Value of time management

Time is a precious resource, both irreplaceable and irreversible. However, most of us waste this resource only to regret later in life. "No time" is the readymade answer we get from students, office workers and housewives.

Effective time management will help us to make the most of every hour: although everybody needs time to do various activities, business executives, doctors, engineers, lecturers and editors are some of the people who need to manage time for better productivity.

It is somewhat paradoxical that in order to manage your time, you have to spend some time or making a budget of your available time. This is not an easy task for a beginner. In the first place, you must have a proper sense of time. Then you have to line up your priorities. When you do this methodically, you will find that you have been wasting your time in gossip and meaningless work. Similarly, when your time is budgeted, you will have plenty of time to relax.

As human beings we know the value of the old Latin adage: "Tempus fugit". Time flies and we cannot do anything about it. But you can work faster than others and see how time rewards you in the long run. Albert Einstein was the first scientist who discovered this theory of relativity between time and speed. When you speed up, time travels slower.

Young people are the worst time wasters. They think they will remain young for ever. As William Hazlit once saids, "No young man believes he shall ever die." Most of them don not know what to do with time. Then boredom sets in wasting more of their precious time.

Today's business world knows the value of time. For busy business executives time is money. Both time and money are limited resources. If we do not know how to use them properly, time and money will vanish in no time. In the business world,

"Yesterday is a cancelled cheque
Tomorrow is a promissory note
Today is ready cash. Use it!"

Procrastination is the thief of time...? If we keep on postponing decision until tomorrow, nothing will happen because tomorrow never comes! Follow Benjamin Franklin's advice: "Never leave that till tomorrow which you can do today." If you are about to postpone doing something, ask yourself why you are doing that. If you do not see a valid reason for postponing, do it now.

Procrastination has eaten into the national fabric. If you sit a public examination you never know when the results would be released. Some examiners keep on postponing the marking of scripts and the results never come on time. This is a national tragedy.

Disorganization is another time killer. Once I attended an interview at a reputed company. When I was called in, the interviewer asked me to sit down and started looking for my application. After wasting nearly half an hour rummaging through a heap of papers and files, he found it ultimately. Then he started looking for his pen! I found that he was such a disorganized boss that I did not want to work for him.

"I know what to do with my time. Don't try to advise me" is a common refrain heard in work places. However, you cannot manage time using only your memory. You have to maintain a "Time Log" to record how you are going to manage your time.

This will help you to organize your time for today, tomorrow or the next week. Write everything you have to do in a day in their order of priority. This should not be a rigid arrangement. Be flexible and change your programme accordingly. Do this for one week and see how much time you can save for productive work.

It is wise to plan for a short period. That works. But never maintain a Time Log for long-term goals. Winston Chruchil once said, "It is wise to look ahead but foolish to look further than you can see." Although you should have some goal in life, life planning can make you miserable sometimes.

Those who are engaged in creative work know that there are particular time slots good for such activities. Some creative writers perform better early in the morning or late at night. Certain tasks need solitude, concentration and creative thinking. For instance, you may not be able to write a short story while working in a busy office.

In busy organisations bosses reduce their workload through delegation. However, some bosses still try to do everything because they do not trust their employees. Non-delegating involves wasting your precious time. Sometimes delegating can be risky.

For instance, President Truman used to have a hand-written sign on his desk: "The buck stops here." That meant he was ready to take the responsibility for what his subordinates did or did not do. That was true leadership.

Then a word about waiting time and travel time. We waste a lot of precious time waiting for buses, trains and consultants. These time slots can be made use of for reading or writing. Carry a useful book wherever you go. A note book is ideal for recording new ideas that may flip past you. You can even meditate or reflect on what you have been doing during such breaks.