Glossary
ACTION! Plan
Approach to getting more done, and picking the right things to do in the first place, developed by time management expert Jan Yager, Ph.D. and presented initially in her book, Work Less, Do More. A= Access, C = Control, T = Target, I = Innovate, O = Organize, and N = Now! Also known in Dr. Yager's Put More Time on Your Side as the Action! Strategy.
ADHD
Abbreviation for Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, a condition that makes it harder for someone to focus and concentrate.
Agile
A way of organizing a project, especially in software development, that relies on SCRUM and sprints, with regular updating, so a project can be more responsive to changes rather than waiting till the end of the project to find out that it does not match original specifications or goals.
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, See ADHD.
Body language
The nonverbal ways that a message is communicated including tone of voice, facial expressions, even pausing in-between words, and how you stand.
Creative procrastination
A concept advanced by productivity expert Jan Yager in her 1984 book, Creative Time Management (Prentice-Hall, Inc.) whereby if you are blocked on a task, you keep moving your priority projects and goals along by substituting another priority task, either within that project or related to another key project, rather than procrastinating by doing something inconsequential or unrelated to your overall goals.
Creative time management
A creative way to manage your time advanced by productivity expert Jan Yager that includes these 7 principles:
Be active, not just reactive.
Set goals.
Prioritize actions.
Keep your focus.
Create realistic deadlines.
DO IT NOW.
Balance your life.
Daily standup
Part of the SCRUM approach to project planning and implementation, this meeting provides an opportunity for the team to discuss the progress they're making, any problems they're encountering, and a chance to communicate their progress with the Product Owner.
Deadline
The date when a project is due. It is usually better to break a major project up into smaller tasks with each of those tasks having an interim deadline.
Delegating
Having someone else do some or all of a task that you are responsible for doing that you have the skills to do yourself but for the sake of efficiency or other reasons you prefer to have someone else do it. You can delegate the task completely or have the person you delegate to report back to you so you still oversee the work.
Distraction
A break in your concentration that interferes with your focus on your priority task, usually hurting your productivity.
DO IT NOW
An acronym created by productivity expert Jan Yager as part of her 7 principles of creative time management, first advanced in her book, Creative Time Management for the New Millennium (1999) D = Divide and conquer what you have to do; O = Organize your materials, how you will do it; I = ignore interruptions; T = Take the time to learn how to do things yourself; N =Now, not tomorrow and don't procrastinate; O = opportunity is knocking, so take advantage of opportunities; and W = Watch out for time gobblers such as time on the Internet, reading and sending e-mails, watching TV, talking on the phone or sending/receiving text messages.
European Union
Affiliation of 28 European countries, started in 1993, who have come together to share a currency and facilitate economic trade and growth. The countries are (in alphabetical order): Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and United Kingdom.
Focus
The ability to concentrate on one task.
Fragmentation
When your attention is divided between two or more tasks.
Goal
What you want to accomplish. Your goals could be long-term, such as what you want to get done in the next year, five years, ten years, or as your life's legacy, or short-term, as short as within the next day, hour, or even next twenty minutes.
Interruption
Something that stops you from staying focused on the task at hand. An interruption could be self-made, such as checking your incoming e-mail messages, or caused by others, such as drop-in visitors, requests by the boss to switch to another project, or an alarm going off reminding you that you have to get on a mandatory conference call.
Lateness
When you arrive after the appointed time for a meeting or event, or you deliver a product or project after the agreed-upon deadline.
Long-term goal
What you want to achieve on a long-term basis such as in a year, five years, 10 years, 25 years, or by the end of your life.
Multitasking
Simultaneously doing more than one thing at the same time. Some multitasking activities, such as listening to music when you're working at your computer, are long engrained habits. For some, it does not seem to reduce their productivity although, in most cases, focusing on just one task at a time is ideal. But other examples of multitasking, such as driving and texting, have lethal consequences. At the U.S. government site, http://www.fcc.gov/guides/texting-while-driving, it is noted that the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute found that text messaging creates a crash risk 23 times worse than driving while not distracted."
