6 principles of scientific and effective time management 2024

Time management principles are one of the important factors that help businesses improve work efficiency and optimally use human resources. Join 1C Vietnam to immediately refer to 6 important principles to help make time management simple and easy to apply in businesses.

1. What is time management?

Time management is the process of planning daily work, in order to determine clear and specific work goals, ensuring that each employee makes useful use of their time during the day. When properly applying time management principles , businesses can improve efficiency and complete work in the shortest time.

2. Why is it necessary to manage time in business?

Applying time management principles will bring different benefits to each person. Below are 3 benefits that businesses can achieve when applied properly:

• Achieve maximum efficiency at work: Effective time management will help employees allocate time to tasks appropriately, determine which tasks need priority and need to be done later. In addition, if you arrange and manage your time scientifically, employees can save maximum time and effort and optimize work performance.
• Reduce pressure, have time for yourself: Reasonable time allocation will help reduce work pressure every day, employees will have more time to develop themselves, relax,...
• Seize new opportunities: Applying time management principles is the fastest way for employees to plan to learn and accumulate new knowledge. At the same time, employees can evaluate the quality of work, provide solutions to problems that slow progress or do not reach a common consensus at work to avoid wrong and hasty decisions.

3. 6 principles of effective time management that cannot be ignored

To get the most out of time management, employees need to follow specific rules. Below are the 6 most effective and scientific time management principles that employees can refer to.

3.1. SMART principles

SMART principles are a set of criteria designed to ensure employees can achieve goals within certain time frames. The time management principle in SMART is made up of 5 elements with the letters representing S - M - A - R - T respectively, specifically:

• S (Specific): This factor requires employees to set specific goals such as naming, giving reasons, who will do it, how to do it, steps to do it,...
• M (Measurable): This factor refers to quantifying the goal with specific numbers. This is the basis for employees to monitor work progress and performance.
• A (Achievable): This is the factor that indicates the realism of the goals. That is, employees must ensure that the set goals are achievable and consistent with the business's existing capabilities and resources.
• R (Relevant): The goals set must be associated with specific benefits. This is a way to help employees have an overview of the process of completing goals, avoiding wasting time and effort.
• T (Time bound): Each goal needs a deadline to complete. This is an important factor in measuring effectiveness for goals.

3.2. 4D Principle

4D time management principles help employees control their work more easily with this method. Specifically, employees can proceed according to the following rules:

• D1 (Do - Do): employees should prioritize quickly resolving important tasks.
• D2 (Dump - Give up): Easily give up or do later on tasks that do not bring value and are not necessary. This will help employees focus on completing important tasks that create great value.
• D3 (Delegate - Assign work): Ready to assign important tasks to those with the best qualifications or ability to complete them. This helps balance the workload while still ensuring work is completed more effectively.
• D4 (Defer): Postpone and plan for later tasks that are less important and cannot be completed immediately. However, employees should be careful not to postpone too many tasks in one day.

3.3. Pareto Principle 80/20

The 80/20 principle (also known as Pareto) states that 80% of achievements are created from 20% of valuable work. That means employees need to identify and prioritize tasks that will create the most value. After completing these items, employees can continue to complete tasks that are not direct or produce less efficiency.

3.4. Principle 40 - 30 - 20 -10

Similar to the 80/20 principle, the 40 - 20 - 30 - 10 rule is applied to subjects that cannot be identified in the 20% of important priorities. With this method, employees can arrange and allocate detailed time for each task. Employees can apply the 40 - 30 - 20 -10 time management principle as follows:

• Allocate 40% of your time to the most important tasks.
• Allocate 30% of your time to the second most important tasks.
• Allocate 20% of your time to the third most important things.
• The remaining 10% of time is for linking tasks together.

In fact, the 40 - 20 - 30 - 10 rule is often applied when employees have too many tasks that need to be prioritized each day. At this time, employees need to organize their work and allocate time based on different levels of importance. To achieve work efficiency, employees must ensure that they complete the activities in the first 3 groups. This is also the reason why these 3 work groups account for 90% of working time. Therefore, arranging and allocating time to determine the priority order of work is the key to success with this principle.

3.5. Pomodoro Principle

Pomodoro is an effective time management principle for people who are easily distracted, lack focus, or when limited in time and have too much work to complete. Employees can apply Pomororo by following these steps:

• Step 1: Identify tasks that need to be prioritized.
• Step 2: Set the timer for 25 minutes (time can increase or decrease depending on workload). Then, employees need to "hypnotize" their minds about completing the work within that time period.
• Step 3: Focus your mind and energy to complete the goal and only stop when the timer rings.
• Step 4: After completing the goal, employees should mark the work done, check the effectiveness of maximum concentration and spend 5 - 10 minutes to rest.
• Step 5: Continue repeating this process continuously. At the end of 4 Pomodoro cycles, employees can take longer breaks, about 15 - 30 minutes.

3.6. Parkinson's Law

According to Parkinson's principles of time management , the more time a person spends on a task, the more effort it will take to complete that task. Therefore, employees need to set a separate time limit for each task.

