Effective time management: Why it is important at any stage of life

24 hours. That’s how much time everyone gets in a day regardless of age, gender, or status. Once those hours slip away, it is impossible to get them back. And because time is so finite, it is precious and worth managing with care.

Proper time management involves having a good understanding of your workload, planning ahead, prioritizing, and being able to say “no” when you need to.

The early-career pro

Janel Knispel, Financial Analyst at Dominion Diamond Mines, applied time management techniques to the CPA Professional Education Program (CPA PEP) and passed the Common Final Examination (CFE) in 2018. She is currently completing her practical experience requirements and hopes to obtain her CPA designation soon.

Janel admits that she found CPA PEP overwhelming at first. “The program is challenging,” says Janel. “Time management is vital for CPA candidates because many of them work full-time while studying part-time. In some cases, they’re also juggling families.”

Realizing that she had to be strategic with her studies, Janel took a step back, reevaluated how she was allocating her time, and came up with a plan, which included implementing an efficient study method, rallying the support of her loved ones, and having a study buddy.

“My study buddy, Vicky Cato [who was also in CPA PEP], was honestly one of the big reasons I was able to stay on track with my studies,” says Janel. “When I felt overwhelmed, she encouraged me, and vice versa.”

Janel had to submit roughly two to three assignments per week during CPA PEP. To stay organized, she kept a calendar, which contained everything she had to work on. “I was disciplined. I planned things out and gave myself hard deadlines. I made an effort to submit my work the day before the actual deadline; otherwise, I’d be wordsmithing and changing everything,” says Janel.

As Janel tracked the time she spent on her studies and assignments, her progress became more evident, and she was able to see where to focus her efforts more—whether on case writing, debriefing, or marking.

Flashcards became Janel’s secret weapon. “It took too long to look up information in the manuals. So in my own words, I summarized key information on flashcards,” says Janel. She had roughly 100 flashcards, and there was a “good” and a “bad” pile. The good pile contained information she already knew, and the bad pile contained information she had to work on. Her goal was to eliminate the bad pile. “I’d work all day, come home, have supper, and my boyfriend would ask me the questions on the flashcards. That was our routine,” says Janel.

Support from someone with a “positive spirit” was also instrumental in helping Janel manage her time in CPA PEP; but there was a small catch: “For your loved ones to fully support you, they need to be aware of the intensity of the program,” says Janel. “My family knew when I had assignments and exams and when I was away at workshops on weekends.”

Janel’s strategic approach to studying paid off. As she looks forward to completing her practical experience requirements and getting her three letters (CPA), she offers the following words of wisdom: “There are some things in life you can’t prepare for, but you can prepare for exams. You know what you need to do to pass. Focus on the material, and manage your time wisely.”

The planner

Chioma Ufodike CPA, CMA, Manager of Trust Safety at the Law Society of Alberta, is a planner. “I like to know that A leads to B and B leads to C. That way, nothing is ambiguous and nothing gets missed,” says Chioma.

Meticulous planning enables her to manage competing priorities at home and at work. At the Law Society, Chioma leads a team of compliance specialists and auditors. At home, she is a mom to four children (all under the age of 10, including a set of twins!). Chioma also holds an incredible five professional designations to her credit.

“I received the Certified Fraud Examiner and the Certified Anti-Money Laundering Specialist certifications before getting married,” says Chioma. “I started working on my CPA designation when I was on mat leave with my first child. From the beginning, I was able to put her on a schedule, so that she ate and napped at specific times. This allowed me to focus on chores and my studies.”

Chioma recently obtained her Master of Forensic Accounting (MFAcc) degree from the University of Toronto. “This is big. I have spent most of my career in forensic accounting, which involves using my accounting and investigative skills to uncover information regarding financial irregularities and fraudulent activity. But you can’t really be called a Forensic Accountant if you don’t have both a CPA designation and the MFAcc,” says Chioma.

With so much on the go—between personal, professional, and educational obligations—planning and prioritizing are important to Chioma.

