Time Management:Effectively manage Time daily(2019 Update)
Time is one thing that is common to the rich and poor all alike.So one who manages time effectively and efficiently is the one who can expect better outputs from it.We can meet our deadlines only and only if we make most of the time available to us.So Time management or Time utilization is one of the most soft skill everyone should cultivate and inculcate in their daily routine.Let us start ,by diving into the finer details of time management.
- Time Manages everything
- How To Manage Time
- Benefits of Time Management
- Time Mismanagement effects
- Goal setting
- Measure the usage of Time
- Use Pareto principle for using time
- Eliminate obsessive habits
- Take breaks in between Tasks
- Prioritize Tasks
Time Manages everything
- Common dialogues – cliches that we come across in our daily life:
- “Have no time.Come when I am free”
- “How time flies? As if he is born just yesterday” - a parent feels about his ward.
- “How does he complete his assignments all without giving excuses?”
- It seems that there is never enough time in the day. Irony is that all of us are endowed with the same 24 hours.
- For all those who look for excuses to go to their superiors to elaborate their failures and all those who manage their available opportunities poorly, my explanation is that “time” manages them.
- It is vice versa in the the highest achievers who manage their “time” exceptionally well.
- Unless and until an individual removes the folly that bosses give schedules without assessing the likely time required and resolve to utilise the time effectively and not drifting into oblivion without a concrete plan of action.
- Can there be a ready made solution for a person to overcome this lacuna in his repertoire of skills? Doubtful.
- There is a saying “ one can take the horse to the pond. Whether to drink or not is left to the horse ”
- We can only indicate that successful people have followed some or all of the techniques indicated below to put better use of the time available to them. We can indicate here that we should start adopting to smarter work behavior rather than pure muscle power utilization
How To Manage Time
Theoretically explaining the techniques will be a good read of a novel but may disappear over a period or when you have picked up the next better novel. By giving extensive introduction and projecting a superlative outcome when somebody manages “ time ” as preached, the following are the supposedly exploding benefits:
Benefits of Time Management
Greater productivity and efficiency
If we plan our time well,we would make sure that we are using it constructively and trying to make the most of it.If we have schedule to do all the tasks at hand listed down and the approximate time taken by each of them then we would be efficiently doing the work without making extra efforts other than the allocated efforts.Professional reputation
Most of us don't realize that the punctuality we maintain has a large impact on our reputation.It is more related to the commitment that we can give for a specific task.If we say,I would reach at 9:00 am,it means that I prioritize and plan all the activities around the core commitment of me reaching a destination at the committed time.A common quality most senior executives have is punctuality.It is clear sign of commitment which gives credibility to their reputation.Stress Free
Like people say " Time stops for no one".On the contrary,no one stops or waits for us.We are always time bound.We always have to do certain things at a certain time.Most of us are stressed because we always keep imagining the possibility of being late.If you consider all the times that you were stressed ,then most of the times it would have been due to the possibility of being late to certain engagements.Opportunities for growth
When we make maximum use of all the opportunities,it is only then can we keep giving ourselves the chance to explore newer possibilities.We can only grow professionally if we keep exposing ourselves to newer possibilities in life.We have to manage all the possibilities coming our way in order to achieve that.Opportunities to reach career goals
All of us have some career goals.Most of our career goals keep changing as we keep progressing in our career.People think career goals are static,but they are not.Career goals are dynamic and they keep evolving based on the opportunities we explore in our career.We should utilize time effectively to give a considerable amount of time and effort to every opportunity in order for the career goals to be reached.
Corollary should be as frightening.Failing to follow the techniques enumerated or where “ time ” manages you:
Time Mismanagement effects
Target not achieved
Most of our targets are based on time constraints.So the inefficient use of time will directly impact our targets.It is not necessary that achieving the target is the only problem we will encounter.There are cases when we might end up doing a sloppy work in order to achieve targets. This will cause a bad impact on our image and reputation at work.Inefficiency
Time mismanagement has direct effects on the quality of work.Obviously the direct result of time mismanagement would be inefficiency.The problems we would face would be multiple tasks depending on one another leading to a pile of tasks that would be delayed.The phenomenon of multiple tasks depending on one another is called the domino effect.Poor Work quality
If the time alloted for every task is disproportionate to the amount of actual effort required ,then the work quality takes a hit.If we think about it this was the intended result of time mismanagement from the day we started mismanaging time.Lackadaisical career growth
If we keep mismanaging time ,we will always do the task in the least effective way.The effect on career is that,we will have a non enthusiastic work life.The career graph will not be any better than flat line ,where we meet the bare minimum to stay afloat.Unbearable stress levels
All the above factors will directly cause stress.Time is a constraint that cannot be changed .If we are late,we are late.So it is better to avoid mismanaging time.
