Manage your time
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This document provides tips for managing time effectively. It discusses understanding time constraints, setting goals, prioritizing tasks, overcoming barriers like perfectionism and procrastination, planning, delegating, organizing paperwork and technology, managing meetings, and helping others with time management. The key aspects covered are understanding importance vs urgency, using the 80/20 rule to focus on high-yield tasks, breaking work down into manageable chunks, and avoiding overcommitment by learning to say no when necessary.
Manage your time
- 1. MANAGE YOUR TIME BY JULIE – ANN AMOS -JAICO PUBLISHING HOUSE PRESENTED BY AJITH KUMAR DINESH SURENDHARAN
- 2. AIM To give you sound advice, hints and tips for managing your time as “What to do & How to do” – in order to do more. The majority of suggestions given here are not major but you will find it easier to control events and workloads, and start to feel more in control of your time.
- 3. CONTENTS • Understanding time. • Finding the barriers to time management. • Effective and Efficient prioritizing. • Planning. • Delegating. • Dealing with physical organization. • Dealing with paperwork and administration. • Using technology and systems. • Dealing with problem people. • Helping others manage THEIR time.
- 4. 1. UNDERSTANDING TIME Time may be infinite, but each one of us only has a finite allocation. You still get 24 hours, 1440 minutes, 86400 seconds in each and every day, no more, no less. So ‘time management’s is a misnomer; a fallacy; a lie. Time simply can’t be managed! You cannot: • Control it • Increase it • Decrease it • Speed it up • Slow it down • Extend it (That’s why many books, training programmes, etc., talk about time management)
- 5. GOOD TIME MANAGEMENT • Give you more time to do what you want • Improve your availability • Improve your decision-making • Improve your health • Improve your productivity, efficiency, effectiveness • Make you easier to work with • Make you easier to live with • Make you feel more relaxed • Minimize the risks you take • Reduce stress and a lot more besides
- 6. PARETO’S PRINCIPLE Achievement makes most people feel good, So they are motivated and will work better. It simply denotes, most of the time we spend is wasted – it produces very little result. If we could focus on the aspects of our work that yield most results, we would be enormously more productive. It is also known as 80/20 rule. 80% of effort 20% of effort 80% of result 20% of result
- 7. Setting goals is something that surprisingly few people do. No wonder that so few of us achieve what we want. PERSONAL GOAL-SETTING People often get trapped into having good practices at work, but not applying them to their personal lives. Personal goals are important, as we can all too easily end up not achieving what we want with our lives. Note that these are simply ideas, and have not been written properly as goals. • Creative goals • Career goals • Education goals • Family goals • Financial goals • Mental goals • Physical goals • Social / Pleasure goals. Prepare your own and this is not a ‘Wish-list’ full of daydreams, but a precise list of what in life is important to you.
- 8. 2. FINDING THE BARRIERS TO TIME MANAGEMENT Time management is often something that we make difficult. We have barriers to doing things – some we can remove (or) change, but others we can’t. There are three main barriers to good time management: • Mental • Physical • People Each of these will have the effect of reducing your ability to successfully manage your time. REALISING YOUR MENTAL BARRIERS These arise, causing us to do things the way we do because: • We believe it’s right to do them that way • We believe we can’t do them another way • We believe it’s best to do them that way • We’ve just never considered changing the way we do them And so on – the list is practically endless.
- 9. UNDERSTANDING PEOPLE BARRIERS For many years, psychologists have described two types of behaviour that people exhibit are: TYPE – A: People tend to focus on quantity-time achievement, progress. TYPE – B: People tend to focus more on quality – Standards, perfection, details, a job well done. The extent to which you exhibit type A or B behaviour will determine how you work, and your attitude to time management. They are determined by personality-type tests are: • The optimist • The perfectionist • The rebel • The socialist • The worrier
- 10. UNDERSTANDING PHYSICAL BARRIER GETTING STARTED Before you can start good time management, you need to know what needs to be improved. Almost every book on time management will tell you to start off by making a time log: by recording what you currently spend your time on. RECORDING HOW YOU SPEND YOUR TIME Keep a note in a notebook or somewhere similar, of what you did throughout your working day. Here are some useful categories that everything you spend time on • Trips to toilet • Cups of coffee • Eating • Oppointments • E-mailing • Meetings • Travelling • Telephone calls – incoming/outgoing, etc.
- 11. 3. EFFECTIVE & EFFICIENT PRIORITISING Good time management rests on two things: Effectiveness and Efficiency. Both are important to managing your time well, but few people actually understand the difference. You need to understand the difference between the two. Effectiveness means being productive , being capable of achieving. In time management terms, it’s about doing the right things. Efficiency means functioning effectively with the least waste effort. In time management terms, its about doing things in the right way. EFFECTIVE NOT EFFECTIVE EFFICIENT • Doing the right things in the right way • Doing the right things well • Doing the wrong things well NOT EFFICIENT • Doing the right things in the wrong way • Doing the right things badly • Doing the wrong things badly
- 12. IMPORTANCE AND URGENCY URGENT NOT URGENT IMPORTANT Important and urgent things should be done immediately, taking sufficient time to do them well Important things that are not urgent can wait until you have the time to do them properly NOT IMPORTANT Urgent but not important things need doing quickly to get them done and out of the way but spend as little time as possible on these tasks Things that are not urgent or important can be left until the very last: even if they are the things we enjoy doing the most! Like effectiveness and efficiency, we often confuse importance and urgency. If you were asked to decide what part of your workload to do first, most people would say the most important thing.