“Every Sunday I ask myself, ‘What does this week look like? What extracurricular activities do the kids have? Am I going to be out of town? Are there any projects that will keep me at work past 5:00pm?

Do I have board meetings?’” says Chioma. She then uses Google Calendar to keep track of her family-related activities. “Everything goes in the calendar, including birthdays and reminders to buy gifts. I like Google Calendar because it syncs with Outlook, and I can share it with my husband,” she adds.

To prioritize at work, Chioma blocks time in Outlook to work on projects and interact with her team. She admits that she wouldn’t let anyone else manage her calendar. “I feel like it would make me less organized,” she laughs.

Planning and structure also enable Chioma to pursue her passion for volunteering. “I have been blessed with a successful career, and I believe it is important to give back. There is a saying: ‘giving back creates a virtuous cycle that makes everyone more successful.’ That’s my mantra,” says Chioma. She is the Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee at the Lougheed House Conservation Society, a non-profit that works to restore the historic Lougheed House.

Despite being a master juggler of obligations, Chioma recognizes that multitasking is not for everyone. “My rule of thumb is if you’re not good at multitasking, prioritize and focus on one thing at a time. Otherwise, something suffers,” she says.

To high school and post-secondary students, she cautions: “Don’t procrastinate. Start studying early, and take small steps, such as reading a chapter a day. Identify key exam and project due dates, and enter them in your calendar. Keep an eye on your schedule, and don’t be afraid to say ‘no’ to competing commitments that can take up your time. Finding the right balance is key to being effective at managing your time.”

The prioritizer

Changing priorities sometimes call for changes in the way one allocates their time.

Now retired, Betty Thompson FCPA, FCGA, Chair of the CPA Assist Committee, has aligned her schedule with her life-long passion of volunteering for not-for-profit organizations.

Prior to retirement, Betty’s time was structured differently. Betty made sure she only worked Mondays to Fridays when she was a Managing Partner at Calvista LLP, an accounting firm. “Weekends were mine, and vacations were mine,” says Betty. “I didn’t even bring a cell phone when I went on vacation.”

To ensure timelines were met at the firm, Betty and her team clearly outlined responsibilities and expectations so that they were on the same page as their clients. “We had a list of what the client needed to do and what the firm needed to do,” says Betty. This helped her properly manage her time during busy periods such as the December year-end when clients needed to submit their audited financial statements and in March when clients wanted their audits completed before their annual general meetings.

Betty now volunteers as the President of IntegralOrg, a registered charity that provides knowledge and support to not-for-profit organizations by helping them understand how they are incorporated, how they should manage and govern themselves, and how to comply with legal and financial management requirements.

Betty and a partner established IntegralOrg after identifying a lack of understanding of legal compliance in the not-for-profit sector. “When we started, we thought it was just going to be this little project. But we now have staff, and we just hired an Executive Director,” says Betty.

She runs workshops where she coaches clients on different aspects of the not-for-profit sector, including policy development, governance, and how to read financial statements.

Despite being retired, Betty says her volunteerism still amounts to full-time work. “I’m trying to get back my weekends. But it is fun to look at stuff for the charity and come up with great ideas.”

As busy as Betty is, she enjoys a flexible schedule. “At the firm, I had to be in the office at 8:00am,” she says. “Now, I mostly work from home and go into the office only when I have meetings.”

Despite the flexibility and slower pace, Betty admits she still needs to prioritize. “I carve out time to work on projects. If I am facilitating a workshop, I choose a day to work exclusively on it from home,” says Betty. “I also eliminate distractions as much as I can.”

Betty believes in having a schedule and sticking to it. “That’s the only way I was able to obtain my accounting designation. When I did the program, structure and discipline were even more important because I had been out of school for a while and had to learn how to study all over again,” says Betty. “If you are a student, ask yourself: ‘What are my priorities? When and how am I going to get things done?’ And have fun along the way!”

A look back in the archives! This article originally appeared in the Spring 2020 print issue of Capitalize.