Try and understand the implications of the following pointers to start managing your “ time ” well.
Goal setting
There's a right and wrong way to set goals. The ones that were not set properly will drag or abuse time available to you – hence you would feel the “ short ” of it. Do it right the first time - time does not fly but stays with you and relaxes your mind and body that you would not feel like working ,Then of course work should be completed at the end of the day.
The work in organizations are tracked using goals.Goals are of two types
Long Term Goals
Most organization have long term goals that are assigned to an employee based on the strategic plans of an organization.
Short Term Goals
The short term goals are usually set by the smaller entities like at the team level or the project level.All goals are time bound.We should make sure that we achieve the short term goals on time.This way the long term goals are met by default.
Measure the usage of Time
Start recording the activities that you perform in a day. Box it into different species. Experts may say block of an hour for analyzing in case of aCorporate . if personally, you are doing this exercise,then make 30 minutes blocks. At the end of the work out, check blocks where you could have avoided totally . Add those blocks to the time available in your next study – viz., avoid those activities totally the next time ,the available “ time ” boxes will amaze you.
The best way to manage time is to keep a check on the amount of time we spend on various activities.We should allocate time for all the tasks before starting them.This shows that we are estimating and planning for the activities before the task initiation.Now,take a note if the task got completed on time or not.This is not a one time process.We should keep iterating it again and again to find the optimum time spent on various activities.
Use Pareto principle for using time
Another great time management tip is to use the 80-20 Rule, also known as the Pareto Principle. This rule states that 80% of the efforts comes from 20 percent of the results. In sales, it also means that 80 percent of the sales come from 20 percent of the customers. The trick? Identify the 20 percent of the efforts that are producing 80 percent of the results and scale that out. You can do this with meticulous tracking and analysis.
To use the pareto principle,we should identify the most critical tasks at hand.Once the tasks are identified,we go about finding the best way to complete the tasks.The identified tasks are called the critical tasks.If we focus on these critical tasks,most of our goals would be in sync with our long term plans.
Eliminate obsessive habits
One of the biggest time-wasters we have are our bad habits. Whether it's prime, Netflix, Soap operas, WWF, playing games, going out frequently to drink with friends, or so on.Analyze whether we can live without overdoing any of these – if yes, then why waste “ time ”.
Most of these habits do not start off as obsessive.These habits usually start as pass times.Any habit becomes obsessive only if we do not keep a track of time that we spend on the activity.It becomes very difficult when we keep doing it again and again .The disproportionate amount of time spent in these activities leads to procrastination of critical tasks.
Take breaks in between Tasks
Instead of a continuous slogging, try stretching your legs or watch a lively comedy show (if at home) and if in Office – go to a friend who is free or who wants to stretch legs like you – not difficult – but yes can be worked out. The surge you feel when you are back in your seat after these breaks enables you think straight and even gives that bird’s eye view that was missing when you were slogging.
Small breaks in between tasks gives you a clarity of thought.If we keep doing the same task again and again start obsessing over it,we would never complete the task on time.We would also end up ineffectively using time.Small breaks get you out of the loop of thinking in a single streak without giving the actual problem a different perspective.
Prioritize Tasks
Every day before bed, think of the work completed today – what was done put a tick and move on. What was not done – think – is it because you could not complete it or somebody else did not allow you to make it happen. Work on the matter that you should set right because of your inadequacy or ensure that help extended to the task where it was somebody else’s role.Priority for the next morning and “ should be done ” and “may be done ” for the next day will make it simpler for you to work peacefully and fruitfully.
We should always have our task sorted out.As we discussed earlier,our tasks and goals are dynamic and will keep changing with course of time.We only have a fixed amount of time available to us.In case of new tasks piling up,we have to rearrange our daily task trackers to accommodate the incoming tasks.Now,how do we decide what tasks to push ahead in time line and what tasks to immediately complete?.We will take the impact approach.The task that has the highest impact on business is a critical task and would have to be resolved immediately.The task with least impact can be done later.Organizing tasks gives us a clear picture of our work.
Due to lack of “ time ” (!), we will stop here.
