Time Management

POSEC is an acronym for Prioritize by Organizing, Streamlining, Economizing and Contributing. The method dictates a template which emphasizes an average individual’s immediate sense of emotional and monetary security. It suggests that by attending to one’s personal responsibilities first, an individual is better positioned to shoulder collective responsibilities.


Inherent in the acronym is a hierarchy of self-realization, which mirrors Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs:


1. Prioritize – Your time and define your life by goals.

2. Organize – Things you have to accomplish regularly to be successful (family and finances).

3. Streamline – Things you may not like to do, but must do (work and chores).

4. Economize – Things you should do or may even like to do, but they’re not pressingly urgent (pastimes and socializing).

5. Contribute – By paying attention to the few remaining things that make a difference (social obligations).


Implementation of goals

There are also time management approaches that emphasise the need for more focused and simple implementation, including the approach of “Going with the Flow” – natural rhythms, Eastern

philosophy. More unconventional time usage techniques, such as those discussed in Where Did Time Fly, include concepts that can be paraphrased as “Less is More”, which de-emphasizes the importance of squeezing every minute of one’s time, as suggested in traditional management schemes.[14]\


Writer Julie Morgenstern suggests “do’s and don’ts” of time management that include:



Map out everything that is important, by making a task list

Create “an oasis of time” for one to control

Say “No”

Set priorities

Don’t drop everything

Don’t think a critical task will get done in one’s spare time