Time Management

"Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else."  Peter F. Drucker

Availability of Time: Not an Issue

I am short of time. Day's 24 hours are not enough for me. Wish I had more time. These are the various phrases we hear from many people often. But it is not true. Every body has enough free time after accounting for all the hours one spends on all the essential activities.

Here are the calculations for a typical week:

Total available hours 24 hours X 7 days = 168 hours
Minus Average sleep 7 hours X 7 days = 49 hours
Total waking hours = 119 hours
Average time at office 8 hours X 6 days = 48 hours
Average time commuting 2 hours X 6 days = 12 hours
Total work time = 60 hours
Total work time as % of waking hours 50% approximately
Free time available after accounting for work time and sleep time = 59 hours

Time availability, therefore, isn’t an issue. Most important thing is “how to take control of your time (and therefore, your life)”.

Every person has 168 hours a week. What you do with these hours impacts your life in short term as well as long term.

You Are a Great Time Manager

If you can manage or find time for:

• spouse
• children
• family
• professional work
• introspection and self improvement
• relationships
• sleep and relaxation
• hobbies and interests
• exercises and walks
• enjoying the nature
• reading
• humor and laugh
• music
• travel
• watching few good movies and few good television programs

Peculiar Nature of “Time” Resource

• Time is a “resource”; perhaps the most important resource of existing and emerging scenario
• Time can not be stored, it can not be preserved and so it is irretrievable once gone
• Time is not transferable; it is personal
• Time is irreversible
• No rework is possible on time
• Time itself can not be sold, therefore it can not be purchased
• Therefore, Time is a peculiar resource: needs to be handled differently and more carefully

Ask this question frequently: What is the best use of my time right now?

• Work out goals for a chosen period (or if possible, work our lifetime goals)
• Resolve goal conflicts
• Set priorities
• Select your top three goals
• List the possible activities for each of the three goals
• Set priorities to allow you to select the most effective activity to do now
• Prepare "weekly to do list" and then "daily to do" list
• Act as per priority activities chosen
• Choose the most effective way to accomplish the task
• Move on to the next priority task and so on till you achieve the goal

Resolve Conflict Between Urgent and Important Tasks

Go by the following sequence in terms of prioritising your tasks or activities:

1. Important but not urgent tasks (If you take these as your top priority, the urgent tasks will minimize. As urgency minimizes, your stress levels will also come down. Refer: work pattern questionnaire at http://managing-stress-strain.blogspot.com/)
2. Urgent and important tasks (You will have to take them up as priority but you should try to minimize instances of such tasks by concentrating on important but not urgent tasks)
3. Urgent but not important tasks
4. Not important and not urgent tasks

Thus, Time Management is a Five Stage Process

1. Planning: Goal setting/target setting, prioritizing the goals
2. Activity analysis: Selection of activities, eliminating or minimizing non-optimal/non-value adding activities
3. Prioritizing the activities and scheduling: Their sequencing, preparing activity network and putting them on a time line
4. Resource organization: Plan out and position the required resources
5. Execution, review and correction: Carry out the activities, review them on a planned basis and incorporate corrections/modifications to ensure timely and economic completion

Most Interesting Thing about Time Management: You Can't Waste It in Advance

This point holds a very important lesson to learn. And that is- howsoever badly you might have goofed on your time management in the past, the time that will be available to you from this moment onwards for your entire future is still intact, uncorrupted and full in quantity; as much as all of others will have.
So learn time management right now and apply it properly from now on. If you feel that you wasted your time in the past, you just have no power to waste the time that you have for your future. Your future still remains spotless. You lost nothing much, you can still make up for it and still go further.
You still have the power to plan out your tomorrow. Use all the good time management principles and reshape rest of your life on personal, family and professional fronts. Your second, third and many more innings can still be brilliant.
And its not too late either since tomorrow is just a day away from now.

Procrastinating (Thief of Time)

Why Do We Procrastinate?

• Boredom
• Fear

Areas of Procrastination

• Difficult people
• Boring tasks
• Risky/unfamiliar work
• Difficult phone calls
• Large projects
• Public contacts
• Small tasks

Pick on the two which you find particularly problematic and make them the focus of your attention over the next few weeks.

How Do We Procrastinate?

• Small versus large
• Perfectionist
• Phoning at lunch
• Waste of time
• Avoiding the task

Action Plan for Less Procrastination

• Commit yourself to start times.
• Break large projects down into manageable portions.
• Control the amount of paper on your desk.
• Prioritize your tasks.
• Reward yourself : Give yourself a deadline and then plan a treat when you reach it. This will give you something to look forward to.

refer Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com/

Self-confidence

Source: Shyam Bhatawdekar’s website: http://shyam.bhatawdekar.com

• Self-assurance
• Poise
• Self-possession
• Composure
• Coolness
• Calm self-assured dignity
• Buoyancy

>>>>Signs of self-confidence

• Impressive external personality
• Calmness and coolness in appearance and behavior
• Absence of tensions, stresses and strains
• Positive outlook
• Organized
• Absence of inferiority complex
• Absence of aggression and boastfulness
• Humility and modesty
• Absence of complaining and passing the blame

>>>>How to Build and Improve Self-confidence?

