TASK VS WORKLOAD

TASK VS WORKLOAD

TASK : A piece of work to be done or Undertaken.

Workload : The amount of work to be done by someone or something.

The above are the bookish definitions of the two words.

What is Task Management?

Task management is a way of describing how you identify, monitor and progress the work that you need to do during the day. Generally we talk about ‘task management’ for things that relate to work life but you’ll also need to manage your home life activities and you can use similar tools.

Why Manage Tasks?

You can’t be efficient if all you do is react to whoever shouts the loudest at work. You can’t be efficient purely by answering the next email in your inbox. And data from the Pew Research Center points to another reason that you might not be as good as managing your tasks as you think: 70% of Facebook users spend time on the app every day.

You have to manage your tasks as a group because what comes in next might not be the most important. You have to manage your time to spend the right amount of time working on the priority tasks (and that means staying off social media until the work is done). Task management lets you stay on top of all your work and help your team hit their deadlines too. The benefits of task management are:

• You can see everything you are working on at once
• You know what your priorities are
• You know how much time you’ve got to do those tasks
• You can group tasks together to work on similar things at the same time

Above all, you can keep a balanced workload so that you can adjust or delegate tasks and deadlines so that you are not overworked.

The Tools for Task Management

There are lots of tools for managing your tasks. At the simplest, you’ve got a notebook and pen and you can write down your To Do list. The downside of this simple approach is that it’s hard to move tasks around to group them and prioritise them. And you have to rewrite the list every few days or it gets too messy with all the crossings out. Many people do manage simple lists on paper, but if you are managing a project or multiple projects then you’ll need something more sophisticated.

Task management software lets you automate all of that. It’s great for project teams because you can make a list of all the tasks required for the project (in project management jargon that’s the Work Breakdown Structure). Simply add a new task for each item.

Online task management tools also give you much greater flexibility than paper lists, and it’s not only about making sure everyone has access to the ‘master’ list of tasks. You can:

• Export and import lists
• Define custom views
• Print lists
• Filter lists by day/week/month
• Drill down into the detail of a task from the task list
• Manage dozens (and even hundreds) of tasks easily with only a few clicks.

How To Save Time With Task Management

Managing your tasks, and those of your team, takes up valuable time in the day. You may be wondering if it’s worth it. When time is money, are you really going to get a return from spending so much time on managing your workload?

The answer is easy: Yes! Not managing tasks is a recipe for missing deadlines and feeling overwhelmed. You’ll spend more time working out your priorities every week and dealing with the fact you’ve spent time on the less important tasks while ignoring a looming deadline. Ultimately that will cost you money, time and stress.

You can still cut down the amount of time it takes to manage your tasks. Here are 5 tips for saving time on task management activities.

• Tip #1: Use Your Calendar
  What gets scheduled gets done. Use your calendar or project schedule to add deadlines for your tasks. Then you can forecast when you might be busy and when you’ve got extra capacity.
• Tip #2: Stick With One Method
  Forget sticky notes on your monitor, a list on your tablet, scribbled notes on a piece of paper… you need one To Do list. Using online software or an app is the best way because you’ll probably always have your phone or laptop with you. You can quickly open the app on your smartphone or tablet and record the task.
• Tip #3: Prioritize your tasks
  We mentioned this earlier but it’s worth mentioning again. Creating one central list of tasks for you and the project team is a big help, but then you need to think about the right way to tackle that long list of work. Prioritize your tasks. There are two ways to do this: what’s urgent and what’s important. Of course, a task can be urgent and important at the same time and the priority of tasks can change from day to day!
• Tip #4: Track your time
  Using timesheets to track your time is a great way to manage tasks. Why? Because it helps you see exactly where you are spending your time during the day and this information lets you prioritize effectively.
• Tip #5: Delegate
  Finally, look at what you can delegate. You don’t have to do everything on the project yourself. Projects are a great development and learning opportunity for your team members too, so think about what you can delegate to others. Not only can you pat yourself on the back for helping develop their skills, it is also work off your To Do list that you don’t have to do!
• ( info credit : task-management)

• What is workload Management ?
• Workload management is the process of strategically distributing work throughout the work force in order to maximize employee or application skill and performance.

• Six steps to manage overwhelming workload :
• 1. Get your priorities straight. There will always be more work than you have time to complete. You aren’t going to get everything done. Accept it.
  Tasks that are both urgent and important must rise to the top of the to-do list. Keep in mind, pressing work tends to take priority over the important tasks. Don't let this happen. Make sure you focus on both items.
  2. Limit your time on tasks. The law of diminishing returns dictates that doing a certain task for an hour may be a good investment but spending five hours doing the same task may be time wasted. Make sure you do some tasks in limited quantities.
  We have a colleague who each day spends only one hour on social networking to promote his business. The reason? Often social networking can be a time sink, and he wants to make sure he doesn't get sucked in.
  3. Avoid perfectionism.We’re not suggesting that mediocrity is acceptable. However, continuing to work on something long after the incremental effort stopped delivering value is not beneficial. Further, it sucks up your time, keeping you from doing other tasks that do create value. Keep in mind, great work is what we do for our customers. Perfectionism is what we do for ourselves.
  4. Exercise discipline. As an entrepreneur, you can’t afford to spend time doing things you enjoy at the expense of mission-critical tasks. Make sure you remain focused on business-related duties.
  5. Outsource, outsource, outsource. Depending on your skill set, many tasks should be outsourced. For example, we find that if our computer network is on the fritz, it’s much more cost effective to call a technician than to attempt the fix ourselves. He does in 30 minutes what would take us three days (optimistically), time we could be spent generating revenue.
  6. Sprint. If you will be the only employee for years, this won’t work. You’ll need to use the tips above to find a sustainable pace. However, you may be able to sprint for a short period of time (say a few months) working at an unsustainable pace to get your business over the hump. This can be successful, if it allows your business to generate enough revenue so that you can take on employees. Then you can delegate work to others and throttle back to a sustainable pace.
  Starting and successfully running a small business is a lot of work but following the tips outlined above can help you manage the workload.
  ( info credit : 232618 )