What is time management?

If you lose ten thousand pounds, but some kind soul then gives you another ten thousand pounds, you are no worse off, except for the effect of shock and perhaps the effect of the stiff drink that you had to console yourself before the kind and generous soul appeared. Similarly, if an organization or a project loses twenty computers, and provided the data is backed up, they can be replaced. But time is completely different. If you lose even a minute, you can never get it back again, no matter how much money you spend trying. Time cannot be stored or replaced. As a resource, time is unique in this regard, because all other resources, especially equipment and cash, but also people, can be replaced. This unique feature of time means that the project manager needs to take special care when managing time. The project manager who is poor at managing time will soon put the entire project at risk, by wasting not just their own time but the time of everyone across the project.

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