Irene looked up from her desk to see her colleagues packing up togcr home．It was already 5：00 p．m．At the rate she was going shewould be in the office until midnight．Staring down at her to-do list，she sighed in dismay．Three“must-do”tasks remained．What hadshe been doing all day,and why hadn’t she gotten to these tasks?

  The Harvard Business Essentials series is designed to provide comprehensive advice，personal coaching，background information，andguidance on the most relevant topics in business．Drawing on richcontent from Harvard Business Sch001 Publishing and other sources，these concise guides are carefully crafted to provide a highly practical resourCe for readers with all levels of experience，and will proveespecially valuable for the new manager．To assure quality and accuracy,each volume is closely reviewed by a specialized content adviserfrom a world-class business school．Whether you are a new manager seeking to expand your skills or a seasoned professional looking to broaden your knowledge base，these solution-oriented books put reliable answers at your fingertips．

Introduction

1 Use Goals as a Guide

  Your Compass to Personal Effectiveness

Goal Setting

Goal Alignment

Sorting Out Your Goals

The Urgent-Versus-Important Dilemma

From Goals to Tasks

Unit Goals

Summing Up

2 How You Spend Your Time

  Where Does It Go?

Create and Use an Activity Log

Analyze Your Activity Log

From Analysis to Change

Summing Up

3 Scheduling Your Time

  Start with Your Priorities

Scheduhng Tools

Building Your Schedule

Working with a To-Do List

The Weakness of Scheduling Systems

Summing Up

4 Time Robbers

  How to Dereat Them

Procrastination

Overreaching

Assuming Subordinates' Problems

Unnecessary Travel

E-mail and Paperwork

Time-Wasting Meetings

Distractions and Switching Costs

SummingUp

5 Delegation

  Gaining TimeforYourself

The Benefits of Delegating

Guidelines for Effective Delegating

Approaches to Delegation

Preparing to Delegate

Making the Assignment

Control，Monitoring，and Feedback

After-Action Review

Summing Up

6 The Time-Wasting Boss

  Howto Cope

Confusion About Goals

Failure to Give Clear Directions

Pointless Meetings

The Bottleneck BOSS

Your Role in the Problem

Summing Up

7 The Personal Side of Time

  Mastering Work-life Baland

Identify and Prioritize Your Personal Goals

Make Time for the Things That Matter

Unclutter Your Personal Life

Build Your Energy

Seek Work—Life Balance

Summing Up

8 What Companies Can Do to Help

  Ideas Jor Improving Employee Time Management

Use Technology to Reduce Travel Time I

Rein In Presentation Graphics

Facilitate Wbrk-Life B~ance

Teach Time-Management Principles

Make Time Management a Habit

Summing Up

 Appendix A：Useful Implementation Tools

 Appendix B：Work Breakdown Structure

 Appendix C：A Guide to Effective Meetings

 Notes

 Glossary

 For Further Reading

 Index

 About the Subject Adviser

 About the Writer