PERSONAL TIME
MANAGEMENT
Our life is like a bubble, a short morning dream.
Therefore, we should take a good care and make the best use of it. In other
words, we must understand the value of time. Time management is basically
planning and dividing one’s time in a constructive way. Managing our time is basically managing our life.
Whether we want to be an excellent student, a successful athlete, a great
parent or run a successful business- managing our time is the key, as also
inspired by (Covie, 1999, pp. 15-18) “If
we want to change the situation, we first have to change ourselves. And to
change ourselves we first have to change our perceptions.”
By effectively managing our time we are effectively
managing our life. We will effectively manage our stress and frustration, we will
be able to spend quality of our time with important people in our life, and
above all we will gain greater self-confidence and a positive attitude.
Just as there
are benefits of managing our time there are also consequences for failure to
manage our time. If we are in business
or sales we can lose sales opportunities and leads, loss of credibility with
family due to not making time for family events, and this all will key into high
stress and anxiety levels which contributes to poor health.
Techniques:
In
a magazine of “Mayo clinic”, which focuses more towards health, under the topic
of stress management had mentioned techniques of stress management and also
mentioned that following these techniques keys into time management.
There
are few techniques that should be used to improve the quality and achieve
greater peace of mind:
1- Plan
our day: The best way to
start our day is to plan our day. Planning our day can help us accomplish more and feel more in
control of our life. The best time to plan our day is the day before. Writing a
to-do list, putting the most important tasks at the top. We should keep a
schedule of our daily activities to minimize conflicts and last minute rushes.
2- Prioritizing
our tasks: Time-consuming
but relatively unimportant tasks can consume a lot of our day. Prioritizing
tasks will ensure that we spend our time and energy on those that are truly
important to us. Once we have prepared our to-do list we can prioritize our
tasks using quadrant map.
As also mentioned in a book “Time management for creative people” by
(McGuinness, M., 2007, pp.7-9) Where the author briefly explains these
tasks:
A-Tasks: Urgent and important tasks such as, dead line-driven
projects, last minute preparations etc.
B-Tasks: Not-urgent but important tasks, for instance, to be
fit and healthy we should take exercises, personal time with family and friends
etc.
C-Tasks: Urgent but not as important tasks, like, answering
friends calls, other people’s minor issues, etc.
D-Tasks: Not urgent neither important, for. Example, surfing on
internet, back biting etc.
Note: If we have more than one “A” tasks, then we can put it
in a sequential order of importance such as A1, A2, and A3, the same goes for
other tasks. We should always review the
list throughout the day. The list must be flexible, there might be some times
that tasks “B” becomes tasks “A”. By managing our schedule effectively we have
more control on out time, so sometimes if we get urgent tasks that needs to be
done immediately still we can manage our schedule because we have an idea of
controlling our time and schedule.
3- Learn
to say “NO”: Sometimes we need to be cruel to be kind, we should
consider our goals and schedule before agreeing to take on additional work.
Whereas, we might want to delegate some of our tasks from our busy schedule. We
should take a look at our to-do list and consider what we can pass on to
someone else.
4- The
pause that “refreshes”: We should make sure that we have scheduled a break to
breath and smell the flowers. We can create another list for our personal life
such as keeping in relation with your family, going out with our friends and family
for dinner or shopping on weekends.
MOTIVATION KEYS
INTO TIME MANAGEMENT:
Agreed by “New York times” during their survey regarding the “secret
behind the success” they came up with a conclusion that, time management is essential to lead a successful life, however if
there is lack of motivation, time management can be a struggle.
Motivation is a force, a stimulus
or influence. It is a drive within us that we must put to use in order to
achieve our goals. Motivation keys into time management, since when a person is
lacking motivation they probably are not taking a good care of their time. Time
management will follow once our motivation perks up.
Inspired by Vanderkam, L.,
2010, pp. 9-11 we can be
very organized if we plan our day one night before. If we have to go early to
the class we might set our clothes the night before, prepare our topics for
tomorrow and plan our day as scheduled. If we have hard time remembering, we
can post notes on the refrigerator, computer or anywhere we visit a lot daily.
This will remind us of our daily duties, and possibly help with our motivation
to get it done. So, the key then to achieving a motivation level that will
benefit our everyday plans is, stopping
putting off tomorrow, what can be done today.
As in interview with David Allen in Success Magazine she had agreed
that, to be motivated one should set goals. To know whether your goals are
specified, or are we motivated towards our goals we should apply S.M.A.R.T technique. For instance, I
have a specific goal of taking an A
in my PDSM assignment. How will I know whether I can achieve my goal or not?
So, I have to know the marks required to get an A to make it measureable. The marks required to get an
A is 70 and above. Then I have to know whether the goal I have set is attainable or not. Some people might
set high goals to impress their friends, so, in order to attain goals one
should set goals as high as they think they can achieve rather than setting
goals to impress others. I keep high goals in everything for high motivation,
so that I can manage my time effectively and the result-oriented should reach my expectations in the given span of time which is three weeks.
How to get on track:
Part of managing our self and our time requires a
frank evaluation of our current pattern of behaviors. We should ask ourselves
this question, “How can I do better with the time I’ve got?” Rather than
complain about our situation, we should take a good care of our own time
wasting habits’. We know that by managing and organizing our time effectively
will help us get more done each day, but how do we get on track when
organizational skills don’t come naturally? To get on track, we should follow
all the techniques of time management given above, try them for few days or
weeks and see if it helps. If it does, consider adding another one. If not, try
a different one. The biggest mistake we
can make in our life is not managing our time. Explained by many authors especially
in a book “Attack your day before it
attacks you” (Woods, T. et al, 2011, pp. 1-9)
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