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36 MMS October 2017 mmsonline.com

COMPETING IDEAS Columnist

As there are only 24 hours in any day, we must

find ways to use them wisely. Some of us devote

a large portion of these hours to work-related

activities, yet struggle at times to accomplish

what we had hoped. Others seem to invest fewer

hours at their jobs, but somehow get more done.

Those in this second group have the advantage

of having learned how to effectively manage their

time, ultimately allowing them to work smarter,

not harder.

In simple terms, time management is the abil-

ity to use one’s time ef fectively to complete

various tasks. Of course, the ef fective use of

t ime may mean dif ferent things to di f ferent

people, but there are some tested, basic time-

management techniques that can guide us, and

one of these is credited to Dwight Eisenhower,

a very successful military commander and the

34th president of the United States. Eisenhower

was so effective at time management that he

found (or perhaps “created”) time to play golf

during the planning of the D-Day invasion, which

the average person likely would have found to

be a highly stressful and all-consuming activity.

E isenhower used an “urgent / impor tant

principle” to guide him in effectively managing

his time. This principle helps a person prioritize

what he or she should do by determining which

activities are important and which are just dis-

tractions. Eisenhower recognized that great time

management means being effective as well as

ef f icient, and as such, it is essential that one

spends his or her time on things that are impor-

tant and not just urgent.

The difference between important activities

and urgent activities is:

• Important activities have an outcome that

leads to a person achieving his or her own goals.

• Urgent activities demand immediate atten-

tion and are usually associated with achieving

someone else’s goals. They are often the ones

on which we concentrate, and they demand

attention because the consequences of not

dealing with them are immediate.

Eisenhower prioritized activities using the

following matrix (with 1 being the highest prior-

ity and 4 the lowest):

Urgent Not

Urgent

Important 1 2

Not

Important 3 4

Once activities are prioritized, Eisenhower

believed they need to be addressed as follows:

1. Important and Urgent. It is dif f icult to

argue that such activities should not receive the

most attention, yet there are two distinct types

of urgent and important activities: ones that you

Time Management – How Effective are You? Perhaps former President Eisenhower’s method for prioritizing activities can

help you, too.

WAYNE S. CHANESKI

EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

CENTER FOR MANUFACTURING SYSTEMS

NEW JERSEY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY

38 MMS October 2017 mmsonline.com

COMPETING IDEAS Columnist

could not have foreseen and others that you’ve

left until the last minute. You can reduce last-

minute activities by planning ahead and avoiding

procrastination; however, you cannot always

predict or avoid some issues and crises.

The best approach to time management of

important and urgent activities is to leave some

time in your schedule to handle the unexpected

and unplanned.

2. Important, but Not Urgent. These are

the activities that help you achieve your goals

and complete important work. For effective time

management, make sure you plan sufficient time

to do these things properly, so that they do not

fall into the urgent category.

3. Not Important, but Urgent. Urgent-but-

not-important activities prevent you from achiev-

ing your goals. A common source of these

activities is other people.

You should make an effort to reschedule or

delegate such activities whenever possible.

Sometimes, it’s appropriate to say no to people

politely, or to encourage them to handle these

activities themselves, making it clear that you

can provide assistance if they get stuck.

4. Not Important and Not Urgent. These

activities are distractions that prevent other, more

important, activities from getting done. To help

manage your time, you may be able to ignore or

cancel many of them. If others want you to work

on these activities, again, you can attempt to

politely decline and explain your reasons. If you

make your reasons clear to people, they may

avoid approaching you with these types of activ-

ities in the future.

Try this exercise: Think about 10 or so activ-

ities that you have on your plate, and place them

in the urgent/important matrix. How many of

these are in the two important quadrants and

how many are not? Perhaps finding alternate

ways of handling the unimportant activities will

allow you to become a more effective manager

of your time.

Mitutoyo America Corporation | 1-888-mitutoyo | www.mitutoyo.com

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