ACCA F1 – Business & Technology | Ms. Vishah Hussain
Part E: Personal effectiveness and
communication in business
Chapter 18: Personal effectiveness and communication in business
1 Time management
The scarcest resource any of us has is time. No amount of investment can add more hours to the
day or weeks to the year. All we can do is take steps to make more effective use of the time which
is available to us.
To be worth their pay, every employee needs to add more value than they cost per hour.
Effective time management involves attention to:
Goal or target setting:
• Focus
• Action planning
• Urgency
• Prioritising
• Organisation
Time management tasks:
• Identifying objectives
• Prioritising and scheduling
• Planning and control
1.1 Principles of time management
Goals
To be useful, goals need to be SMART: Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-
bounded.
, ACCA F1 – Business & Technology | Ms. Vishah Hussain
Action plans
Now you must make written action plans that set out how you intend to achieve your goals.
Priorities
Now you can set priorities from your plan. You do this by deciding which tasks are the most
important: what is the most valuable use of your time at that very moment?
Focus
One thing at a time Work on one thing at a time until it is finished, where possible.
Urgency: do it now!
Do not put off large, difficult or unpleasant tasks simply because they are large, difficult or
unpleasant.
Organisation
Apart from working to plans, checklists and schedules, your work organisation might be improved
by the following. An ABCD method of in-tray management. Resolve to take one of the following
approaches.
• Act on the item immediately
• Bin it, if you are sure it is worthless, irrelevant and unnecessary
• Create a definite plan for coming back to the item: get it on your schedule, timetable or
'to do list'
• Delegate it to someone else to handle
1.2 Improving time management
• Plan each day
• Produce a longer-term plan
• Do not be available to everyone at all times
• Stay in control of the telephone
1.3 Prioritization
Prioritisation involves identifying key results (objectives which must be achieved if the section is
to fulfil its aims) and key tasks (those things that must be done on time and to the required
standard if the key results are to be achieved).
1.4 Work planning
Work planning includes the following basic steps:
• Establishing priorities
Part E: Personal effectiveness and
communication in business
Chapter 18: Personal effectiveness and communication in business
1 Time management
The scarcest resource any of us has is time. No amount of investment can add more hours to the
day or weeks to the year. All we can do is take steps to make more effective use of the time which
is available to us.
To be worth their pay, every employee needs to add more value than they cost per hour.
Effective time management involves attention to:
Goal or target setting:
• Focus
• Action planning
• Urgency
• Prioritising
• Organisation
Time management tasks:
• Identifying objectives
• Prioritising and scheduling
• Planning and control
1.1 Principles of time management
Goals
To be useful, goals need to be SMART: Specific, Measureable, Attainable, Realistic, Time-
bounded.
, ACCA F1 – Business & Technology | Ms. Vishah Hussain
Action plans
Now you must make written action plans that set out how you intend to achieve your goals.
Priorities
Now you can set priorities from your plan. You do this by deciding which tasks are the most
important: what is the most valuable use of your time at that very moment?
Focus
One thing at a time Work on one thing at a time until it is finished, where possible.
Urgency: do it now!
Do not put off large, difficult or unpleasant tasks simply because they are large, difficult or
unpleasant.
Organisation
Apart from working to plans, checklists and schedules, your work organisation might be improved
by the following. An ABCD method of in-tray management. Resolve to take one of the following
approaches.
• Act on the item immediately
• Bin it, if you are sure it is worthless, irrelevant and unnecessary
• Create a definite plan for coming back to the item: get it on your schedule, timetable or
'to do list'
• Delegate it to someone else to handle
1.2 Improving time management
• Plan each day
• Produce a longer-term plan
• Do not be available to everyone at all times
• Stay in control of the telephone
1.3 Prioritization
Prioritisation involves identifying key results (objectives which must be achieved if the section is
to fulfil its aims) and key tasks (those things that must be done on time and to the required
standard if the key results are to be achieved).
1.4 Work planning
Work planning includes the following basic steps:
• Establishing priorities
