Function

• Time management is the use of tools, such as planners, notes and reminders to help you stay on task throughout your day. Many people, from students to executives to work-at-home mothers, find themselves struggling with the paradox of, "too much to do, so little time."
  In short, that is "time management" -- allotting so many minutes or hours for a task like research, writing, paying bills, returning phone calls or emails.
  
  

Significance

• Time management is the ability to keep track of how much time you are using in different activities so that you don't waste time on insignificant pursuits. You might witness a co-worker or fellow student who appears to be well-organized, keeping up with assignments, projects and paperwork, turning work in on time or even early. She has internalized the practice of devoting a set amount of time for each task she has planned to start or complete.
  
  

Features

• Most people will simply write their appointments on a calendar or a dated planner page. If this works for them and they are able to manage other aspects of their time, then this is fine.
  Other people will use much more detail in organizing their time. They will invest in a PDA or enter their daily plans into a program on their computer. Still others will utilize the calendars on their cell phones or set their watch alarms.
  
  

Effects

• If you have been struggling to manage your time and activities so that you have enough of one to spend on the other, then investing in a few minutes each day to organize your activities, thoughts and supplies will help you to gain control of your time. If you have been a procrastinator, learning to take control of all of those wasted minutes and hours will result in many more completed assignments, projects and plans.
  
  

Benefits

• What are the benefits of time management for your studies or your job? Look at your most recent grades or employee evaluation. Were you satisfied with how your professors or employer rated you? If not, have you found what is holding you back? Chances are, if you are comfortable with what you are studying or what your job role is, your professors or employers have guessed what is holding you back.
  
  

Considerations

• Are your grades lower than they should be? Was your supervisor less than happy with the final results of your latest project?
  Your studying, assignments and papers would be completed in a timely manner. You would feel much less pressure in getting your work done. If you are employed, your supervisor would be expressing more satisfaction, if not happiness, about the projects you are completing and the results you are attaining.
  
  

Potential

• We rely heavily on notes scribbled in the margins of our notebooks or on the palms of our hands -- yet when we get home and look for those notes, where are they? The time management method we choose doesn't have to cost much.
  Using a small memo book, a small planner with dated pages or even sticky notes to organize our thoughts, plans and activities can be as effective as an expensive PDA or computer calendar program.