Time Management
Introduction: According to Benjamin Franklin, “The lost time is never found again. “ One essential resource that no one can hold, store, or retrieve is time. Every minute is valuable, and if we use it well, it can do a lot for us and make us stronger. Time is running out. We ought to handle it correctly.
The process of managing time involves scheduling and allocating our finite amount of time to numerous daily activities. We should utilize the day’s few available hours to their fullest. However, we all struggle with effective time management. Most people put in a lot of effort and work very hard to reach their goals, yet they often struggle with time management. Some people scheduled their tasks, spared time for them, but failed to prioritize them. This results in failure or makes it extremely difficult to reach their aim.
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Table of Contents
How to Manage Time Wisely?
As famous Tamil comedian Vadivelu Sir’s dialogue, “whatever you do, go with plans” it is necessary to plan everything. We should have a clear idea of what we want out of life and what our ultimate objective is before we start preparing anything. After setting the goal, we should create a to-do list that includes daily, weekly, monthly, and ultimate goals.
In the ultimate aim section, list your life goals and items you want to accomplish in the next several years. Then make a daily, weekly, or monthly to-do list with the steps that need to be followed to reach the aforementioned goals. You must group the tasks on your to-do list into personal, professional, wish list, and other categories, then put them in that order. Usually, you must order the list from most important to least important so that you can simply keep track of your actions and so that you can finish all the duties for the day.
You can do this by saying 1, 2, 3, or A, B, and C. Prioritize, then complete the challenging assignment first. Our minds will be sharper in the morning, making difficult tasks easier to do. Our brain will release happy hormones following the successful completion of a challenging task to celebrate the achievement our mood will be happier to do the simple tasks. The hardest task will continue to carry over to the days after if we put it off until last.
Dwight D. Eisenhower, the 34th US President, used a matrix for work prioritization. It really aided him throughout World War II.
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You can also prioritize tasks using this matrix too. Here 1 refers to urgent and important thing to do which you should keep in first priority. 2 refers to not urgent but important. Those who maintain 2nd wisely are considered to be having personal leadership capacity as they execute things on time.
3 refers to urgent but not important. You can make others to do these tasks for you. 4 refers to not urgent and not important which is wasting time in social media, being lazy, procrastinating things etc. One should keep this column empty. The effectiveness of this matrix is written in 7 habits of highly effective people by Stephen Covey.
Setting Deadlines:
The following step is to set deadlines for each stage. Setting deadlines will assist you in finishing the assignment without procrastinating. You must set deadlines for shorter periods of time. Don’t set aside the entire four days for studying, for instance, if you have an exam in four days and just need to study one subject. Set aside two days: one for a half portion and the other for a second half part. Two more days for revision. Now you know that if you devote more time, it will take that much longer for you to finish something that you could have done in a shorter amount of time. In Parkinson’s law, it is explained, “Work expands so as to fill the time available for its completion”.
Organize Time For Professional & Personal Work:
It is crucial to organise time for both professional work and personal and medical care. When you get down to schedule your day, categorize it and set aside some time for your loved ones, friends, and self-care. Don’t spend a lot of time working on tasks connected to the office. Dr APJ Abdul Kalam quoted, “love your job, not your company”. Follow it as a guide. Self-care is also a component of time management. The importance of good health cannot be overstated. “No time” is an excuse for laziness. Make today a productive, full day.
Monitoring Our Actions:
Does simply arranging time suffice? Does it enable one to advance in life? In short, no. Scheduling, setting priorities, and adhering to it are insufficient. Monitoring our actions is crucial for understanding the results. To analyse whether we are on the right route, it helps to discover where we are failing and in which category our attention is focused the least.
Conclusion: All of the aforementioned planning, scheduling, prioritising, and time blocking should be done the night before so that we may start the next day with a clear understanding of what has to be done. If not, the following day will begin with a great deal of uncertainty.
“Time management is essentially a set of competencies” -Stephen covey