To apply Parkinson's principle effectively, employees must create time pressure by forcing themselves to complete work on time. This way will help train discipline, improve concentration and the habit of completing deadlines on time.

In addition, combining Parkinson's time management principles with the 2-minute method will help increase time management effectiveness. Accordingly, employees need to immediately complete tasks that can be done in 2 minutes or less. Instead of hesitating between tasks, employees can complete small tasks quickly, speeding up the effective completion of tasks during the day.

4. Tips for managing time at work

• Clearly define work goals

The essence of time management is to arrange and divide tasks reasonably. Therefore, employees need to set clear goals to strive for completion. Taking detailed notes on tasks will help employees work more purposefully and effectively.

• Arrange work priorities

Creating a detailed plan is not enough. According to time management principles , employees need to prioritize each task. This will help determine which tasks should be prioritized to complete first and last. Below are 4 priority levels that employees can refer to:

• Important and urgent: These are tasks that employees must do first and complete during the day.
• Important and not urgent: These are tasks that do not need to be done immediately.
• Urgent and not important: This is a group of tasks that need to be done immediately but are not too important. So, employees can complete these tasks first but without spending too much time.
• Not urgent and not important: These are tasks that should be done last or can be skipped if there is not enough time.

• Control your concentration

Concentration control is one of the extremely effective time management principles. In fact, employees are easily distracted and dominated due to their tendency to lose focus at work. The biggest distractions for employees are phones and computers, so employees need to control themselves from these factors.

• Plan and allocate time effectively

Building a detailed work plan is an important time management principle that helps employees determine the start and end times for each task. In particular, employees can use their time during the day reasonably, avoiding affecting other tasks.

In addition, employees should not do too many things at the same time, because the nature of each person's work and productivity is different. Therefore, employees should perform each task to achieve the best efficiency and quality of work.

• Be aware and change to be most suitable

In fact, the workload at each time will be different. Therefore, employees need to evaluate and adjust to suit their time budget.

• Ensure logic and science

Ensuring logic in your work plan is an important time management principle . Setting up a scientific timetable will help employees more easily complete the work. If employees do not know how to allocate time appropriately, they can learn from experienced people or through supporting documents and software.

• Minimize “dead” time

Having too much "dead" time during the day will make employees disoriented and lazy. Therefore, employees should arrange the "deadline" for each task in the most reasonable way to minimize "dead" time. However, employees should also give themselves appropriate breaks to relax and recharge.

• Create discipline for yourself

Employees need to create discipline for themselves to apply effective time management principles. If too permissive, employees will break all rules and plans and reduce the quality of their work.

5. Common mistakes when managing time

Although applying time management principles brings many benefits, not everyone can apply them effectively. Below are mistakes when managing time that managers should pay attention to avoid.

• No plans or goals: This is the most common mistake of business administrators. Not having a clear schedule or goal leads to ineffective work and goal accomplishment.
• Improper time management: Administrators spend too much time solving small problems and are distracted by external factors. Or just manage time on manual paper without supporting software, making it difficult to control deadline and progress issues.
• Unable to determine work priorities: Managers should know how to prioritize the most important tasks and ensure that they will be completed on time. However, many people will not properly evaluate priorities or even forget to prioritize important tasks.
• Lack of re-evaluation of plans: Administrators need to re-evaluate work plans regularly to ensure they are still consistent with goals and current tasks. Without re-evaluating the plan, businesses may miss important changes, leading to failure to achieve goals.

6. 1C:Document Management software supports effective time management

Time management is an important management activity to ensure efficiency and improve organizational performance. To make the above process go smoothly, businesses can apply Office solution 1C: Document Management. The software is developed on a modern technology platform, allowing centralized document storage and optimizing business operations and administration processes, specifically:

• Management of documents, records, and digitized documents: Allows management and storage of all types of documents and texts, helping to minimize the physical storage area for businesses. Using 1C:Document Management helps businesses look up information quickly and accurately at any time and place, saving space and resources.
• Advanced search: Has the ability to quickly retrieve information from any text using the metadata search method, helping businesses easily find accurate information with just a number or keyword.
• Process management: 1C:Document Management supports automating the process of managing electronic documents, limiting errors caused by manual operations, thereby ensuring accurate operating procedures.
• Decentralization and absolute security: Equipped with a detailed decentralization system for each department and individual, allowing only authorized people to access each specific type of document to help ensure absolute information and data security. opposite to.
• Mobile application: Integrating with mobile applications, helps businesses optimize work processing speed, allowing employees to submit applications to their bosses for approval at any time, while the boss can manage employees and approve documents. copy anywhere.

Above is all the detailed information about time management principles . Hopefully, through the time management rules that 1C Vietnam has shared, it will help businesses improve work efficiency. In addition, businesses can apply technology solutions to support work management such as 1C:Document Management, thereby saving time and improving operational efficiency. For further information about the software, please contact 1C Vietnam today.