PART IV : TIME MANAGEMENT

What is time management?

"Time management" is the way toward organizing and planning how to partition your time between particular tasks. Excellent time management empowers you to work more brilliant – not harder – with the goal that you accomplish more in less time, notwithstanding when the time is tight, and weights are high. Neglecting to deal with your time harms your adequacy and causes pressure. In short time management means to make best out of your time to manage time so efficiently that right time is allocated to the right activity.

The Importance of Time Management

Time management is critical in our life. One can understand its real importance after getting to know its advantages. It might appear to be illogical to devote valuable time to finding out about time management, rather than utilizing it to get on with your work, yet the advantages are tremendous:

i.       More prominent productivity and efficiency. ii.       Enhancement in professional reputation.

iii.       Less pressure and stress. iv.       Increases opportunities for progression.

5. More prominent chances to accomplish imperative life and profession objectives.
6. More free time
7. More control over our activity obligations.

Consequences of lack of Time Management

Neglecting to manage your time successfully can have some exceptionally unwanted effects:

i. Missed deadlines. ii. Poor work process. iii. Poor work quality. iv. Poor professional notoriety and a slowed down career.

v.       Higher feelings of anxiety.

Investing a little energy finding out about time-management procedures will have immense advantages now – and all through your career.

Keys to Effective Time Management

The key to effective time management is to know how to evaluate and complete tasks in order of urgency/importance. Recognize your time ‘bandits,' Point out the things that keep you from doing what you planned so that you can avoid them during your work hours. The environment is vital for work too; it should be less distractive so that more work can be completed in less time. Figure out how to say NO. Secure your arranged time and don't spread yourself too thin with extracurricular activities. After some time you will realize what a sensible work stack that you can deal with is.

General Time Management Tips

There are many time management tools are available in the market which can make this task trivial. Tools that can be used: computerized schedules, Planners, pieces of paper, calendars, time logs, digital assistants, etc. Don't overlook relaxation time. Get enough rest. Appropriate rest will enable you to be more effective in your use of time. Task diversity might be essential to keep away from fatigue and boredom. Know how to complete function proficiently and rapidly without giving up quality. Keep long- and short-term views in mind.

General Principles of Time Management

1. Many viable schedulers take 5-10 minutes, either toward the beginning of the day or before they go to bed, schedule your day.
2. Keep up with your schedule day by day. Giving yourself a chance to get behind enables work to get delayed, and it might require a more prolonged time investment to complete the work if this happens. iii.       Avoid marathon work sessions. Most people's capacities to focus extend from 20-50 minutes in length depending upon the project. Take short breaks keeping in mind the end goal to revive your capacity to focus and perceive your particular ability to focus.

4. Use spare time proficiently.
5. Use Divide and conquer rule. Divide large projects into manageable small sections and prepare a schedule/timeline for each section.

Write a list of each task that you want to accomplish that day. Break down each task into a set of small sub tasks. Try to allocate specific times of your day to each of the subtasks. Have a solid plan but be flexible to modifications.

Common time thieves

There are many people and things that can immensely waste your precious time which you can utilize in completing your priority urgent and vital tasks. These are called time thieves. Some of these time thieves are generated by ourselves, and others come to us externally. Some are pretty obvious, and others go unnoticed. They may steal a few minutes here and there, which will eventually turn into hours gone at the end of the week which will affect our productivity immensely.

Following are the major time thieves:

1. Personal disorganization

If you don’t get organized, you will waste plenty of time deciding what the next task is that you have to perform and how you are going to accomplish it.

2. Unclear goals

If you’re not clear about your goals, you cannot effectively accomplish them.

3. Not knowing how to say no

Accepting requests that don’t allow you to progress toward accomplishment of your goals will make you waste lots of time. So learn to say no.

4. Inability to delegate

If you don't delegate your tasks appropriately, you'll end up doing things that others can do better, faster. And that is severe time theft.

5. Lack of concentration

Lack of concentration can waste a lot of time by decreasing your productivity exponentially. This could be due to fatigue or stress. Taking time out for rest can help in getting your concentrations levels better.

6. Bad communication

Bad communication skills can result in wastage of time if you are unable to convey your message to others, or make then understand what you mean. Work on your communication skills.

