This week, we will cover a few specific time management techniques that will further help with your schedule. We will be covering 3-point time estimations, breaking down tasks, and making task comparisons. These techniques help make scheduling more accurate.
3-point Time Estimation
3-point time estimation is simply creating three different time estimations for an event. The first is an optimistic estimate. This is the shortest amount of time that something will take. This estimate is the best case scenario. If everything goes right, this time estimate is good. The opposite estimate is the pessimistic estimate. This is the worst case scenario. This is the longest that something will take. This estimate assumes that everything that can go wrong, will go wrong. The third estimate falls in the middle. It is the most likely or most realistic of the three time estimations. This estimate will consider common obstacles or likely delays. It ignores extreme interruptions that probably won’t happen. You can use the difference in time estimates as part of your time buffers. By using these three estimates, you can get a more accurate idea of how your day will probably go.
Breaking Down Tasks
The second technique, breaking down tasks, is also rather simple to understand. Most tasks, like writing an essay, include multiple parts or steps. Instead of scheduling a block to complete your essay, make time to write an outline. Then create a draft, complete a review, and so on. This will help motivate and guide you with the essay. It will also help you estimate time more easily and accurately. This is similar to breaking down a task into more manageable parts to help complete the tasks. Instead of requiring an estimate for the entire process, you just need estimates for the parts. This is beneficial because smaller steps are easier for us to think about. Also, by breaking the task into parts, we can make more accurate time estimations. Breaking tasks down into smaller parts makes it more manageable to schedule the tasks out.
Time Comparisons
The third technique is time comparisons. While it sounds easy, it can become a bit complicated in certain situations. The important thing is to make real comparisons. You have to be sure that the two tasks are similar. I find it best to use this technique on tasks that are often repeated. For instance, responding to emails and social media messages can take up similar amounts of time for me. However, this requires that the number of emails matches the number of messages. If not, the comparison is wrong. Also, this assumes that you put the same amount of thought and time into both emails and social media replies. Similarly, if you want to estimate the time to read a book, you must compare the books first. Are they written in similar styles? Are you equally interested in their topics? While you have to be careful about your comparisons, tasks that are truly alike allow you to easily make a time estimate. You don’t have to reinvent the wheel, you can trust your experiences.
When used correctly, these three techniques will help you become better at estimating time. With practice, 3-point time estimations, breaking down tasks, and task comparisons will help you improve your scheduling.
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