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Time Management for the Yuppy

Techniques to get the most done

The Yuppies (Young Urban Professionals), especially the creative ones, their Achilles heel has to be that their isn’t enough time in a day to match and/or sustain their ideas. Juggling work, school, family, and social relationships, the Yuppy can at times feel flustered; upstairs, the mind is working at light speed, but there just does not seem to be an abundant amount of time to keep up with the ideas. So the key to this problem, must be trying to organize the ideas into manageable tasks and goals, then creating a plan to attack such. At times, that may be easier said than done, so I have compiled a list of some practiced time management techniques that can help make you the ambitious, creative, and innovative individual that you seek to be:

Contemporary Time Management

First generation: reminders (based on clocks and watches, but with computer implementation possible) can be used to alert of the time when a task is to be done.
Second generation: planning and preparation (based on calendar and appointment books) includes setting goals.
Third generation: planning, prioritizing, controlling (using a personal organizer, other paper-based objects, or computer- or PDA-based systems) activities on a daily basis. This approach implies spending some time in clarifying values and priorities.
Fourth generation: being efficient and proactive (using any tools above) places goals and roles as the controlling element of the system and favors importance over urgency.

For the Yuppy, and much of the younger generation, I think we are currently in the fourth generation where we use the tools in the first to third generation, and we prioritize goals based on its significance to its overall effect or processes.

Task lists are often tiered. The simplest tiered system includes a general to-do list (or task-holding file) to record all the tasks the person needs to accomplish, and a daily to-do list which is created each day by transferring tasks from the general to-do list.

Task List Organization by Prioritization:

An early advocate of “ABC” prioritization was Alan Lakein (See Books below.). In his system “A” items were the most important (“A-1” the most important within that group), “B” next most important, “C” least important.
A particular method of applying the ABC method assigns “A” to tasks to be done within a day, “B” a week, and “C” a month.
To prioritize a daily task list, one either records the tasks in the order of highest priority, or assigns them a number after they are listed (“1” for highest priority, “2” for second highest priority, etc.) which indicates in which order to execute the tasks. The latter method is generally faster, allowing the tasks to be recorded more quickly.

ABC analysis

This technique that has been used in business management for a long time is the categorization of large data into groups. These groups are often marked A, B, and C—hence the name. Activities are ranked upon these general criteria:

A – Tasks that are perceived as being urgent and important.
B – Tasks that are important but not urgent.
C – Tasks that are neither urgent nor important.
Each group is then rank-ordered in priority. To further refine priority, some individuals choose to then force-rank all “B” items as either “A” or “C”. ABC analysis can incorporate more than three groups. ABC analysis is frequently combined with Pareto analysis.

Pareto analysis

This is the idea that 80% of tasks can be completed in 20% of the disposable time. The remaining 20% of tasks will take up 80% of the time. This principle is used to sort tasks into two parts. According to this form of Pareto analysis it is recommended that tasks that fall into the first category be assigned a higher priority. The 80-20-rule can also be applied to increase productivity: it is assumed that 80% of the productivity can be achieved by doing 20% of the tasks. If productivity is the aim of time management, then these tasks should be prioritized higher.

POSEC method

POSEC is an acronym for Prioritize by Organizing, Streamlining, Economizing and Contributing. The method dictates a template which emphasizes an average individual’s immediate sense of emotional and monetary security. It suggests that by attending to one’s personal responsibilities first, an individual is better positioned to shoulder collective responsibilities.

PRIORITIZE-Your time and define your life by goals.
ORGANIZING-Things you have to accomplish regularly to be successful. (Family and Finances)
STREAMLINING-Things you may not like to do, but must do. (Work and Chores)
ECONOMIZING-Things you should do or may even like to do, but they’re not pressingly urgent. (Pastimes and Socializing)
CONTRIBUTING-By paying attention to the few remaining things that make a difference. (Social Obligations)

In the end, it comes down in really spitting out all of your ideas fully, in its totality, and then methodically attacking each task until its completion – easier said than done, trust me I know, but equipped with the right tools, and the right mindset, and a reduction in the wrong stresses/stressors, any task can be meet.

.:: LiBM ::.