7. Interruptions

Social networks and instant messaging are a source of disruption. If you keep these applications open all the time, you’ll keep on receiving notifications, and you'll be tempted to answer. Shut down these applications before starting your work.

8. Meetings

Always keep the meetings brief, these will take a lot of time. Many people are in the habit of wasting time by prolonging the meetings.

Beware of such people don't let them waste your precious time.

9. Procrastination

When you are concentrating on an option that is other than you ought to center around as indicated by your priorities, you are procrastinating. Identify reasons for procrastination and manage these to increase your productivity and to save your time for other important/urgent tasks with higher priority.

Identify the time thiefs in your life. Find out which activities suck hours from your day without you noticing. Set up a plan to overcome the time thiefs.

Time management process

The highest achievers deal with their time exceptionally well. By utilizing the time-management strategies in this section, you can enhance your capacity to work more successfully – notwithstanding when the time is tight, and weights are high. Excellent time management requires a critical shift in focus from activities to results: being busy isn't the same as being successful.

(Unexpectedly, the inverse is frequently nearer to reality). Spending your day in the madness of activities frequently accomplishes less, because you're separating your attention between several different tasks. Efficient time management gives you a chance to work more astute – not harder – so you accomplish more in less time. Following steps can be followed for better time management.

a. Making activity logs

1. Make a realistic estimate of the time spent during the day on different tasks in order.
2. Pinpoint the critical areas and time spent on low-value tasks
3. Finding the high yielding time of the day

b. Goal setting and Scheduling

Defining lifetime goals enable you to diagram your life and your career path. This is the critical step in time management process. Draw an activity design rundown of things that should be done to accomplish your goals.

1. Break down your objectives into smaller goals.
2. Make an everyday schedule. iii.       Set a timeline to finish each task.

iv.       Revise and refresh your list on daily bases and judge your performance.

Before defining your goals, few key features ought to be remembered. The first thing is to be particular about the tasks at hand to avoid confusion and fuss. There ought to be some substantial proof of progress. The following item in the line is to be realistic about the assignment to be finished in a time you have set. Based on your strengths and weaknesses, use this information to maximize your chances of completing the tasks you have planned. Assigning goals for every minute of the day is unrealistic always incorporate breaks to fresh your mind. Completion of plenty of tasks in a day will be impractical to achieve which will lead to failure of the goals and all the time management effort will go in vain. Likewise, determine when you intend to work and how long it will take to accomplish every objective.

Stick to your timeline while keeping in mind that few tasks will take longer than planned. To genuinely be effective they should be particular, measurable, achievable, realistic, and have a timeline in which they should be accomplished.

c. Set Priorities

The initial step to effective time management is to prioritize your tasks. In other words, deciding which task is most important/urgent and should be completed first.

Dealing with your time efficiently requires a qualification between what is important and what is urgent. Specialists say that the most important tasks usually aren't the most urgent ones.

However, we tend to give the urgent ones a chance to command our lives.

Specialists distinguished our tasks into four quadrants in their Time Management Matrix: urgent, not urgent, important and not important. While tasks that are both urgent and important must be done, it is widespread we very spend less time on tasks that are not important just to gain time to focus on tasks that are not urgent but important.

Focusing on these important tasks allows you to increase control over your time and possibly reduce the number of important activities that do become urgent.

Making "to do" list is the easiest way to prioritize your tasks. It depends on your work nature or lifestyle that whether you need a daily, weekly or monthly to-do list. Just be careful not to allow list-making to get out of control and don't keep multiple lists at the same time. Arrange the items on your "to do" list in order of priority (both urgent and important). You can set priorities by categorizing it to low, medium or high priority tasks, or you can rank them numerically, or the other way is that you can use a color coding system too. Your goal is not to mark items rather your goal is to mark item according to their priorities. Having a prioritized "to-do" list allows you to say "no" to activities that may be interesting but do not fit your priorities. Such activities may be distracting and may become a hindrance to your high priorities tasks.

