Time Management Skills
How often do you have a plan for how you are going to spend your day but you aren't able to complete the tasks on your plan because of unimportant tasks, interruptions, or your own procrastination? Wouldn't it be great to be able to manage your schedule and your time while avoiding, or at least controlling, these time stealers? Learn the strategies to manage your schedule while still handling interruptions and demands on your time.
Meaning of Time
What time means to you and how to identify some of the ways in which you can manage it more effectively?
If you wish to become an effective manager of time you must first understand the nature of what you are attempting to manage. Time in this context is not to be defined philosophically. Most simply, it is of finite duration distinct from eternity. The expression 'time' in the English language as well as in other languages is used in different ways. Spend a few minutes writing down some ideas of what the following phrases mean to you:
- At the same time
- On-time
- Time off
- At times
- From time to time
- Timeless
- In no time
- Timely
- In time
A reflection on the above phrases will enable you to focus on the nuances of meaning that underpin their use in actual contexts. You have probably now got a clearer idea of time. Time in fact is an intangible concept or a paradox. You never have enough time but you have all the time that is available. It is a resource, but if you don't use it, it will disappear and you will never be able to catch hold of it, once gone. You can't increase its quantity, but you can ensure that you use it on things that are important to you.
You might have realized that time is a personal concept which means there is no right or wrong perception of time. Learning to manage time requires commitment and depends on how you approach various activities. Your approach will be influenced by the assumption you make about the nature of your work and the environment in which you live and work. Some assumptions will generally be more useful than others for managing your time effectively.
Meaning of Time Management
One of the most essential skills required by an effective manager and every professional relates to managing the time available and prioritize the long term and short-term goals.
Time management is a process of determining the quality and quantity of work output i.e. the effective utilization of time in performing various activities in the organization. Time management is the discipline of organizing, allocating, and controlling the time you use for activities in such a way that you achieve your desired results.
You as an employee have to perform your activities according to your job description. Your important duty is to see that all the activities are performed as per the job description and with the time limit assigned to the job. Time management will help you to perform your job more effectively and efficiently.
The flow of Time is Unidirectional
Like other resources, 'time' is also an important resource that has got a unique character of having a constant unidirectional forward flow. Time passed, cannot be regenerated nor it can be stored to be utilized later on when needed.
Adequate input of all other resources does not necessarily guarantee achievement up to expectation, if during the planning and implementing all possible efforts were not undertaken to complete the various component tasks in targeted time by effectively utilizing the same.
Why Time Management?
Time management is the discipline of organizing, allocating, and controlling the time you use for activities in such a way that you achieve your desired results. Time is a very valuable resource. The first step towards improving time utilization is to determine how available time is spent on different types of activities. Although managers understand that time is their scarcest resource, few actually take time to get a ‘birds-eye’ view of how they actually spend their time and keep a track of how the priorities they say are the most important fit with the actual way they spend their time. It highlights how to control your time so that you can optimize your productivity. Time management helps us to:
- To provide quality time to your responsibilities
- To decrease expenses through work transformation
- To see that all the staff spends their time as per the activities listed in their job description
- To measure the work output and facilitate quality customer focus
Time management is simply a way of using time effectively. Working faster or working longer are poor strategies for managing time. It is more sensible to identify your priorities and then choose the activities accordingly. In fact managing time is about managing yourself. It is about adapting to a given situation so that you can get the most out of your time for you to do this, you must accept that you can influence and ultimately control the environment in which you live and work. You must learn to spend your time wisely.
Related Links
You May Also Like
-
The development of teams is an ongoing process because the composition of the team may keep on changing. The new members may join and the old members may leave the team. The team members pass through several stages for the development of the team and there has been a lot of research to identify these stages. In this article, we discuss the common theories of team development.
-
Process & Stages of Creativity
Creative ideas do not come just like that. There is a process to it. There are a number of techniques of creativity to support the generation of ideas but the widely practiced ones are brainstorming and lateral thinking. Most innovations are not so much the product of sudden insights as they are the result of a conscious process that often goes through multiple stages. The creative process can be divided into four stages of preparation, incubation, evaluation, and implementation.
-
Appreciative leaders encourage contributions from those around them and facilitate the discussion to mutually solve problems. Understand the concept of Appreciative Leadership and learn about tools to create and ask powerful questions - that lead to new discoveries and possibilities. Instead of focusing on what’s wrong in the workplace, learn about, and build upon what works. Learn in this article the art to apply appreciative inquiry to specific situations and challenges at your workplace.
-
Evidence of the medically damaging symptoms of work stress necessitates applying the treatment of stress management. Stress management is increasingly drawing the attention to the management experts not only as a remedial measure but also as a way to resource management. If the workplace can be made a little more lovable the increase in the achievement of the organization may be much time more. If group stress can be removed by introducing group discussions and recreational facilities a long-lasting team spirit may get developed.
-
Storming Stage of Team Development
Storming is the second stage of team development and this stage is characterized by a bid for power and inter-personal conflicts. Learn the key factors that occur in the storming stage and the strategies that a team leader can adopt to pass this stage of high winds
-
Concept & Definition of Stress
Stress is a popular expression used by people in day to day life. Pressures of day to day living sometimes necessitate coping or dealing with them and stretch the body beyond its natural capacity. They are called stressors. Stress is a natural, ongoing dynamic, and interactive process that takes place as people adjust to their environment.
-
Authentic leadership is an approach to leadership that emphasizes building the leader's legitimacy through honest relationships with followers which value their input and are built on an ethical foundation. The authentic leader acts upon his or her values and beliefs, and inspires others to do the same, is committed to know and develop oneself. Are you committed to developing yourself; know your motivations and the purpose of your leadership? Read this article to know more about authentic leadership style and discovering your authentic self.
-
Tips for Effective Time Management
After studying and analyzing how time is spent, why time is wasted, and where time is wasted you need to decide about the changes required for effective utilization of time. For this purpose, a large number of remedial measures can be taken by you. The first and foremost determinant of a planned and purposeful utilization of time is to develop consciousness of the value of time at all levels of the organization. Planning, goal setting, and defining priorities are concerns to addressed immediately.
-
Listening is the foundation for good communication. It is also the hardest skill to master. Do you listen to confirm what you already know, or do you listen to explore and learn new things? How can we create receptive communication as a listener? The real art of listening involves awareness and sensitivity to the feelings of the speaker because it is at the feeling level that genuine connection, relationship, and healing occurs.
-
Recognizing Stress & its Sources
As an individual, you almost certainly know what stress feels like. Stressors are events or situations to which people must adjust. Stressors may be physical or psychological in nature. The level of severity of stress is determined not merely by exposure but the intensity, duration, and frequency of stressors. The sources of stress are many. They arise from multiple areas both with the individual and from the environment.
