allows the person to give tasks to other users and use the software for communation

Task list applications may be thought of as lightweight personal information manager or project management software.

Resistors

• Fear of change: Change can be daunting and one may be afraid to change what's proven to work in the past.

• Uncertainty: Even with the change being inevitable, one may be hesitant as being not sure where to start. Uncertainty about when or how to begin making a change can be significant.

• Time pressure: To save time, one has to invest time, and this time investment may be a cause of concern. Fearing that changing may involve more work at the start—and thus, in the very short term, make things worse—is a common resistor.

Attention Deficit Disorder

Excessive and chronic inability to manage time effectively may be a result of Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). Diagnostic criteria includes: A sense of underachievement, difficulty getting organized, trouble getting started, many projects going simultaneously and trouble with follow-through.

• The Prefrontal Cortex: The Prefrontal Cortex is the most evolved part of the brain. It controls the functions of attention span, impulse control, organization, learning from experience and self-monitoring, among others. Some authors argue that changing the way the prefrontal cortex works is possible and offers a solution.

Drivers

• Increased effectiveness: One may feel the need to make more time so as to be more effective in performing the job and carrying out responsibilities.

• Performance improvement: Time management is an issue that often arises during performance appraisals or review meetings.

• Personal development: One may view changing the approach to time management as a personal development issue and reap the benefit of handling time differently at work and at home.

• Increased responsibilities: A change in time-management approach may become necessary as a result of a promotion or additional responsibilities. Since there is more work to do, and still th