NAPO
National Association of Professional Organizers, an association of those who professionally organize offices and homes for greater efficiency.
Pacing
Taking a break on a regular basis to help cut down on exhaustion, which could lead to having fewer accidents or making fewer mistakes.
Perfectionism
Believing that nothing short of flawlessness is acceptable.
Planning
Having a set plan for activities so there is more control over what someone does during a specific time or what tasks are going to be completed.
The Pomodoro technique
Strategy that recommends breaking up what you do into thirty minute segments—you work, uninterrupted for 25 minutes and then you have a 5 minute break when you do something fun such as exercise, go on Facebook, or place a quick call to a friend.
PMI
Project Management Institute, a membership organization that offers educational information about project management as well as the certification program for project managers.
PMP
Designation for a Project Management Professional who is certified by PMI (Project Management Institute).
Priority
A key task that you need to do that will make a difference in your work or personal life.
Procrastination
Putting off something you should be doing despite the consequences of the delay.
Product Owner
Term for the client or customer when a company is following the SCRUM approach to project management.
Productivity
How much you can accomplish in a specific time period while still having quality achievements.
Professor Albert Mehrabian
Dr. Mehrabian's research discovered that communication consists of three main elements—words, tone of voice, and body language. Simplistically stated, Mehrabian found only 7 percent of how we communicate is words. The remainder is body language and tone of voice. Tone of voice is 38 percent and body language is 55 percent.
Project management
Having a plan for starting, monitoring, and completing a specific project.
Punctuality
Being on time. There are cultural aspects to this, however. Although in the U.S. and U.K. being on time usually means meeting exactly at the appointed time, in some countries and cultures, arriving within twenty minutes might still be considered on time.
SCRUM
Part of the Agile approach to project management, which has a minimum of three roles: the product owner, scrum master, and team member. The scrum master is the liaison between the product owner, and what his or her vision for the software is, and the team members, who will be completing the work.
Short-term goal
What you plan to achieve within a short period of time, anywhere from an hour, a day, or a seven day/one week period. A short-term goal may even be for as brief a time period as within the next twenty minutes.
Sprint
The term used by those who practice the Agile technology and the SCRUM technique, which divides the project into sprints with a sprint originally lasting 30 days but there are now teams that have their own variation including, one, two, or three-week sprints.
Time
An arbitrary unit used to measure the passage of a moment measured in units that have been labeled seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, and years.
Time blocking
The technique of putting into your paper or electronic appointment book a specific amount of time to do a task even if it is something that you are only doing on your own use timeblocking whether it's work on a new project, making phone calls to find out information or generate business, or even time to exercise, have lunch, or take a break.
Time management
A way of taking charge of what you do, and when you do it, so you optimize what you accomplish in any given time period in the service of achieving the short- and long-term goals that you have set for yourself or your company.
Time saver
A technique that helps you to save time by getting more done in the same time period.
Time waster
A behavior or habit that hinders your productivity, such as procrastination, poor pacing or planning, or lateness.
To-do list
A way of keeping track of what activities you have to do. Your to-do list can be organized chronologically or in order of importance. If you create and use a to-do list, make sure you always move anything that you did not get to check off as done to another list.
Waterfall methodology
The approach to software development projects that was practiced before the introduction of the Agile methodology with the project being delivered, based on the original specifications, with little or no back-and-forth with the client until the finished project is delivered.
Frederick W. Wilson
Some date the concept of time management to the work of Frederick W. Taylor, a mechanical engineer who, in his 1911 book, The Principles of Scientific Management, showed that training by management will help a worker to become more efficient—previously the worker was expected to train himself. He also noted that a worker should have written instructions as to what they have to do, and how much time it should take to do it. If they do it in a faster time, they should get a bonus, which would be an incentive to increase their productivity.
Work-life balance
The ability to strike a balance between your work commitments and what you want to accomplish during your leisure time and with your personal relationships.
Workaholism
Someone who is constantly working, or working excessively long hours, whether that's 14-16 hour workdays, and working on the weekends, often failing to take their vacation time or, if he or she does go on vacation, continuing to work.
