Top Time Management Tips For Students

The time management skills and disciplines that you develop as a student can help you for the rest of your life. Those skills that we as parents help our children to develop as the same thing

Sometimes we get so many tips, as parents and as students, most of them are theory , using  simple task board , agile thinking and scrum framework will take those tips from idea to action.

Here are some tips and practices to help students (in various ages)  develop good time management skills.

My most effective time to get things done

My most effective time to get things done

Beyond the fact that I hold a backlog including all those tasks I need to do, I do need to get them done in the most effective and efficient way. With all other things I need to consider and plan I also need to pay attention to the timing of those tasks. After all, there are tasks that are bounded by time. For instance, what good it will do to brush my teeth and then eat a good meal just before going to bed and not the other way around? 

As part of the agile method and especially when implementing scrum, we are used to stop at the end of every sprint (iteration), look ahead and plan our coming sprint tasks. This is also a good opportunity to take a look at those tasks timing and reflect over the best time to execute them. There may be a verity of reasons to execute tasks in a specific time frame or another, after all each of us holds different goals, tasks and time considerations.

As in any new techniques, we don’t have to start using it if we have no problem executing our tasks. It really aims to those tasks that needs a special timing consideration such as :  an outstanding bunch of tasks; Tasks that require a special concentration; Tasks that holds dependencies to other tasks; Tasks that holds progress from other activities and many more…

All you have to do is:

• Look ahead and identify those most effective time frames (according to the task time, urgency, needs, time frame limitations, priority…)

Ask yourself, what are my best weekdays to perform those tasks? What is my best time of day to perform those tasks?

It may happen that in each week there are different time and week days to perform the same tasks.

For example:

Maybe you are a morning/night person? So there are types of tasks that demand a high level of concentration that you want to perform at this time frame only.

Will it be easier to address emails at the beginning of my working day or at the end of it? Maybe both? Or maybe if I just take few thin slices of time during the day to cover the accumulating amount of emails and messages will be the best timing for this task? (BTW , the last one is my favorite)

There are tasks that weekdays and day time will enforce our timing, such as…the best time to work with my sun over his final class assignment will be the weekend.  Or , the best time to walk the dog is in the morning, otherwise…

• The next step will be to Create visibility to those most effective hours.A task board with special time zones may be great, or tasks divided according to weekdays and more…
• Act accordingly.
• Make sure to retrospect over the effective and efficient of the performance of those tasks according to the time frame set. If needed, change it.
• And as always, don’t forget to have fun.

Lets take a look at few examples I have gathered:

A father that marks Wednesdays in his calendar as the best days to spend some time with his kids. Obvious, right!?

Keep in mind that this visualization not only acts as a good reminder but also creates a level of commitment to this type of task.

The clock- the clock creates a good understanding over the time we may or may not perform a specific task. These can be used for homework tasks, play hours and more….

The following table presents a time frame where I produce the most value during the day. Therefore, I will target my tasks to these hours.

It may be that my type of work is such that I would prefer doing the ”paper work” early in the morning, and the coaching stuff, meeting and face to face communication later on intothe day when other people are around.

The following is a chart showing Light and Time of Day. What's the best time of day to go painting outdoors?

http://mchesleyjohnson.blogspot.co.il/2013/02/light-and-time-of-day.html

When is the right time to publish one of my blog posts?

On Sunday when no one from my American readers is on the web, or on Friday when no one of my Israeli readers is on the web?

http://readwrite.com/2012/01/27/whens_the_best_time_to_blog_share

Easily estimating our home made Kanban tasks

A lot has already been written about Agile project estimation, and people practice task size estimation to varying degrees, as knowing how long your tasks will take helps achieve a better control and understanding towards the project’s delivery. Kanban is a bit deferent in terms of estimation since the items suppose to be close to being in the same size. Estimation in this sense is having our items closer to the size we can achieve them.  There are many techniques that you can apply, and of course, arguments as to why each one is obviously the best.

I think that sometimes we can agree that we cannot avoid estimating/sizing  our features and our tasks for a software project that has a budget, time line and content. We all know that estimation is a complicated thing to do, and that we learn how to get better at it by making lots of mistakes along the way. We also know that our estimates are probably wrong most of the time (at least at the beginning) and the best way to deal with it is to develop a continues improvement thinking of how to improve our time estimations, and of course, how to manage the inevitable delays. but we do know that when working on a 'small' size tasks is a good start for achiving them and the entire project delivery.