1. Keep balance- don't be under-confident and don't be over-confident
2. Good personal grooming
3. Impressive and acceptable dress sense
4. Use classy accessories (not necessarily very expensive)
5. Personal hygiene
6. Improve your appearance
7. Keep physically fit
8. Keep mentally fit
9. Keep a good posture
10. Walk smartly and faster
11. Don't bite your nails
12. Do a firm hand-shake
13. Stand by your fundamental truths or values
14. Keep examining your paradigms (mindsets) and change them if necessary
15. Openness to learn and to learn continuously
16. Openness to unlearn and to relearn
17. Keep positive outlook
18. Yet, be abreast with the realities of life
19. Keep up-to-date in knowledge in your technical/professional area and in human skills (behavioral and soft skills) (This is one most important factor in improving your self-confidence)
20. Keep up-to-date in skills/competencies in your technical area (hard skills) and human skills (behavioral and soft skills) (This is one most important factor in improving your self confidence) (
21. Focus on your strengths and only critical weaknesses and improve them
22. Control your anxieties and fears
23. Communicate effectively.
24. Have a good command over the languages through which you deal with others
25. Speak up whenever and wherever required
26. Don't mumble
27. Walk the talk (actions speak better than words)
28. Good sense of timing
29. Have an active orientation
30. Design successes by achieving your objectives and related tasks by way of seeking opportunities, joining opportunities and creating opportunities that suit your strengths.
31. Smart and hard work
32. Make decisive decisions.
33. Work speedily and then accelerate
34. Be energetic and exude enthusiasm while working
35. Handle mistakes calmly
36. Learn to be humorous and have fun
37. Build trust
38. Build team work.
39. Delegate effectively.
40. Use your and other people's (your subordinates’) creativity
41. Take care of your people.
42. Maintain good human relations
43. Compliment others (that makes you an I am OK- you are OK person)
44. Accept compliments graciously
45. Keep your eyes and ears open (without being a part of politics, being completely professional)
46. Learn the art of negotiating the system.
47. Be flexible in your approaches
48. Good interpersonal relations.
49. Be firm but friendly
50. Be friendly but not familiar (familiarity breeds contempt)
51. Be assertive (do not be submissive or aggressive)
52. Be dependable and live up to your promises
53. Live with integrity and dignity.

Prioritize:

Learn to be more productive & successful by working on tasks that are more important rather than the tasks which interest you.

Take Rest

For a healthy mindset at your workplace get enough rest and sleep, avoid over-committing yourself to the work at hand and resist perfectionism.

Productivity

It takes  real commitment to remain actively productive during working hours. Just keep in mind that real productivity pays off, big time.

Deadlines

Keep your work deadlines. If there is an issue  you must inform your superiors of a possible delay in delivery. Do not spring surprises.

Time:

Time management is essential as it helps you to  improve your sense of control and positively affect every aspect of your life.

Tasks:

Identify your challenges and prioritize accordingly. Formulate a plan as to how to address these issues & the time frames involved.

Assignments

Be open to the idea of taking up a very different assignment within the same organisation. It will help you grow professionally.

Enthusiasm

If you are enthusiastic about your job, the work load becomes easier and lighter. There is also more accuracy and speed.

Motivation

Condition your mind
Condition your body
Avoid negative people
Seek out the similarly motivated
Have goals–but remain flexible
Act with a higher purpose
Take responsibility for your own results
Stretch past your limits on a daily basis
Don't wait for perfection; do it now!
Celebrate your failures
Don’t take success too seriously
Avoid weak goals
Treat inaction as the only real failure
Think before you speak


Source: Inc.

Growth

To achieve your goals, make the use of technology, information skills and practical tools to get the solutions.

Team Handling

Learning better communication skills is to ease and improve your relationships with management and coworkers.

Balance

Maintain work-life balance. Without a balance, you become addicted and like all addictions you lose.
Source: Career Dialogue

Work Life Balance

Ways to maintain work-life balance

  Below are few of the tips to help you strike a perfect work-life balance

Get Organized

Time management is of the essence when it comes to maintaining work-life balance. Spending more time in office doesn't necessarily translate into productivity,
The key is to maintain discipline on the job. That includes coming on time, or possibly even a tad earlier; not taking extending coffee or lunch breaks, or whiling away time on gossip. It's purely about prioritization

List Priorities

If you don't have a good work-life balance, you can be successful but not happy. To achieve both, it's necessary to focus on four life quadrants: work, family, friends and self, .All four are equally important. If you focus on all these and maintain discipline, it's more-or-less a done deal.

Develop Interests

Get interested in things other than work and make time for them. It could be something as simple as catching a movie, working out or pursuing an interest at an individual level or with friends and family.

Make sure you are allocating part of your spare time to something enjoyable. Switch off completely when you're spending time with your family.

Learn to Say 'No'

Putting in that extra bit is good, but it's equally important to know when to put your foot down and say no. Many of us are under the impression that saying no or refusing to do something beyond what we are supposed to can be detrimental to our careers. But that's not true. There's no point in doing something out of a false sense of guilt or obligation. Setting boundaries is essential.

Pursue Your Calling

Identify your areas of interest and do what interests you. We often tend to take a job because there's a certain aura around it or our peers are doing it. Instead, by taking up something that interest you can avoid undue stress.

Article Courtesy - Economic Times

Resume skills and Time Management

• Resume skills: As you compile statements for your resume, prioritize them by importance, impressiveness and relevance to the job you want.

• To manage time smartly at your workplace, always clarify before beginning a task. Understand both your roles and those of your colleagues.

Deadlines and Expectations

• Keep your work deadlines. If there is an issue you must inform your superiors of a possible delay in delivery. Do not spring surprises.

• You are not expected to know everything in the first few weeks of your new job. Take time to ask questions, observe and learn everything.

Time Management and Resume skills

• Time management in essential as it helps you to improve your sense of control and positively affects every aspect of your life.

• Resume Skills: The image you will create with your resume must match the salary and responsibility level that you are aiming for.

Specifics and Goals

• Emphasize how your specific experience and extensive knowledge of the company will make you the ideal person  for the job.

• You should be very specific while setting short term and long term goals. Only then you can move towards that direction

Enthusiasm

If you are enthusiastic about your job, the work load becomes easier and lighter. There is also more accuracy and speed.