TIME MANAGEMENT
and time. All of the first four can be manipulated
Do you often feel frustrated because you are
unable to finish important jobs?
Do you ever look at the clock and realize with a
slight sense of panic that you haven't really
gotten started on what you wanted to accomplish
today?
When critical tasks are needed, such as
assignments, term works, presentations,
preparation for exam days, etc., do you find
yourself working long nights and weekends to
complete them? And do you sometimes miss the
deadline anyway?
Do you have a vague sense that something is
wrong with the way you do things but you can't
say exactly what it is?
If you identify with most of these statements, you
do indeed are in trouble most of the times and
are always running to meet the deadlines.
The truth is that time management is critical
in any student's life. But trying to get your
money's worth means that you will always be
pushing the limit on what can be squeezed into a
finite amount of time. So your life may sound
stressed, even when you think you are working
hard, playing hard, and achieving your goals. My
question is, "Do I want to spend all of my life like
this?" I've already borrowed lakh of rupees to
attend college, and I have three/four years to go.
Time Management Is Self-Management:
The idea of "Time Management" may be the
biggest misconception of all. For, time cannot be
managed, at least not in the way other resources
can be. Pursuing an aim or a task is concerned
with the wise management of five kinds of
resources: capital, physical, human, information,
in many directions. You can manage human
resources; you can increase the size of your
work force, or decrease it, can change its
composition, adding more of a certain specialty
and subtracting others; you can move production
workers off the line and retrain them in other
functions. You can also manage capital -
increase it, save it, spend it, or hold steady. You
can invest it, put it into new production facilities,
or fund a subsidiary. If you need more, you can
sell shares in the company, get a loan, and
increase the price of your product.
But time, the invisible resource, is unique,
because it is finite. There is only so much of it,
and no matter what you do, you can't get more.
The clock cannot be speeded up or slowed
down. Time is the only resource that must be
spent the instant it is received, and it must be
spent at one fixed rate: sixty seconds per
minute, sixty minutes per hour.
Thus, the very notion of time management is a
misnomer. For, we cannot manage time. We
can only manage ourselves in relation to
time. We cannot control how much time we
have; we can only control how we use it. We
cannot choose whether to spend it, but only how.
Once we've wasted time, it's gone and it cannot
be replaced.
Difficulties in Time Management:
Here are some of the most frequent reasons for
not being able to manage the time sensibly.
These reasons are also called time stealers.
• Interruptions – telephone
• Interruptions – visitors
• Meetings
• Indecision
• Acting with incomplete information
• Unclear communication
 • Lack of planning
• Inability to say “NO”
TIME WASTERS:
Every thought, every action takes time.
Everything that takes time has the potential of
wasting time. If anything takes longer than it
should, it has wasted time. If that wasted time
puts you in jeopardy of running out of time on
another obligation later in the day, you are
suddenly facing great stress.
Given below is a list of major time stealers or
time wasters, affecting our time management in
daily routine life.
• Indecision
• Inefficacy
• Unanticipated interruptions that do not
pay off
• Procrastination
• Unrealistic time estimates
• Unnecessary errors
• Crisis management
• Poor organization
• Ineffective meetings
• Micro-management
• Doing urgent but not important things
• Poor planning and lack of contingency
plan
• Failure to delegate or delegating without
authority
• Lack of priorities, standards, policies or
procedures
So we can see that every time waster is a
potential stressor.
Who’s Fault Is It?
One aspect of working on time management that
is particularly difficult for some people is
accepting the reality that they themselves are to
blame for many of their time problems. It's
another aspect of human nature: No one really
likes to proclaim weaknesses. Instead we find it
much easier to blame others.
When people talk about their worst time
problems, invariably they think in terms of the
things in the work environment that are beyond
their controller that they think are beyond their
control. There are many handy scapegoats, of
course: drop-in visitors, meetings, inadequate
equipment, people who fail to perform as
expected, paperwork, inaccurate information,
telephone interruptions, crises of one sort or
other, many of which could have been
anticipated and prevented. Yet the true cause
underlying most of these time wasters is found
within the person who allows his or her time to
be wasted.
To avoid falling into that quadrant of time which
is a time waster, some tips are given below; to
be followed in routine life.
Some steps to successful time management:
• Set specific goals (be it academic or
personal)
• Create a term calendar recording major
events
• Create a weekly schedule of your classes,
meeting etc.
• Decide on specific times to work on each
course
• Make a to do list for each day the night
before
• Stop telling yourself you work best under
pressure; nobody works best under
pressure.
• Resist the urge to step in and take over
because others are not doing their job;
their work is their responsibility, not yours.
• Don't assume that everything has to be
done; learn to discriminate low-priority
work and ignore it whenever possible.
 • Stop trying to make everything perfect;
some things are simply not worth the • Procrastination (postponing)
extra effort. • Set-backs (failure)
• Confusion
TIME SAVERS: Putting First Things First • Inability to act
• Set back to relationship
The key to successful time management is doing • Inferiority complex
the most important task first, and giving it your
• Depressed
full concentration, to the exclusion of everything
else.
Plan…then stick:
The significance of the daily plan is that it forces
This is planning at its core: Set priorities for the
you to do exactly that. A daily plan will guarantee
day, and then do the first one first. And that
that you get your top-priority tasks done; guide
means first. Not after chatting with friends, not
you in determining the priorities of new tasks that
after listening to music or playing that game, not
arise during the day; give you psychological
after checking the mail, not after reading the
backup for resisting interruptions; tell you what to
novel, magazine or daily paper, not after clearing
return to if you do get interrupted.
away small jobs. It's such a simple idea, and yet
so very hard to do.
Planning goals for the day, week, month,
quarterly, annual (long term & short term goals)
We're all human, and there is a strong urge for
is the most important activity in time
instant gratification. We crave the feeling of
management. And to make sure the planning
success, of having accomplished something
sticks, you must write it down. A written daily
definite, and so we want to start our day with a
plan is your essential tool. With it, you are in
task that's easy and quick.
control of your time. Without it, your days will be
a frustrating jumble of minor crises, interruptions,
List the tasks that are essential for today. These
and dead ends.
are the "musts" any portion of a major project
that is due today, an assignment from your boss,
Evils of not planning:
a critical report, and so on. At least one of these
should be an activity that advances one of your
We all know that running out of time puts us
own long-range goals. Others will derive from the
under stress. We try to get too much done in too
company's long-range plans and your boss's
little time. Decisions are made in haste and
goals and priorities.
actions are taken under pressure. Planning is
abandoned. Impulse replaces thought. Work
Then rank them in priority order. Number one,
hours lengthen as we struggle to get everything
remember, is what you're going to tackle first.
done. Effectiveness is diminished; deadlines are
Refresh yourself on the process of setting
missed. Tension builds up, tempers too; stress
priorities, if needed. Next, give yourself a
escalates. We all know about that kind of stress,
deadline for achieving today's goals; set a time
right? What we may not know is how thoroughly
by when you plan to have completed each one.
time is connected to the problem.
This will keep you on track as the day
progresses. It will also provide reasons for
Listed below are some major evils affecting
saying no to interruptions, when warranted,
positive outcome, mainly due to bad planning
because you'll always have deadlines coming up
and scheduling of tasks:
to which you can refer.
