Time Management Flashcards

According to the Eisenhower Matrix, tasks that are 'Important but Not Urgent' should be:

Answer: Scheduled for later

The Eisenhower Matrix places Important but Not Urgent tasks in Quadrant 2, which should be scheduled and planned for future completion.

A student consistently underestimates how long tasks take. This cognitive bias is known as:

Answer: The Planning Fallacy

The Planning Fallacy is the tendency to underestimate the time, costs, and risks of future actions while overestimating benefits.

What is Parkinson's Law and how does it affect academic work?

Answer: Work expands to fill the time available for its completion

Parkinson's Law states that work expands to fill the time available, meaning students may use all available time even for simple tasks.

Which of the following best describes 'deep work' as defined by productivity researcher Cal Newport?

Answer: Focused, distraction-free cognitive effort on demanding tasks

Deep work refers to cognitively demanding tasks performed in a state of distraction-free concentration to produce high-quality output.

A student finishes one task before moving to the next, regardless of priority. What time management problem does this illustrate?

Answer: Sequential processing without prioritization

Working through tasks in order without considering their priority can lead to spending time on low-value activities while high-priority tasks are delayed.

Which technique involves grouping similar tasks together to complete them more efficiently?

Answer: Task batching

Task batching reduces the mental switching cost by grouping similar activities (e.g., all emails, all readings) into a single time block.

When is it MOST appropriate to use the 'two-minute rule' in time management?

Answer: When a task can be completed in two minutes or less

The two-minute rule, from David Allen's GTD system, states that if a task takes less than two minutes, do it immediately rather than scheduling it.