Time Management:

Time management is a process of planning an d controlling your time in a way

that you are able to achieve your goals in the most productive, effective and
efficient way possible. As a student or an employee only a part of your week or a
year will be formally organized. This can be challenging as there are other
factors/demands on your time., such as study job etc.

Time can be effectively managed by keeping a track of what needs to be done and
also where your time goes and when your are planning your day. An employees or
s student must also prioritize tasks by importance and the achievements of your
objectives. It is proved by the research that goals are achieved faster by those
who tend to manage their tasks effectively and timely then those who don’t,
without deciding a goal it is hard to succeed so one of the characteristics of time
management is understanding the goals.

There are a lot of strategies that helps you achieve your goals. One of them is
CREAM strategy (peng 2008).CREAM stands for creative,realistic,effective,active
and motivated. Creative means to have confidence to apply your imagination to
you learning and problem solving. Reflective explains how you are able to sit with
your experience, analyze and evaluate your own daily performances whether at
work or study and what conclusions you draw from it. Effective states that
time,space,priority,state of mind,resources etc should be effectively managed so
that you gain maximum benefit out of it. Next is Action, it refers to being
personally engaged physically and mentally in making sense of what you learn.
Last one is motivated/motivation. It states that in order to achieve goals you
should be clear about the outcomes, the steps you need to take to achieve these
and what you will do to build and maintain your engagement and enthusiasm.
Each of these points are linked to the other If you are able to achieve any of these
you will automatically be linked to another. For example you should be motivated
to be active about taking any action.
Another strategy for identifying goals and achieving them effectively is
SMART.SMART is an acronym of 5 elements Specific, Measureable, Achievable ,
Relevant, Time based. Specific refers to only focusing on main points basically the
specific ones rather than going out of the content. For e.g., if a question is asked
about time then only time should be discussed. Next one is measureable ,this
refers to how measureable your goals are and how do you plan to measure your
progress towards meeting your goals. For e.g., evaluating the time and money
you need to buy a car,$6 are needed to buy or 12 hours will be used to get a car
etc. Third one is attainable, this states that the goals you have choose are
achievable or not? Realistic is the next objective,your goals should be relevant
and worth your time and effort. The last acronym is time-based. It states that a
realistic deadline should be linked to your goal as this will make things happen.
For e.g sales will be achieved in 36 hours.

Another strategy to achieve goals and prioritize them in the ‘’urgency matrix’’ it is
a simple but effective tool for prioritizing your to do list based on level of urgency
and importance of each task. This urgency matrix helps you rapidly identify the
activities that you should focus on along with the ones you should ignore. Also,
because this technique is so simple and versatile its applicable to all level of tasks
from daily through strategic action plans. This template for an urgent important
Matrix is 2x2 square resulting in 4 quadrants that reflect the degree of urgency
and importance of individual tasks. The vertical axis shows ‘’importance’’ and
Horizontal axis ‘’Urgency’’. Each task is positioned on the prioritization matrix
thus providing a visual representation of which critical activities you should focus
your resources effort on and which are distractions.

Once you have sorted out your goals and you are clear about them the next step
in to evaluate your resources you will need and Kurt Lewin (1948) developed a
three stage model of planned change which can help you think about how to
make changes in your personal life. Lewins force field model assumes that’s
changes will not occur unless there is motivation to change. The force field model
helps us analyze the factors that force change and that resist change to our
desired state. These include driving forces which are those that push us towards
are desired destination and resisting forces are those that pull us from our
destination. Finally he recognized that change involves learning about attitudes
and behaviors. The first step is to identify the factors that you want to change,
once this is done the next step is to analyze the driving and resisting forces than
evaluate each force. Last step of force field analysis is to understand your action
steps and identify whether or not you have the resources to implement the action
steps.

It is said that people tend to ignore the time factor as they think it is not
important when it comes to prioritizing however It is shown that the more time
you spend in preparation the move likely you are too succeed and those who
don’t prioritize time are less likely to succeed.

Masterton(1997) provide 10 key of time management. He started from

‘’planning’’.It means that a pre plan is made so that you have an overview of what
needs to be done and by when in order to achieve the goals.Second one is
‘’prioritizing’’-so that someone doesn’t just simply react to everything that appers
to be urgent but also give ourselves time to do things that are important. Thirdly
‘’time wasting’’ it is an important factor so that neither you or others waste time
on things that are not really important. Moreover, ’’learning to say no’’ is
considered as a principle so that we do not take on tasks when we can not
realistically fit them in. Further more,Mastertons 5th factor is ‘’controlling paper
work’’ so that we are organized and do not miss the important deadlines and
loose things and then waste time on finding them. Also, he stated that ‘’a diary’’
should be used as a tool so that we do not have to rely on our very fallible
memory to remember what needs to be done. Rather, everything is recorded in
written form of what needs to be done by when. However, even if 2-3 of these
factors are fulfilled that can be enough to help you succeed in any field of life.

Hence, time management is considered to be a crucial element in the efficient

functionality of any organization or study plan. The more effectively time is
managed the more successful the outcome is. So as to conclude, time
management can be viewed through Mastertones(1997) principles. He discussed
the importance of planning as well as the importance of prioritizing tasks as well
as avoiding wasting time and learning to say no to avoid over burden. This can
lead to an effective time management model.