TMU Time Management 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: According to the Eisenhower Matrix, tasks that are 'Important but Not Urgent' should be:
- Done immediately
- Scheduled for later (Correct answer)
- Delegated to someone else
- Eliminated from your list
Correct 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.
Question 2: A student consistently underestimates how long tasks take. This cognitive bias is known as:
- Parkinson's Law
- The Planning Fallacy (Correct answer)
- The Zeigarnik Effect
- Pareto Principle
Correct answer: The Planning Fallacy
The Planning Fallacy is the tendency to underestimate the time, costs, and risks of future actions while overestimating benefits.
Question 3: What is Parkinson's Law and how does it affect academic work?
- Work improves in quality to fill the time available
- Work expands to fill the time available for its completion (Correct answer)
- Deadlines motivate peak performance regardless of time given
- Tasks shrink in complexity as deadlines approach
Correct 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.
Question 4: Which of the following best describes 'deep work' as defined by productivity researcher Cal Newport?
- Working late into the night to meet deadlines
- Focused, distraction-free cognitive effort on demanding tasks (Correct answer)
- Collaborative group study sessions for difficult subjects
- Research conducted using advanced academic databases
Correct 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.
Question 5: A student finishes one task before moving to the next, regardless of priority. What time management problem does this illustrate?
- Multitasking
- Sequential processing without prioritization (Correct answer)
- Batch processing
- Time blocking
Correct 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.
Question 6: Which technique involves grouping similar tasks together to complete them more efficiently?
- Time blocking
- Task batching (Correct answer)
- The Pomodoro Technique
- Mind mapping
Correct 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.
Question 7: When is it MOST appropriate to use the 'two-minute rule' in time management?
- When studying for a complex exam
- When a task can be completed in two minutes or less (Correct answer)
- When deciding whether to delegate an assignment
- When estimating how long a project will take
Correct 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.
TMU Time Management 3
According to the Eisenhower Matrix, tasks that are 'Important but Not Urgent' should be: