arn to say “NO”. If your superior or peer is dumping work on you, if you have other activities to concentrate on which is Important and Urgent, you should learn to say “No” in a pleasing manner and in the nice language which does not hurt them. Or else you will be dumped with work and you will be wasting more time on the Not Important, Not Urgent activities and less time will be left to concentrate on your activities which are of utmost importance.

♣ Indecision / delayed decision

According to the intensity of importance of activities, one should know when to take quick decisions and when to delay decisions. One should

"You will never find time for anything. If you want time, you must make it."

-Charles Bixton

Time management is not much about managing time but managing oneself. The usual compliant we hear from every one is “No time”. Time is fixed for every one; 24 hrs a day, 52 weeks an year. It is up to the individual how effectively and efficiently he or she manages and uses the time. Plan your time well, and then you will have ample time to do your activities.

Characteristics of Time

♣ It is a valuable and scarce resource
♣ It cannot be accumulated like money
♣ Once lost is lost for ever
♣ It cannot be stretched

There are 3 P’s of time management which needs to be taken care of:

1. Planning – must

Planning is deciding in advance what to do, when to do and how to do for any activity. For e.g. Consider that you need to submit a sales report to your superior or to your management team. First you need to plan out the outline / content of the report, decide when to do and plan how to go about of doing it.

2. Prioritizing – vital
The next step is prioritizing the activities. Categorize your activities in to Important and Urgent, Important but not Urgent, Urgent but not Important, Not Urgent and Not Important and act accordingly.

3. Procrastination – avoid
Procrastinating is most common among the individuals. There are certain activities which can wait and certain activities which need to be taken care of today itself.

Most of us will delay Important but Not Urgent activities till it becomes Important and Urgent and end up with lack of time. For Eg. Assume the same example of preparing a Sales Report, given a time of ten days. Now it is an Important but Not Urgent activity. You will postpone it till the deadline and will start working on it a day before the deadline and it becomes an Important and Urgent activity. Then you will not be able to put in quality time to that activity and end up with somehow managing to get the report ready. And at last end up with not meeting your superior’s expectations from you.

Don’t postpone your activities to tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes. Do it right now.

Time Wasters

One must know the time wasters and the way to tackle those activities. Many of us hesitate to take certain actions when it is required because of lack of assertiveness. Let us look in to few time wasters which need to be taken care of to manage our time well.

♣ Inability to say “No”
One should learn to say “NO”. If your superior or peer is dumping work on you, if you have other activities to concentrate on which is Important and Urgent, you should learn to say “No” in a pleasing manner and in the nice language which does not hurt them. Or else you will be dumped with work and you will be wasting more time on the Not Important, Not Urgent activities and less time will be left to concentrate on your activities which are of utmost importance.

♣ Indecision / delayed decision

According to the intensity of importance of activities, one should know when to take quick decisions and when to delay decisions. One should

♣ It cannot be stretched

There are 3 P’s of time management which needs to be taken care of:

1. Planning – must

Planning is deciding in advance what to do, when to do and how to do for any activity. For e.g. Consider that you need to submit a sales report to your superior or to your management team. First you need to plan out the outline / content of the report, decide when to do and plan how to go about of doing it.

2. Prioritizing – vital
The next step is prioritizing the activities. Categorize your activities in to Important and Urgent, Important but not Urgent, Urgent but not Important, Not Urgent and Not Important and act accordingly.

3. Procrastination – avoid
Procrastinating is most common among the individuals. There are certain activities which can wait and certain activities which need to be taken care of today itself.

Most of us will delay Important but Not Urgent activities till it becomes Important and Urgent and end up with lack of time. For Eg. Assume the same example of preparing a Sales Report, given a time of ten days. Now it is an Important but Not Urgent activity. You will postpone it till the deadline and will start working on it a day before the deadline and it becomes an Important and Urgent activity. Then you will not be able to put in quality time to that activity and end up with somehow managing to get the report ready. And at last end up with not meeting your superior’s expectations from you.

Don’t postpone your activities to tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes. Do it right now.

Time Wasters

One must know the time wasters and the way to tackle those activities. Many of us hesitate to take certain actions when it is required because of lack of assertiveness. Let us look in to few time wasters which need to be taken care of to manage our time well.

♣ Inability to say “No”
One should learn to say “NO”. If your superior or peer is dumping work on you, if you have other activities to concentrate on which is Important and Urgent, you should learn to say “No” in a pleasing manner and in the nice language which does not hurt them. Or else you will be dumped with work and you will be wasting more time on the Not Important, Not Urgent activities and less time will be left to concentrate on your activities which are of utmost importance.