So how, you ask, do you balance task estimation with the limitations when using Agile and Kanban for ourselves and inside our family?

The answer is, of course, “it depends”.
Using Agile and Kanban at home is a bit different when it comes to estimating tasks. After all, can we expect our kids to estimate the time it takes them to tidy their room or to have their homework done? And should we even ask them to? but we can work on an achivable size of tasks.

In cases when we have set budgets and time-lines, it’s probably best to try to estimate our tasks as best as possible. Grading exams, or working on a university seminar are good examples. I’d even toss in a burn-down chart, but that’s a different discussion. Appointments and meetings could also be a good project to estimate your tasks for - A meeting takes 45 minutes, and I make sure I have a 15 minute break between meetings. So I can have five or six meetings a day, and still make sure that I have a break.

But  do we need this level of estimation for kids and family chores?

No. You don’t. There are other ways to get things done and still be able to size them to fit our needs. In my opinion Estimation is not so needed in Kanban since the items suppose to be closed to being in the same size. Estimation in this sense is having our items closer to the size we can achieve them. Its all about identify this ‘size’.

Here is a nice technique, often used in verity of software projects,  that will help you size your tasks so that you’ll be able to achieve more.

1.       Create your backlog and visualize it.

Visualize whatever you need to do. Once all the tasks are on the board, tasks become easy to manage and size. It also becomes easier to understand the size of the tasks one against the other.

2.       Use three types for a rough estimation.
Small
Medium
Big

** Very big - optional

The ‘sizing estimation’ in this step acts as  a big container allowing us to identify and separate tasks into different chunks.

you can create a column for each size, or give each size a different-colored sticky.

Now, ask your child to size his tasks according to what he thinks and place the in the Right column on the board.

3.       Listen and learn.

Remember when you where a child, places look bigger to you then they look today? That’s how your kids see their tasks. A lot bigger than they do to us. So listen and ask questions to make sure you understand the size of the task as it appears to your children:

What is a small task?

What is a big task? What makes it big?

Compare tasks to understand how the child sees the terms of 'big' and 'small'.

4.       Once  you have all the important tasks, divide big tasks into smaller ones.

Following an example of a big task the better be split to smaller ones:

5.       Stick to the small-medium tasks and prioritize your tasks.

6.       Pick one or two tasks, and off we go.

7.       Not everything at home needs to be estimated. In fact almost everything does not.

For example: let's say we have 2 days to complete learning to a math exam. Then the estimation may be a rough one: what is supposed to be done in the first day and what is our child expected to finish in the second day. We can then discuss each task and try to understand if it's in the first or second day. We can then use rough estimations for tasks that we think will need it.

So try to keep things simple . 

Rough estimation may be "just enough" at home with our kids: whenever we have a big task to do , let's examine our needs, divide it to smaller tasks to the size of 'just enough'.

Remember, we are dealing with kids not hi-tech employees. Visualization works for them much more. The same goes for colors, and playing games, and the fact that we parents are involved makes it even better. They love being with us, and they love it when we listen to them.

So, while this simple technique will help them learn how to estimate task sizes, and stick to what is really important to do without the burden of time pressure.

And as always , keep it simple , and don't forget to have fun along the way.

Time management games, multitasking and Agile

OK, I confess, I can find the Agile connection in nearly everything. It’s just that practising Agile at home is not just a fantastic communication tool, it also teaches us how to manage ourselves better, more goal oriented and effective.

In one of my earlier posts, I explained how we should manage our task lists better, and see what needs to be done, using the Eisenhower Method. The Eisenhower Method is a basic time management method.

Today, I’d like to suggest we play games. Yes, I said games. Computer games, that do nothing but make your kids spend hours in front of a screen.

Apparently, that’s not true. Really.

When I started to look more into games that seemed a complete waste of time, I noticed that some of them have serious aspects of how to be effective and manage your time in the best possible way.

I believe that experience is built from training, and intuition is built on the ability to make choices, to ‘feel’ what’s right, based on previous experience. And these games, that consist of a message and constraints, such as ‘manage a pizzeria’, are exactly that. These games force us to practice our efficiency and speed, to focus, and to achieve our goals. The game trains the player to be goal-oriented, but also effective, teaching you something that you can’t learn just from talking about it, and it’s no secret that children learn the best by playing. So do adults, by the way.

So stop bothering me. I’ve got pizza to make.

