TIME MANAGEMENT

Time Management

“You wake up in the morning, and lo! Your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours
– the most precious of possessions.” Arnold Bennett

Time management is about having a conscious control over your time and working smarter.

Managing your time well makes you well prepared, organized and productive. It helps you
achieve more than you would if you didn’t have a time plan in place. 24 hours in a day is a lot
of time! Imagine if you plan your day meticulously, how much you could achieve, how
satisfying it would feel. 

Having a time planner gives you the assurance that you can achieve all the tasks of the day –
the positive mind set makes you work towards it successfully. 

Maintain a daily time sheet for a few days and analyse where you spend your time and where
and how it can be invested better. Do have a schedule for the day, week, month, and so on.
Plan ahead and keep time for preparation so that you don’t leave everything for the last
minute. Planning ahead of the day/ week/ month/ year(s) helps us stay on target. In contrast,
putting off till later will lead to tension, high stress level, and frustration. The way we choose
to spend our time is entirely up to us – choose to spend it wisely, efficiently. It can actually
lead to free time on our hands. Very importantly, it adds a purpose to each day – we wake up
to a cause; we decide exactly how our day should unfurl.

Once you have a schedule in place, display it in a place where you have easy access and
where it can serve as a constant reminder. 

Try to create logical and practical time slots/ blocks for all your jobs. For example, make time
slots for making/ returning phone calls, sending/ replying to emails, regular meetings,
strategy meetings, reviewing reports, writing reports, customer visits, public relations, and so
on. Keep some time to deal with unforeseen activities that may crop up. Make a habit of
planning regularly and soon you will see that you have a pattern that is repetitive and it will
become easier and less time-consuming to make your plan, as many activities will be the
same. Very importantly, it will give you control over your time. 
Make “to-do” lists in order of importance of the jobs. This simplifies the process of making a
detailed plan and also acts as an aid to memory. 

The Eisenhower Method of time allocation is based on four types of tasks:

1. Important/ Urgent
2. Important/ Not Urgent
3. Unimportant/ Urgent
4. Unimportant/ Not Urgent
While the first category is a high priority one, the last is of least importance and tasks falling
under it should be dropped. 
Prioritize. Do the urgent jobs first, followed by the important ones (but which are not urgent).
Scheduled appointments, meetings, crises/ fire-fighting/ problem-fixing, meeting deadlines,
staff issues, fall under “urgent”.  “Important but not urgent” tasks include planning, research,
networking, creating, developing change. 

With some people, starting the day by finishing off all the small tasks and then moving on to
the big ones and breaking them down too to smaller tasks, works well. For others, doing the
big priority task of the day and then giving time to smaller jobs works better. Figure out what
works well for you and abide by it. Avoid a situation where you’ve ticked off all the not-so-
important tasks while the one that should have been completed is unticked. Unforeseen tasks
do come up. Keeping this in mind, do not postpone the priority jobs; something may come up
unexpectedly and leave no time for it.  

As per the Pareto Principle, “80% of your success/ productivity/ completion of tasks comes
from 20% of your activity/ disposable time”. Figure out what that 20% is and give high
priority to that time block. 

Avoid duplication/ rechecking. Do the job attentively the first time. 

Avoid spending time on interruptions such as emails/ phone calls that can wait, gossip,
chatting, social media, reading unnecessary material, and attending to colleagues’ trivial
requests such as a smoking break. 

Make use of time pockets. While waiting for a meeting, at the airport, commuting, … make
notes, read, watch that work-related video you never seem to get time for otherwise, … You
will not only utilize your time well, you will also get a lot of trivial jobs done. 
Try to work without interruptions. If you need to find a space to be alone, try to arrange it. 

Whenever you can use technology, do. It’s a great time-saver. E-mail filtering, automated
responses, online banking and online shopping are examples. 

Delegate in a just way so as to achieve more in less time. If your position allows it, get a
secretary/ assistant to do the routine tasks. 

