Time management activities
Activities to bring life under control

There are many time management activities such as delegation, goal setting, task lists and so on.  Relating these activities to the theories described can be daunting.  It isn't always obvious how to relate theory and practice.

I've put together 3 stages of time management activities to allow you to relate to the Abraham Maslow theory.  You can of course follow a similar method to relate to all of the theories.  Follow these activities and it should become obvious how to firstly relate to the theories and then use them to build your own understanding.

Stage 1: Assess Yourself

Hopefully you'll have read through some of the theory section already and perhaps completed the wants assessment.  If you haven't, this is the first place to start.  Read the complementary article to this time management activities page.

You need to understand what it is you want to achieve before you'll be able to successfully achieve it.  The wants assessment sets out at a high level what it is you are really seeking to get out of life.

Remember that this is only the start of the process for wants assessments and time management activities.  Your wants change over time so you will need to come back and redo this process on a regular basis.

Armed with your completed wants assessment you now need to assess each level of the hierarchy of needs in relation to your wants assessment:

I've taken the wants assessment criteria and placed them along the top of the table and the hierarchy needs down the left hand side.  The next bit is generally the tricky bit, the bit where you put in numbers.

Filling in values in a table like this is always hard.  It's hard because there is no right or wrong answer and generally no clear question being asked.  I filled in this table using test values to show you the method.

You can see in the first row physiological I've only put a number against health.  This is because when I review the hierarchy at that level it's really only about survival.  I imagine that most people reading this are surviving okay.  You're not short of food or water and are probably pretty healthy.  So I put 10 out of 10.

Safety needs I included wealth and work as well as health.  These two wants are generally pretty important to your ongoing safety.  If you don't have money coming in then the physiological needs are going to be hit pretty quickly.  I included career since it is typically a generator of income for most people.

As part of completing these time management activities I continued working through the table on that basis filling in numbers for an imaginary person.  At the end I then put it in a spreadsheet and graphed the results:

This graph is what I would expect for most people assessing their time management activities.  You can see that at the left hand side (the bottom of the hierarchy) things are going pretty well.  There are lots of high numbers and the graph is positive.  The only issue seems to be around career.

I imagined that the person creating this graph was a bit worried about their career and everything that goes with it.  So this is reflected in the graph.  This is good information since it helps to focus on that area.  This person is doing okay on the higher end in some places but that underlying foundation is a problem.

To bring their life into balance something really needs to be done to shore up the safety needs.  Perhaps looking for a new job or acquiring new skills.  If this isn't tackled then there is likely to be a problem in the future.  This person is going to have constant worries at a low level eating away at them.  They need to fix this issue.

I also see on the graph that the top two levels of the hierarchy are pretty similar in heights.  This should be looked at.  I'd expect the graph to fall from left to right in height.  This means practically that you should be building up the lower layers first and then building up the upper layers.

Stage 2: Planning

Now stage 1 of your time management activities assessment is complete you need to let it sit in your mind for a few days.  This is a process that takes time and can't be rushed.  Turn your attention now to planning.  Hopefully you'll have built your high level year plan by now.  If not have a look at time management strategies which explains about overview planning.

Your yearly plan sets out what you currently expect to do during the coming year.  You can tell at a glance for any part of the year what is likely to happen.  Hopefully you'll have also translated this into short term planning task lists.

This stage of time management activities is about taking your current yearly plan and reassessing it in light of the hierarchy and wants tables.  Unfortunately there is no magic formula for this.  You need to start at the current month and work through each item in turn.

Figure out for each item where it contributes for you.  Does it contribute at the higher levels or the lower levels?  If we go back to our imaginary person and look at their plan we'll find it filled with holidays, anniversaries and church events.  The one thing that would be noticeable is the lack of any plan to sort out their career.  So they need to go back and think through what it is they are going to do to bolster that foundation part of the hierarchy.

As you work your way through the months and the tasks you've put into each month you should be able to see where you need to change focus.  You should now be in a position to rebuild the yearly plan but with a few more activities built in to support your plan from a hierarchy and wants point of view.

Before moving onto stage 3 you should again let the work you've done sit around for a few days.  Don't rush at this stage.  Taking your time will provide dividends later.

Stage 3: Implement

By now you will have completed stages 1 and 2 of you time management activities assessment.  You should now have your year plan with the high level view of the tasks you need to undertake.  You now need to turn that into a practical action plan.  You need a plan that won't waste time and will move you forward with your life quickly.

Across this site there are many time management ideas and techniques that you can adopt.  However I think that practically to enable you to follow through on this process you should concentrate on getting your task lists to work and work well.

Focus now on your Do Later task list.  Build up activities within it that will meet the overall plan for the year.  Make sure that you understand how this plan pulls together and remember why it'll work for you.  Remember that you are building up form the bottom of the hierarchy.  You'll have strong foundations and that the tasks you're undertaking are focused on success.

To complete this 3 stage process you now need to put in place a series of measures so that you can monitor your progress.

I personally think that in measurement terms simple is always best.  Pick on one or two of the hierarchy and wants areas that really matter to you and set a review date in 3 months.  Put it in your schedule.  Better still commit to it by telling your wife or trusted friend what you are doing.  Get them to do the assessment with you.

Remember that time management activities is all about making sure you take action based on sound techniques and theory.