"Refurbish a rundown castle and turn it into a pizza palace! Armed with their secret family recipe, Rebecca and Robert are out to build a successful pizzeria franchise. Save money to spend on new appliances, better menu items or developing their skills. Accumulate enough to open a second location in an even more unique setting. Restaurant management has never been so fun!

·       

• Multi tasking demanding high efficiency to serve a lot of customers with the right order and the right time.
• Grow your business - Buy new items and upgrade your restaurant
• Set up higher  goals every round
• Explore 50 challenging levels"

Turbo Pizza forum: http://forums.bigfishgames.com/forums/show/774.page

More games:

http://www.candystand.com/play/time-management-games

http://www.download-free-games.com/download/cat/task_management/

How to decide what to do? – Another way to order the ‘To-Do’ column

Lets say we have a lot of issues at hand, and we need to decide what to do first. The catch here is, that we need to decide as a group (we’ve already discussed the benefit of a group and empowerment before). The group leader (teacher/ manager) agrees that the best way to have an assignment completed in the best possible way, and get people highly motivated and have fun, will be to allow the team/class to decide on their own.

But we have so many issues at hand and only a short time frame to make our decision. So  how are we all going to agree in, say, an hour?

Imagine we are in a classroom where the class has tons of many social assignments, from which they need to pick just two activities that will benefit the entire school and probably win them a prize. But again, there’s a catch. What if they don’t win? Well, even then, at least they had fun and achieved the feeling of success and accomplishment.

The technique, a simple sort of brain storm that I’ll show you, is a very common "game" we play almost in every implementation in the industry or wherever. In fact, I even remember playing it when I was in the Girl Scouts.

So why not try it out at home or in the class room?!

So ,We have a huge list of idea we want to achieve.

1.       Ask the each class/ team member to offer two ideas and write them down on a sticky note.

Paint the school fence

Build a Muskie over in the lobby

Clean the tree area

Have an party during one of the breaks

 Create an hour of fun for first grader

Build a coffee shop for the next parents day

**No one can object to a team member idea at this point.

2.       Once every one is done , each team member has ten seconds to present his idea and place it on the board in the order of its importance.

3.       If more then one team members have the same idea, they add their note to the note already on the board.

4.       Each team member in his turn will  add his note to the board and place it according to the priority he thinks it has.

5.       The next step  may be done in two different ways:

a.        The ideas that got the most votes are selected.

b.       We can ask each team member to grade the ideas 1-5, (or whatever points we like to use) and see what two ideas got the most points.

6.       Discuss the ideas selected: drill down into practical tasks.

7.       Examine again the effort of this idea selected vs. the effort needed. Do we still want this idea or not?

The point is that

1.       We have an open discussion.

2.       Everybody’s  ideas are visible.

3.       We select the ideas as a group.

4.       We can change our mind after we have selected an idea.

5.       And, we can do this every time we have lots of things to do. A project can be a trip or a birthday party , or an event or something we are planning to do, and there are always more than one way to do things.

a.       Place the high priority ideas higher , and the rest of assignments as a wish list inside your backlog.

b.       We now have a visibility over more then only two things we wish to do.

A trip to San Diego

The Four Quadrants of the To Do list

Stick to the important, before it becomes urgent.

Here’s another way to manage the ‘To do’  list when there are many tasks that need to be taken care of , immediately, or in the long run. This method is also very useful when we find ourselves doing nothing but putting out fires. 

Instead of just putting out the fires, and constantly chasing after the daily tasks, we should stop for five minutes, and even without knowing time management theories, simply present our tasks in a visual way. That way we can start working on what’s REALLY important, and stop the constant crisis breaking out.

So what DO you do?

Start off with KISS. Keep It Simple.

Now, how can we manage the task list better?

Let’s divide our tasks into four, like below:

Now, start adding your tasks to the board, each task according to how important and urgent it really is.

(Of course, when it comes to Agile Kids, we do this as a family).

This way, the task board appears much clearer, and we know what needs to be done.

This is known as the Eisenhower Method.

Now, when you want to complete a task, just follow these simple rules to determine if it’s REALLY what you need to do next.

1.     Stick to the important
Sometimes you find that what’s really important as a family - like reading a book to your children, or talking to them - isn’t urgent, so it keeps getting postponed. Don’t forget that what you don’t do today, will come to haunt you in the future as a crisis. So if the task is important  - make sure you complete it. 

2.     Start with those that are due soon and assign them with a date and an owner.

3.     Then work on those tasks that may be due later.

4.     Delegate urgent and non important issues.

5.     Make sure to review your tasks from time to time and see if their position in the four quadrants has changed.