 • Paying phone bills
To avoid pitfalls in delivering on time and sticking
to the deadlines, one can take help by 2. PLAN TO DO
using/incorporating the following steps/changes: • Studying
• Planning
• Manage the decision making process • Relationship building
• Concentrate on doing only one task at a • Developing changes
time • Replying important letters
• Establish daily, short-term, mid-term and • Eating regularly healthy food
long term goals • Attending classes
• Handle correspondence quickly with short • Taking up revision tests
letters or memos
• Throw unneeded things away 3. REJECT AND EXPLAIN
• Establish personal deadlines and ones for • Attending some phone calls
your organization • Attending parties
• Do not waste other people’s time • Seeing a movie
• Ensure all meetings have a purpose, a • Taking account of attractive discount
time limit, and include only essential sales
people
• Trivial requests from others
• Get rid of busy work
• Adhoc interruptions/distractions
• Maintain accurate calendars and abide by
• Apparent emergences
them
• Pointless routine activities
• Know when to stop a task, policy or
procedure
4. RESIST AND CEASE
• Delegate everything possible and
• Watching movies
empower subordinates
• Watching TV
• Keep things simple
• Chatting with friends
• Ensure time is set aside for high priority
• Internet chatting
tasks
• Sight seeing
• Set aside time for reflection
• Shopping/computer games
• Use checklists and to do lists
• Day dreaming
• Adjust priorities as a result of new tasks
ANALYSIS OF TIME MATRIX
THE TIME MATRIX
Is the task important or not?

Important tasks are those which are essential for

1. DO NOW
achieving one’s goals in life, making it
• Emergencies
meaningful. Sharing time with your family,
• Crisis professional development and training,
• Demands from the boss socializing, being active and healthy may be
• Planned tasks due now important to your personal and professional
• Seeing a doctor when sick goals. Activities that contribute to your vision and
• Seeing the days news goals exist in quadrant 1 or 2.
• Meetings and appointments
On the other hand, spending time on routine e-
mails and phone calls, attending some meetings,
watching TV, may not be so important to your
personal and professional goals.
Urgent tasks are those that cannot be put off.
Phone calls and snap deadlines from your boss
are things that you can’t really put-off. The reality
is that things will pop up unannounced that will
demand your immediate attention.
Non-urgent tasks are those things that don’t
demand our immediate attention. They may
include making some types of phone calls,
watching TV, some forms of socializing, planning
your time, setting goals.
These activities reside in quadrants 3 or 4 of the
time management matrix.
Remaining in Quadrant 2
From a time management point of view, we want
to spend most of our time in quadrant 2,
proactively pursuing those things that are
important to us.
What activities do you do that fall under quadrant
2? These are tasks that are important but not
urgent. Activities that typically fall into quadrant 2
of the time management matrix are prevention-
related activities, computer maintenance;
relationship building; strategic planning, training
and goal setting; recognizing new opportunities
and vacations.
By doing these important tasks in quadrant 2 of
the time management matrix, we are able to
devote the time that is needed before they
become urgent. However, often urgent things
crowd out the important things-it is easy to
happen and results in stress and ineffective use
of our time.
Moving from quadrant 2 to 1
From a time management point of view, if you
are spending most of your time in quadrant 1 it
implies that you are a poor planner and sooner
or later you will experience stress.
What activities you do that fall into quadrant 1?
Typically these tasks are done because they are
urgent, and their importance means they have to
be done. This is a stressful use of your time.
Being in quadrant 1 is stressful. There are
some important things that are best done in a
proactive way (in quadrant 2), but if you don’t
attend to these things, then these important
things become urgent and may turn out to be
crises (quadrant1).
Quadrant 3
This is an urgent but not important task. The
activities you do that fall under this quadrant may
be tasks that land on your desk, or an
unimportant phone call.
You will find that there are many tasks that
will fall under this quadrant 3 for you, and it is a
good idea to examine whether the tasks have to
be done, as more benefit will come from
spending time on those things that move you
towards your goals.
Quadrant 4
This type of task is not urgent and not
important. These tasks do not move you towards
your goals, and could be dropped, so that you
can do more vale-added tasks. What activities
that you do fall into quadrant 4?
• People in quadrant 3 and 4 waste lot of
time
• More time spent in quadrant 3 and 4 will
expand quadrant 1
• People in quadrant 3 and 4 struggle to
meet deadlines
 • Giving more weight-age to quadrant 2 will
make quadrant 1 shrink automatically.