Time Management or is it really Project Management?

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We have been told since young by others that in order to do something well, we need to have good time management.  As one who leads projects for a living who knows a thing or two about this, I will say that time management is a fallacy. 

Purely speaking, time management (just like managing people) refers to managing time in which we control time, i.e. we can accelerate it (to make it go faster), slow it down, or to stop time. We can do this with a lot of things but we cannot manage time - it continues to chug along, whether we like it or not. If you were to ask me the time and my answer is, say 9:00am, that time is already gone because it is 9:01am when you continue with what you are doing.  Time is like a freight train or a subway that we can only latch on to and hope we can do things within the allotted time. Ask the student who needs to submit the paper at 11:59pm Sunday night or the employee who need to submit the report Mon morning 9:00am. 

In truth, what time management really refers to, is Project Management. 

While we cannot control time, what we can (and should) do is to manage the efforts going into the activity. If we can do it efficiently and effectively, that will result in better "time management". Take a look at the chart below - if we put in the effort and the time it takes to complete the task, the success will follow. 


So, what is the effort that is required?

That is where project management comes in. To me, it is not some lofty thing that many people associate the term "project management" with. For some reason, folks in the industry has elevated project management such that it becomes daunting to most...that you need a PMP or Masters in Project Management to do it well. It does not have to be that way...

To put it simply, project management can be distilled into 5 processes:
  1. Initiating - ask the question, "Why do I want to do this?"
  2. Planning - plan the activities required...could be as simple as having a "to-do" list
  3. Executing - doing the physical work as per the plans
  4. Monitor and Controlling - review if things are working for you, adjust if necessary
  5. Closing - review if we want to do part 2 or if plan B is required 
For more info, I have written a simple 100+ page book which Kobo says will take just 1-2 hours to complete. This is the written version of the Project Management Fundamentals class that I have been teaching in Agilent Technologies (a company making analytical instruments) for 10+ years to folks comprising of engineers, scientists, sales, managers, etc. In the class, I talk about why projects fail, how to be successful, the skills required as well as how to do the project based on the 5 processes. 

Do take a look here if interested....