Tips

Effective Time Management

Manu is a senior executive in a top firm, eminently qualified
for his job. He is ambitious and does not easily trust his subordinates,
afraid of being let down by them. He, therefore, tries to do
everything himself and is left with little time to think over larger
issues. He remains immersed in files and carries work home. The
last time he took the family for an outing appears to be years ago.
Shiv, also in a senior position in the same firm, heads another
department. However, the ambience here is different. Everyone goes
about his job with a song on his lips and Shiv is always at hand, easily
accessible to anyone. He packs for home on time and frequents
the golf course in the afternoon. Holidays with the family help him
to unwind further, which brings in added zip to his job.

What essentially is the difference between these two
executives?
Most people seldom have enough time to do all the things they
want to do. They have to work late in the offices, carry papers home
for disposal and spend all their energy in the drudgery of daily routine.
They have, therefore, no time to plan and execute jobs requiring
their personal attention. Nor do they have adequate time for self development.
One’s control over time is directly related to the hierarchical
position one holds in an organization.
Of all the resources—human, material, financial and the like—time
is the scarcest. It is rightly said that time is money (see table Time
Cost). An executive earning Rs 40,000 per month has his time cost

him Rs. 1,818 per day and Rs 227 per hour. This works out to Rs
four every minute of his working time, including lunch and coffee
breaks. Time must, therefore, be utilized with utmost care and on a
priority basis. In the competitive environment prevailing in all
spheres of life, the one who manages his time effectively will have
the cutting edge.

How time is spent
The failure to manage time is the result of poor planning and is
related to how managers feel about themselves. Broadly speaking,
the pattern of time spent in a work situation is closely related to the
personal values and priority system of an individual. An analysis
indicates that most of the time spent will be on items:
Which one is directly responsible for.
Which are easy to perform.
Which have brought due recognition and satisfaction in the
past.
Which give a chance for the display of certain special skills and
talents

Management of Time:
Personal traits: Time is often wasted due to various reasons and
personality traits given below.
Indecision: Inability to decide what to do and when as also the
inability to take a decision when required.
Procrastination: Decision is postponed or avoided whenever
possible.
Perfectionist: Trying to be a perfectionist and doing a perfect
job without taking care of the time schedule.
Too much reliance on written records: Tendency to be over
cautious.
Tension: Too much tension, mostly due to inability to accomplish
tasks in time.
Self Organisation: An individual should organize himself and
his activities in order to make the most effective use of time by the
following methods:
Priorities: The key to optimizing your time is to decide what is
important to you. Generally, the priorities for many people have
been family, health and well-being, career, money and intellectual
growth. A lot depends on your outlook towards life, but more of that
later. Wrong priority delays accomplishment of urgent jobs that contribute
to your overall and immediate goals. Ironically, if you have
too many priorities it becomes self-defeating because they can’t all
be priorities. You can prioritize only if you are clear about your personal
and work objectives. Once you have prioritized, pay attention
to critical and urgent jobs. Manage by exception and handle unusual
cases instead of each one.
Planning: This involves realistic allocation of time and ability to
dispose of matters according to time schedule. Always plan ahead.
Set aside some time for planning the next day. Review mid-day your
goals for the day. Develop routines whenever possible. People who
get the most of their limited time prefer to plan the upcoming week,
month and even further ahead.
Taking Decisions: Complicating the decision-making process is
the fact that we are faced with more choices in most things—education,
lifestyle, place of residence, career, marriage...all through your
life you will have to face the problem of taking decisions squarely.
Approach decision-making with a positive frame of mind. Don’t consider
decisions to be taken as some sort of a problem, although
some management experts view it just like that. Consider decisionmaking
as a challenge and an opportunity or an avenue.
With such a positive outlook you will also be able to put your
intuition to good use and take reasonably good decisions—and work
to let them pay. Intuition is not guess work or wishful thinking. It is
defined as instinctive knowledge—in other words knowledge or perception
not gained by reasoning and intelligence.
It will be worthwhile to do the low-level decisions quickly and
work on the big ones, for which you may have to consult one or
more experts to garner their views. Then go ahead and decide what’s
the best course for you to adopt.
One thing at a time: The tendency to skip from one job to another
should be avoided. Complete one task in hand before taking up
another. This involves doing first things first and one thing at a
time—something you can achieve only if you have prioritized and
planned well. Your attempt always should be to create “chunks” of
time instead of “driblets”.
Delegation: It will help you to avoid doing everything yourself.
You will be surprised at the amount of delegation you could do. This
will free your time to deal with more important matters. Delegation,
however, doesn’t mean just palming off responsibility to others. It
implies training your subordinates to undertake jobs with the requisite
authority given to them.
Clarify responsibility: It will help if your subordinates know
what is their responsibility and what decisions they can take.
Excessive control and cross checking will make your subordinates
ineffective, a situation which can easily be avoided.
Conferences: Some people habitually waste too much time on
conferences and meetings. Decide on who are really required to
attend and have the agenda set out properly. It will help to develop
good conference leadership.
Completed homework: Instead of going to your boss for decisions,
go to him with recommendations for action. He doesn’t have
enough time to think through all the items with which you are familiar and
he will just take up his time and yours by reviewing.

