According to a 2014 Massachusetts Institute of Technology study, 90% of the information transmitted to the brain is visual and human brains process visuals 60,000 times faster than they do text. This is where visual time management worksheets come in handy.
Time management strategies are the unlikely hero. They help you spend your time wisely and efficiently. Using these strategies in conjunction with data visualization help you make sense of your work. Here are five different worksheets to help you take your work to the next level.
Weekly Time Management Worksheet
Use this worksheet to help you visualize your week. Fill in your recurring meeting, preparation and travel time, regular appointments, lunches and dinner breaks, and rest. You can even schedule your set bedtime and morning call.
Google Calendar is a great time management and scheduling tool. For individuals who like to see their week in-advance, using Google Calendar allows you to make appointments, share meetings with others, and organize your daily tasks.
Time Pie Chart Worksheet
If you're a visual learner, consider using a Time Pie Chart Worksheet to help you understand how your time is being allocated.
Like money, time is not infinite. Treat your time like money and create a time budget that details how you spend your hours during a typical week. Categorize time into fixed time (must do’s) and discretionary time (want to do’s).
The Rule-of-3 Worksheet
The Rule of 3 is a productivity principle that encourages us to focus on achieving just three meaningful outcomes every day, week, month, and year. The Rule of 3 helps you focus on outcomes over activities.
Peak Performance Tracker Worksheet
Find your peak performance time by breaking your typical work day into six time slots. Over the course of a week, rank-order these slots from your most to least productive. Your time slots don't have to adhere to the three-hour blocks of time as this worksheet. It's perfectly OK have your peak performance time from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.
After you find your peak performance time, you can leverage this knowledge to increase your output by prioritizing the tasks you need to complete in a reasonable timeframe.
The Urgency Determinator Worksheet
Are your tasks urgent? Are your tasks going to take a long time? Knowing the answer to these questions will help you plan out your day.
Urgency and importance are related but distinct concepts. Urgent tasks require immediate action, whereas as important tasks have more significant and long-term consequences. You can prioritize your tasks that are both urgent and under deadline. This will help you get ahead if the curve if you feel like you are constantly putting out fires at work.
What To Do After
The most important part of these worksheets is what you do after you fill them out. It's important to analyze your situation using objective evidence. Have you found “hidden time” you didn’t know you had? If your schedule can't accommodate all the demands on your time, what do you need to cut down on?
How to use a time-management worksheet
A time-management worksheet turns good intentions into a plan. Start by auditing where your hours actually go for a few days, then prioritize your tasks by importance and deadline, block time on your calendar for the most important work, and review at the end of the week to see what worked. The act of writing it down is what makes the difference.
Popular time-management techniques
- Eisenhower matrix - sort tasks by urgent versus important to decide what to do, schedule, delegate, or drop.
- Time blocking - reserve specific calendar blocks for specific tasks.
- Pomodoro technique - work in focused intervals with short breaks between them.
- 1-3-5 rule - plan to finish one big, three medium, and five small tasks each day.
Frequently asked questions
What is a time-management worksheet?
It is a simple template for auditing how you spend time, prioritizing tasks, and planning your day or week so your effort goes to what matters most.
What is the best time-management technique?
There is no single best method; many people combine the Eisenhower matrix for prioritizing with time blocking or the Pomodoro technique for focus.