- 13. 4. PLANNING • Another one more thing is planning apart from the above discussion. Planning means taking your to do list, and your diary, and planning What you will do When. Avoiding over-commitment: • I wish there was an instant cure for overcommitment. The trick to handling overcommitment is to avoid it – not to let it happen in the first place. • Avoiding it is possible, it just isn’t always easy. The following suggestions aren’t magic – they won’t necessarily work. Being assertive: • Don’t be afraid to say ‘no’. • If something isn’t your role, but should really be done by someone else say so. • If you don’t know how to do something, say so. • If you don’t want to do something, say so. • If you haven’t got time, say so.
- 14. 5. DELEGATING Delegation is giving someone the authority to carry out part of your job for you, or some task that is part of you jobs. APPRECIATING THE ADVANTAGES: Delegation is probably the single most important thing you can do to generate more time for yourself. Advantages for you. • You will have more time. • You will be free – to both concentrate on and do other things. • You will be protected if you are away: your work can still happen in your absence, with other people carrying on with it. Advantages for others. • They will develop new skills. • They will be able to use their existing skills fully. • They will feel involved, and therefore more satisfied and happy in their work. • Morale will be good. • There will be fewer delays while people wait for you to make decisions – they will be able to decide themselves.
- 15. DELEGATING PROPERLY Finding the task. It’s surprisingly simple with split them into four categories are: • Tasks beyond the skills and capabilities of the people – ‘Tough Task’ • Tasks so crucial that failure would cause huge problems – ‘Critical Task’ • Tasks that have been delegated to you. • Everything else. Finding the people Select a person for a particular task based on the following questions. • Do they have the time to do the task? • Do they have the ability? • If not, can you train / coach them? • Would they enjoy it? Communicating S – Specific M – Measurable A – Achievable R – Realistic T – Time – related(i.e., with a deadline)
- 16. 6. DEALING WITH PHYSICAL ORGANISATION 1. The paper mountain 2. Coping with multiple piles 3. Using the two-pile system 4. Dealing with the backlog 5. Clearing desks 6. Break the work down 7. Break the area down a) Bookshelves b) Desk c) Tables, etc. 8. Grouping Items a) Catalogs b) Company Information c) Magazines and professional papers d) Reading Materials e) Telephone Directories, etc.
- 17. 7. Dealing with Paperwork & Admin Filing: • Filing is something so simple that most of us do it without much thought. But often, people have poor practices to do with filing, and these can cost us valuable item. a) Filing things by date rather than by subject b) Having lots of small files (too many) c) Having only a few huge files (too few) d) Keeping files indefinitely e) Never discarding or archiving old filing f) Not keeping filing up-to-date g) Not labeling files with a meaningful names of references h) Not remembering where you filed something
- 18. Methods of Filing These are several methods of filing, and you need to use the most appropriate one for the material you want to file: By Subjects By Alphabetical reference By Number By Area By Date
- 19. Using Day File It is useful to operate with a day file system this is sometimes called a ‘tickler’ file by Americans. It is a file specially to remind you of future events and to hold the papers for these events. • Agendas for meeting • Documents for appointment • Letters to be replied to • To – Do list • Social Invitation
- 20. 8.Using Technology & Systems Today, there is a huge range of technology and systems to assist us at work, but how many of us really appreciate what is available, and how to make best use of it? Here are just some of the ways we can improve our working efficiency: • Conference Calls • E – Mails • E – Diaries • Fax Machines • Laptops • Mobile Phones • Video Conferencing • Voice Mails
- 21. 9. Dealing With Problem People In time management terms, however, two types of people cause the majority of the problems and they are at the two extremes, perfectionist & procrastinators. We will concentrate on these types of people, and try to establish ways of improving yourself, if you recognize one of these characteristics in yourself. Problem with perfectionist: Perfectionism can be a good thing: society has long valued accuracy, attention to detail, low error rates, etc. trying to be perfect can stop you feeling satisfied and motivated. It can also prevent you from achieving at all.
- 23. Recognizing Perfectionism • All-or-nothing thinking, or black and white thinking. This is believing there is always one right answer, if only you can find it. • Being afraid of disapproval • Being afraid to make mistakes. • Being over-sensitive to criticism and the opinions of others. • Constantly looking for a mistake or slip-up • Difficult personal relationships • Difficulty keeping things in perspective • Equating failure with being worthless. • Expecting too much of others. • Feeling that what you achieve is never enough. • Feeling you have to give 100 percent of yourself to something or you will be a failure or something dreadful may happen. • Living life with a set of rules: a life full of ‘shoulds’ and ‘ mustn’ts’ • Never feeling satisfied with anything you have done. • Putting off completing work to improve it or get it just right. • Trying to be perfect. • Valuing yourself based on what others think of you.
- 24. Recognizing Procrastinators • Accepting low standards. • Being easily distracted • Dawdling • Getting on with trivia and minor tasks to avoid or delay starting important ones. • Getting side-tracked. • Ignoring things in the hope they will go away. • Indecisiveness. • ‘just one more minute’ syndrome – and then I’ll start…. • Letting low priority tasks get in the way of high priority ones. • Overcommitting yourself: taking on too much. • Putting things off until later. • Setting conditions before you can start; tidying desk, quiet environment, cup of tea, etc. • Understanding the effort or time needed to achieve a task, even though it is obvious • Waiting until you’re in the mood.
- 25. 10. Helping Other Manage Their Time Managing Meetings. Meetings can be torture! All too often, we spend valuable time sitting in meetings that we don’t really need to be at, or that we do need to be at, but that don’t serve our purpose. Planning before the meeting Meetings need to have an objective. Meeting have only three purposes: • To discuss • To decide • To inform Be clear about why you are convening your own meetings, and if someone is asking you to attend one, ask them why. Leave sensible, meaningful messages over telephonic conversation If you need to leave a message, make sure you give the five W’s • Who you are • When you called – time and day • What you want • When you will call back or when they can call you • What number you can be reached on.