Chapter Seven

Manage Your Time

Peter Drucker also adds that nothing distinguishes ‘effective executives’ as well from others as ‘their tender loving care of time’. Time management is one of the greatest skills of all. Currently, people find it tough to manage their time due to a rapid growth of technology. People also find it difficult to manage their time due to demands from various quarters. Most of the times, they don’t know how to prioritize their tasks. Time is a precious resource. It is more important than money as money can be earned. However, time that has passed by cannot be earned back. Due to an information overload, people find it difficult to assess what is to be given more importance. In this chapter we will discuss time management.

People are often confused between time management and multitasking. Multitasking refers to doing several things at a time. Multitasking is the order of the day in the current corporate world. In contrast, time management is about managing your time effectively and efficiently, without wasting any of it in unwanted activities. It is also about prioritizing and executing the tasks based on the requirements. And of course, it is a tough challenge to assess which task is important and which one is unimportant, which chore is urgent and which one is not.

Author Charles Spezzano in his book, What To Do Between Birth and Death, offers the following observation about time¹: You don’t really pay for things with money, you pay for them with time. ‘In five years, I’ll have put enough away to buy that vacation house we want. Then I’ll slow down’. That means that the house will cost you five years—one-twelfth of your adult life. Translate the dollar value of the house, car or anything else into time, and then see if it’s still worth it. Sometimes you can’t do what you want and sometimes you have what you want at once, because each requires a different expenditure of time.

Students and Time Management

Students often face problems in managing time. They find it tough to manage between curricular and extra-curricular activities. God gave all of us the same amount of time. As time is a precious resource, we must learn to manage it properly by eliminating time-wasters. For instance, students waste a lot of time in watching television and browsing the internet. Sometimes they waste their time by indulging in excessive socializing and gossip. If they identify time-wasters, they will be able to dissociate themselves from distractions and find more time for productive activities.

Leaders and Time Management

Leaders know how to manage their time. They are aware about the importance of time and they manage their time effectively. When we look at Jeff Immelt of GE, he manages his time effectively. He scans several newspapers while on his way to office. His entire day is engaged in several appointments. He delegates routine activities to his subordinates to execute, while keeping the important decision-making under his fold. His entire day is well-planned and managed effectively. Several leaders at the top level follow an itinerary and stick to it unless there is an emergency. Hence, all leaders have to be smart in time management. It is for this reason that several companies conduct workshops on time management, to enable employees and leaders to manage their time efectively.

Tips to Manage Time Effectively

Here are some tips to help you manage your time efectively:

• Find out your time-wasters and eliminate them.
• Delegate routine activities to others as it saves your time.
• Don’t fight about petty things as it not only diverts your attention but also wastes your precious time.
• When you are sure that the work cannot be done with a particular strategy, it is time to shift the gears and proceed with the work in another way, rather than wasting your precious energies on a strategy that does not work.
• Never think about your unpleasant past as it wastes 30 per cent of your time.
• Don’t worry too much about things on which you have no control. When you find that the problems arise out of external forces or factors, it is advisable not to worry about them.
• Carry a book or reading material when you go for any outside work. If time permits, you can read the material and avoid wasting your time by simply waiting.
• Don’t put off for tomorrow what can be done today. Procrastination is the thief of time. Don’t delay your work deliberately.
• It is rightly said that below-average people talk about individuals, average people talk about issues, and above-average people talk about ideas. Make sure that you emphasize more on ideas rather than on individuals and issues.

To conclude, don’t waste your precious time by thinking about the past which cannot be changed. Equally importantly, don’t worry about the future that cannot be predicted. Learn to live in the present. Prioritize the tasks through a right method of planning and execute them effectively. Above all, identify the time-wasters in your daily life by taking feedback on a daily, weekly and monthly basis and attack each time-waster ruthlessly, so that you find more time for productive pursuits. This will increase your prosperity.