Time is all you have. Master your time and you master your life. Time management is one of those wonderful, timeless topics with so many lessons and so many great mentors. To get a better view on time management, we can first “stand on the shoulder’s of giants.” To do so, let’s take a stroll through some words of wisdom from our sages of the ages.

Who doesn’t want more time? We all want more time to do the things we want to do. The reality is, we have to make the most of the time we’ve got. The real problem is we spend time on the wrong things, we do things the least efficient way, or we simply let time expand to fill its container (see Parkinson’s Law.) The real key to improving time management is first changing how you think about your time and taking steps to own how you spend it.

There are 4 key time wasters that show up from management and organizational ineffectiveness. One time waster is a recurring crisis. This means there’s a lack of system foresight to anticipate and respond effectively. Another time waster is friction and feuding among teams. This is usually a sign of overstaffing. Another time waster is too many meetings. Too many meetings are often a sign of the wrong organizational structure. Another significant time waster is bad information. People need accurate, relevant, timely information to do do their jobs well.

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Time boxing is a way to chunk up time and get results.  If you continuously miss windows of opportunity or spend all of your time in one area of your life at the expense of others, time boxing can be one of your best tools.   A time box is simply a limited set of time to accomplish a result.  Think of it as how much work can you get done in a given block of time.  I use it to organize my day, drive project results, make incremental …

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It’s been a few years since I met with Loren Kohnfelder. Every now and then Loren and I play catch up. Loren is former Microsoft. If you don’t know Loren, he’s famous for designing the CLR security model and IE security zones several years ago. He created a model for more fine-grained control over security decisions and he’s a constant advocate for simplifying security.
The last time we met we had some pretty interesting discussions.  You might think two guys that do security stuff would talk about …

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I often here the argument, “if I had more time for this or that, I could …”  Well, unfortunately, having more time doesn’t always mean getting more done.  It doesn’t guarantee getting the right things done either.  The secret to time management isn’t more time management hacks at all.   It’s knowing the vital few keys that really make a difference.

Keys to Time ManagementHere’s the keys I’ve found:

Manage energy, not time.
Make room for your big rocks.
Use anticipation to drive versus react.

Manage Energy, Not …

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What are the keys to effective time management?  How do successful people manage their time?  They log and analyze their time.  They use deadlines.  They know that time is the scarcest resource.  They master their own time management to improve their contribution and effectiveness.  In The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on Management (Collins Business Essentials), Peter F. Drucker writes that you should “know thy time.”
Log and Analyze Your Time
Drucker writes that effective people perpetually work on their time management:
And …

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To effectively manage your time, you first need to know where it goes.  Don’t rely on your memory.  The problem is you’ll think you spend time where you should spend your time.  Your memory will fool you.  In The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on Management (Collins Business Essentials), Peter F. Drucker writes about logging your time rather than relying on memory.
Key Take AwaysHere’s my key take aways:

To manage your time, you need to know where it goes.  In order to …

What are best practices for time management?  How do effective people manage their time?  How do effective people manage to consistently get the most important things done each week?  They consolidate their discretionary time.  One approach is to work from home one day a week.  Another approach is to push your administrative work to Mondays and Fridays, and then use Tuesdays, Wednesday’s, and Thursdays to focus on your high priority work.  In The Essential Drucker: The Best of Sixty Years of Peter Drucker’s Essential Writings on Management (Collins Business Essentials), …