Aids to Effective Utilization of Time
A good memory: Reduce the need for reliance on written
records. Always try to keep a notebook and pencil handy to jot down
points. Good ideas seldom repeat themselves.
Flexibility in work: Do not entirely depend upon precedents
before deciding an issue.
Self-confidence: Develop the ability to handle matters independently.
Physical fitness: The ability to stand physical and mental strain
and to take reasonably good decisions is important.
Speed-reading: Develop the ability to go through a paper and
grasp the essentials quickly.
Congenial environment: A work environment of mutual cooperation
and rapport instead of competition and conflict is conductive
to efficiency. It would be a good idea to remember that people
who feel good about themselves produce good results. This
depends upon your outlook towards life, which in turn will determine
your ability to create quality time.

Outlook towards Life
Life is not all about careerism. It is a mix of making money,
spending quality time with your family, socializing adequately, and
taking time out for yourself to recharge your batteries.
Once you have these priorities right, you will find everything
falling into place. You will set less tighter deadlines that will not
affect your health and which will allow you to keep pace with the
demands on your time. You will find yourself taking occasional
breaks for a holiday that will fire you with fresh ideas and enthusiasm
back into your work with enhanced doses of creativity.
Uppermost for a rational attitude towards life is the concern for
one’s health. Poor health and tight schedules result in much wasted
time without corresponding productivity. It is prudent to devote the
right time and effort to maintain your physical health so that you
are not only able to optimize your available time but also reap the
benefits of enhanced productivity and wealth. A right balance in life
is thus essential to boost efficiency, no matter what your calling.

Getting Away
In the workplace you will find many distractions that makes it
not the ideal environment to do all your tasks with ideal effect and
in quick time. Many people find it profitable to get away from the
office distractions by working in the library, conference room or
even out in the lawn.
Such a change of scene and environment is essential when you
feel the need to do some deep and conceptual thinking that can
come about only when you create some quiet space for yourself.
An ability to get away from colleagues, subordinates and even

one’s boss is a boon. It depends upon one’s own perceived sense of
“importance” and ego. Getting tied down to the telephone isn’t really
a sign of how important we are. Even if you are the top boss, you
needn’t remain tied up to the telephone. People who need to reach
out to you for a decision will do so in their own way and time.
To be able to create the “chunk of time” that we had spoken of
earlier, one must be able to control and minimize one’s interruptions.
This will give you enhanced control over your work, apart
from giving you a sense of control over your own time and life.

Learning to say No
Whether you are a student or a career person, there will be many
expectations from you from many quarters—your boss, colleagues,
friends and family. If you are one of those who silently fall into the
trap of committing yourself and later curse because you feel that
you are being ‘used’, then you have to learn to say ‘no’ politely—and
not feel bad about it.
To deal with your boss you have to be diplomatic but firm. If you
find your boss is overloading you with work, it would not be out of
place to give him an account of the tasks currently in your hand.
Then you might add that since you are over-committed at the
moment, and if you take that additional task on you would not be
able to do it justice. Do of course thank him for the confidence he
has in you.
In dealing with your family members who put in constant
demands on your time, it is better to explain how your diversion of
time would affect your main projects, research, studies, exam, or
whatever. Do also let them know how and when you would be
available to help them out at other times and in a different way. If
you plan to spend “quality time” with your family, you will easily
maintain the essential bonding.
In dealing with a score of other people who constantly badger
you for “work or favours”, a firm “no” will do the trick. Once the
word gets around that you don’t divert from your main tasks easily,
people will be glad to leave you alone.
Personal Time
If you want to get ahead in life, deep thinking is what you will
have to constantly engage in. It is a leadership trait that can be cultivated
by creating personal time and using it effectively. All great
men have realized the importance of personal time. Such people isolate
themselves for varying periods at a time of their own choosing
every day.
Even the most brilliant executives, or students for that matter,
need to set aside time for deep thinking, to read, write and enhance
their knowledge base so that they widen their faculties. The grievance
of most people is that they hardly get time to think, and it gets
reflected in their work output. Such people allow themselves to drift
along with the situation and time.
But those who do create time for deep thinking find themselves
in charge of the situation and time that they use to their own advantage.
Such people go about creating their personal time first and
then allocating time for the remaining activities. A major advantage
of this is that one is able to prioritize judiciously which results in a
marked saving of time and the tackling of really important tasks
first.

In sum, the principles of time management are few and simple.
One must carefully analyse how one’s time is spent. To be effective,
one has to devote adequate attention to proper planning and utilization
of time. It will be useful to plan the day, week and further
ahead. Clarity about one’s personal and work objectives and allocation
of priorities to the task in hand must be turned into second
nature. This involves change in the attitude and pattern of work
habits.
In today’s world where one gets involved in multifarious activities,
a conscious attempt to manage time will be very rewarding.
Irrespective of one’s calling, these can be applied profitably resulting
in a more orderly, more efficient and effective existence, added
satisfaction with more time to think and enjoy life. All successful
men have always managed their time well.