Time Management Skills Flashcards
How do you prioritise your projects?
Within my last two roles, I utilise a project management system known as Agile. Explain benefits of agile including visualisation of tasks, ability to break up options
How do you handle interruptions when you’re under a time constraint?
When time constraints occur, to avoid interruptions I institute a blackout of communications. An example of this occurred a few times whilst working at Harvest Education Technical College.
When deadlines for competing projects were looming, and my absolute focus was needed. I implemented blackout periods, where I would not see emails or messages for a set period of time each time for a 2 week period. I told key organisational stakeholders such as the head of relevant departments, COO & CEO of this blackout, and that if it was an emergency to call me instead. I did this because a lot of time is wasted in your day by sorting and responding to emails as they come in. It is more efficient to dedicate specific pockets of time to this activity each day so that you can quickly review and respond appropriately to emails.
As a result of doing this, I was able to stay on task for the projects I worked on and found a way around being distracted from a task at work.
You have to make an important decision in a short time constraint; how do you make it?
I make a decision within short time constraints based on 3 factors:
- How close & immovable the deadline was
- How important the task was to the overall project
- How much potential revenue the project had to the organisation as a whole An example of this process in action was at HETC.
2 projects with very similar deadlines, and BAU tasks:
- New school launch
- 0to1 launch Utilising Agile project management, I assessed components of each project based on the 3 factors I previously stayed in and allocated tasks accordingly.
Some tasks I was forced to put to one side, such as the weekly email to leads would be missed this week and social media & content marketing for brand building would be paused during the week (due to its limited impact on the bottom line).
This sacrifice of non-essential non-revenue generating activities for essential revenue-generating activities ensured delivery of projects within timelines, with minimal commercial loss to the organisation.
Sometimes it’s just not possible to get everything on your to-do list done. Tell me about a time your responsibilities got a little overwhelming. What did you do?
I make a decision within short time constraints based on 3 factors:
- How close & immovable the deadline was
- How important the task was to the overall project
- How much potential revenue the project had to the organisation as a whole An example of this process in action was at HETC.
2 projects with very similar deadlines, and BAU tasks:
- New school launch
- 0to1 launch Utilising Agile project management, I assessed components of each project based on the 3 factors I previously stayed in and allocated tasks accordingly.
Some tasks I was forced to put to one side, such as the weekly email to leads would be missed this week and social media & content marketing for brand building would be paused during the week (due to its limited impact on the bottom line).
This sacrifice of non-essential non-revenue generating activities for essential revenue-generating activities ensured delivery of projects within timelines, with minimal commercial loss to the organisation.
How do you handle your schedule is interrupted?
I manage to have my schedule interrupted quite easily. I either reschedule or I will request non-important interruptions to be emailed to me or for them to see me tomorrow.
