How Does Prioritization Affect Time Management?
Prioritization and time management are very closely related and both are tied to your goals. Prioritization is a system of identifying which tasks are most important on a to-do- list. Once you have identified tasks in order of priority, you can more effectively allocate the right amount of time to each.
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Prioritization Basics
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Prioritization is commonly considered part of organizational skills. In creating work-life balance, it is important to establish prioritize not only for work, but also for your personal life, and to balance these prioritize together as well. Effective prioritization requires setting clear goals. Before you can decide what areas of your life and work should get the most time, you need to know your ultimate objectives.
Time Management
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Time management means getting the most value out of time dedicated to a particular area of activity. For a typical workday, it means getting the most value out of your eight hours. Before you can understand the value you seek, you have to prioritize and know what activities are most important. Once a to-do list has been ranked in order of importance, you can begin to allocate amounts of time to each activity.
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Covey's Matrix
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Stephen Covey, well-known consultant and author of "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People," presented one of the most usable formats to combine prioritization and time management with his Time Management Matrix. He presented this in his "Habit 3: Put First Things First" of the book. His matrix has four quadrants developed by placing high- and low-importance criteria on the vertical axis and high- and low-urgency criteria on the vertical axis. The objective is to categorize your activities in the quadrants based on their level of importance and urgency.
Impact
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Covey explains that the ideal is to have many Quadrant II activities, which are of high importance but not urgent. This means you are prioritizing the importance tasks before them become emergencies. It also means you have to dedicate time to accomplish them. As an example of effective prioritization and time management, a salesperson may have enough current customers to stay busy most of the day each day. However, recognizing the importance of getting new business, he may proactively allocate 30 to 60 minutes daily to prospecting phone calls. By making this a priority early, he avoids it becoming urgent when he is suddenly low on business.
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References
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