Creating Your Personal Time Chart

A time chart is a useful tool for effective time management. It is similar to a weekly planner but gives a general overview of what your weeks are like without being limited to a specific week. In this article we discuss how you can go about creating your personal time chart and using it to improve your effective time management skills.

Creating your Personal Time Chart Begins with Categorizing your Activities

Start creating a personal time chart by listing categories of activities you take part in – these categories could include work, social, family, hobbies, studies, etc. Using different colored pens allocate a different color to each different category.

Creating your Personal Time Chart and the Time Table

Using spreadsheet or word processor software or directly on paper draw a table representing one week; the rows should represent different time slots you are awake each day and the columns represent the days of the week so that each cell represents a specific time on a specific day. This time table will be the basis for your effective time management activities and personal time chart.

Filling your Activities into your Personal Time Table and Creating your Personal Time Chart

Once you have drawn your personal time table you can now start fitting your activity categories into your personal time chart. Taking your different colored pens to represent the different activity categories block out spaces of time when you will do that particular category of activity – for example you will color in your working hours with the color you have allocated to work activities. This gives you a graphical representation of what activities you will be doing at different times of the day and week but does not mention the specifics of the activities. These specifics will change from day to day and week to week and so effective time management will use your personal time chart as a basis for further time management activities.

Using your Personal Time Chart for More Effective Time Management

Once you have your personal time chart showing what activities you will be completing at different times each week you can use this to create a weekly planner for more effective time management. Your personal time chart is like an overview of your average week, while your weekly planner goes into more detail on the actual activities you will be completing in these time periods. Your personal time chart shows you where to put specific activities in your weekly planner.

In conclusion, a personal time chart is similar to a weekly planner in that it has rows of times and columns representing different days, each cell therefore represents a specific time on a specific day. Your time chart is different however in that it is more general and is a plan of where you will fit specific activities into your weekly planner without actually giving details of the activities so that it can be used repeatedly each week. Effective time management uses a personal time chart, a weekly planner as well as a number of other time management tools and techniques to manage your time effectively.