♣ Indecision / delayed decision

According to the intensity of importance of activities, one should know when to take quick decisions and when to delay decisions. One should

, Not Urgent and Not Important and act accordingly.

3. Procrastination – avoid
Procrastinating is most common among the individuals. There are certain activities which can wait and certain activities which need to be taken care of today itself.

Most of us will delay Important but Not Urgent activities till it becomes Important and Urgent and end up with lack of time. For Eg. Assume the same example of preparing a Sales Report, given a time of ten days. Now it is an Important but Not Urgent activity. You will postpone it till the deadline and will start working on it a day before the deadline and it becomes an Important and Urgent activity. Then you will not be able to put in quality time to that activity and end up with somehow managing to get the report ready. And at last end up with not meeting your superior’s expectations from you.

Don’t postpone your activities to tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes. Do it right now.

Time Wasters

One must know the time wasters and the way to tackle those activities. Many of us hesitate to take certain actions when it is required because of lack of assertiveness. Let us look in to few time wasters which need to be taken care of to manage our time well.

♣ Inability to say “No”
One should learn to say “NO”. If your superior or peer is dumping work on you, if you have other activities to concentrate on which is Important and Urgent, you should learn to say “No” in a pleasing manner and in the nice language which does not hurt them. Or else you will be dumped with work and you will be wasting more time on the Not Important, Not Urgent activities and less time will be left to concentrate on your activities which are of utmost importance.

♣ Indecision / delayed decision

According to the intensity of importance of activities, one should know when to take quick decisions and when to delay decisions. One should

gent activity. Then you will not be able to put in quality time to that activity and end up with somehow managing to get the report ready. And at last end up with not meeting your superior’s expectations from you.

Don’t postpone your activities to tomorrow. Tomorrow never comes. Do it right now.

Time Wasters

One must know the time wasters and the way to tackle those activities. Many of us hesitate to take certain actions when it is required because of lack of assertiveness. Let us look in to few time wasters which need to be taken care of to manage our time well.

♣ Inability to say “No”
One should learn to say “NO”. If your superior or peer is dumping work on you, if you have other activities to concentrate on which is Important and Urgent, you should learn to say “No” in a pleasing manner and in the nice language which does not hurt them. Or else you will be dumped with work and you will be wasting more time on the Not Important, Not Urgent activities and less time will be left to concentrate on your activities which are of utmost importance.

♣ Indecision / delayed decision

According to the intensity of importance of activities, one should know when to take quick decisions and when to delay decisions. One should

arn to say “NO”. If your superior or peer is dumping work on you, if you have other activities to concentrate on which is Important and Urgent, you should learn to say “No” in a pleasing manner and in the nice language which does not hurt them. Or else you will be dumped with work and you will be wasting more time on the Not Important, Not Urgent activities and less time will be left to concentrate on your activities which are of utmost importance.

♣ Indecision / delayed decision

According to the intensity of importance of activities, one should know when to take quick decisions and when to delay decisions. One should think about the consequences of delaying decisions on others in the workplace and act accordingly.

♣ Lack of planning / organizing

Proper planning / organizing steps for an activity will help an individual to manage time efficiently.

♣ Interruptions like telephone, drop in visitors

If you have Important and Urgent activity to be concentrated on, ask your secretary not to transfer calls unless the call is of utmost importance. Otherwise, you will be spending unnecessarily a major part of the time in unwanted conversation.

Certain activities like drop in visitors cannot be ignored and needs to be taken care of because networking will be helpful for successful professional life.

♣ Inability to delegate work

Learn to delegate work. If your sub-ordinate can do an activity, delegate the job to him or her and do the activities where your presence is required instead of doing all by yourself. Trust your sub-ordinate and get his or her confidence of completing the job.

Usually there is a perception that “only I can do the work”. They will not be satisfied with others work and identify faults in each and every activity. They end up with doing everything by oneself and also will end up with lack of time.

♣ Unproductive meetings

There is a saying “Meetings are place where hours are wasted and minutes are noted”. In most of the meetings wide range of topics outside the agenda are discussed and will end up with lots of confusion and arguments. The next meeting will be started afresh. One can make meetings productive by following precautionary measures such as asking the participants to come prepared for the meeting, restricting to the discussion within the agenda, etc…

♣ Lack of self discipline

There are certain variables which are controllable and uncontrollable. Those time wasters which can be controlled must be controlled to manage time effectively.

Conclusion:

Time is money. Managing time is not so difficult, if one plans, prioritize and act accordingly. There are six ideas to time management: Define goals, Set priorities, Think what is the best use of my time right now, Learn to say No, handle email, papers only once and Don’t delay, do it right now.