Avoid meetings if you feel they are unnecessary and not going to lead to anything productive.
Many managers call meetings as it makes the idea of being “in a meeting” sound important -
avoid falling into such a trap. If you have to attend crucial meetings, set and stick to an
agenda and “finish time”. 

Politely refuse to take on the duties of peers. Put your foot down and make your priorities
clear. If you don’t respect your priorities, nobody else will.  

If a client/ boss is pushing for a deadline and you know it is not urgent, try to negotiate for
time. 

Take breaks between tasks – allow time for this. This will result in higher productivity based
on the principle of diminishing returns.

De-clutter – this helps you to be organized and is a huge time-saver. Imagine how much time
would be wasted if every time you had to go through a pile of unsorted papers to find a
sheet. 

Wake up early – this will enable you to start your day early and place you at an advantage. 

No matter what, always keep a tab on your goals and review your time management to ensure
that your schedule is helping you to move closer to achieving them.

Achieving Work-life Balance

“All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy”, goes the old adage. Dedicating all your time
to work can lead to unhappiness, frustration, depression, and eventually low productivity.
Having nothing to look forward to after work can make life boring. It is absolutely essential
to carve out time for the family and friends and to have fun. 
It is not uncommon to see executives working late after hours - some do it to earn overtime,
some to get a promotion, some due to bad management of their time, some out of fear that if
they don’t put in extra hours, they might get laid off. 

Becoming a workaholic will lead to poor health, stress and fatigue, all of which lead to low
energy levels and consequently low productivity. Your family life will suffer. It will result in
monotony on the work front. By working incessantly, you may end up making mistakes. You
may also invite more work if you give the boss the impression that you are willing to take up
any amount of work. All or any of these factors disturb the balance of life. A line has to be
drawn where you need to give yourself a break from work, on a regular basis, to lead a
healthy life physically, emotionally and mentally. 

To achieve work-life balance:

Plan: Have a to-do list for both work and home and chart out a schedule for the day/ week/
month/year. When making your schedule, incorporate “me-time” as well as time for the
family. Indulging in an activity that you enjoy and spending time with loved ones will
rejuvenate you and give you something to look forward to. It will also motivate you to
complete your work on time. 

Manage your time: With effective time-management, you can control your time rather than
the other way around. Prioritize – do what’s important and leave out what’s not. Decide what
is important in your life and what you want out of life. Make more time for that and cut down
on what doesn’t matter. 

Learn to say “no”: Be fair to yourself and politely refuse jobs (work, domestic or social) if
you feel you already have too much on your plate or if you feel you are being used or if it is
of no value and will eat up your time for important tasks.  

Avoid procrastinating: Do not idle away time on social media, unnecessary phone calls,
emails and meetings, or on gossiping. Identify the activities that eat away your precious time
and resolve to do away with them. Thus, you will make more time for your work and leisure. 

Delegate: This holds good for both the workplace and home. If you can delegate tasks to a
subordinate, do so. On the home-front, get domestic help to do some of the chores. 
Wake up earlier than you do: Getting up an hour or two earlier than you do (provided you
are still getting the number of hours of sleep your body requires), can make a huge difference
in the amount of time you have on your hands.

Work out, meditate, eat well, sleep well: This will keep you more active and energized and
therefore, more productive, enabling you to achieve more in less time. 

Use technology to speed up your work. Though you can stay connected even at home, don’t
let it disturb your personal time. Know when to turn off your phone or laptop.  

Resort to diverse leisure activities: Try different leisure activities to avoid boredom and
monotony. Get adventurous. You will have variety to look forward to at the end of the week/
work day.

Seek help: If your work-life balance is totally out of hand and you do not see a way out, seek
professional help.  

Work-life balance enables you to have both achievement and enjoyment. This will make for a
satisfied, happy and successful life. Ideally, the balance has to be achieved in four areas –
work, self, family and friends. 

Once you’ve achieved a balance, keep a track of your activities so that you maintain the
balance. Review and revise as the need arises.