Categorize each task in your day with a priority rank. Give your time to the tasks with the highest priority rank.

d. Use a Planning Tool ( faire un fichier pdf avec mes tools free prefers)

Time management experts recommend using a personal planning tool to improve your efficiency and productivity. This software can help you with efficiently managing your time in a systematic and organized way. Examples of personal planning tools include pocket diaries, electronic planners, computer software, calendars, wall charts, index cards and electronic notebooks. Writing down your tasks and schedules can free your mind to focus on your priority tasks. The key is to find one appropriate planning tool according to your need and use that tool consistently to make your life easier. Some essential reminders while using a planning tool are:

1. Review your planning tool daily.
2. Synchronize electronic planners with your laptop and recharge the batteries in your planner on a regular basis. iii. Always record your information on the tool itself. Brief notes elsewhere that have to be transferred later is not efficient.

4. Always carry your planning tool with you.
5. Remember to keep a list of your priority tasks in your planning tool and refer to it often.
6. Keep a backup system.

e. Schedule Your Time Appropriately

Indeed, even the busiest individuals discover time for what they need to do and feel is critical. Scheduling isn't merely recording what you need to do (e.g., meetings and appointments), it is additionally committing to the things you need to do. Great scheduling requires that you know yourself. Utilizing your time log, you should determine the times of the day you are most energetic, active and alert. Plan your most difficult tasks for when you have the highest energy level. Take out time for your top priority activities first. If you know you will have waiting time or commuting time, schedule small tasks. Try to limit scheduled time to about 3/4ths of your day, leaving time for creative activities such as thinking, planning, exercising, dreaming, and reading.

f. Identifying and Managing Procrastination

When you are concentrating on an option that is other than you ought to center around as indicated by your priorities, you are Procrastinating.When you don't want to do something, and you find reasons to avoid doing it. This is a selfcreated time waster you try to convince yourself that the things you have planned to do are less important than the idea in your mind. Procrastination is a natural process when there are several more appealing things out there; this happens to everyone. To manage Procrastination, you need to identify when you are procrastinating else you won't be able to get the motivation to fix the problem.

Next, you need to understand why you are procrastinating. Primary reasons for Procrastination are as followed:

1. You merely find the job unpleased.
2. You experience difficulty making a decision. iii.       You are panicking because of the workload. iv.       You are disorganized.

Procrastination can turn into an instilled habit that is hard to stop. You should work to battle the practices that have prompted procrastinating previously faithfully.

g. Delegate: Get Help from Others

Delegation implies doling out an assignment of a task to another person, sparing some of your time for tasks that require your expertise. Delegation starts by recognizing jobs that others can do and after that choosing the proper person(s) to do them. You have to pick somebody with the appropriate skill set, aptitude, experience, and intrigue expected to achieve the assignment. Be as particular as possible in characterizing the task and your expectations, yet enable the individual some flexibility to customize the assignment. Occasionally check how well the individual is doing and if he requires any of your help, being careful not to take over the responsibility. After task completion, let the person know if there is room for improvement but don't forget to appreciate and reward the person.

h. Manage External Time Wasters

Your time might be affected by external factors forced by other individuals and things. You can diminish or wipe out time spent in these activities by executing some basic tips listed underneath.

Telephone

1. Use voice message and put aside time to return calls.
2. Avoid casual conversation. Remain focused on the purpose of the call.
3. Stand up while you talk on the telephone. You will probably keep the discussion brief. iv.       Set aside times of the day for getting calls and let others know when you are accessible.

v.       Keep telephone numbers promptly accessible close to the phone.

Unexpected Visitors

1. Establish pieces of time when you are accessible for visits.
2. Tell the visitor affably that you are unavailable at this time and schedule the visit for a more convenient time.
3. Set a mutually agreeable time restraint for a visit.

Meetings

1. Know the reason for the meeting ahead of time.
2. Arrive on time.
3. Start and end the meeting on time.
4. Prepare a plan and stick to it.
5. Don't schedule meetings unless they are essential.

Mail and Email

1. Set aside a specific time to reply to your mail and e-mail, but don’t let it accumulate to the point that it becomes extremely difficult to manage.
2. Turn off instant messaging features on e-mail.

Family obligations

1. Create a calendar for family members to post their time commitments.
2. Make each family member responsible for consulting the calendar for potential conflicts.
3. Create a chat group for communications such as announcements, appointment reminders, and messages.

i. Avoid Multi-tasking

Perception is that multi-tasking is the best option to get work done in less time, but recent psychological studies have shown that multi-tasking does not save time. In fact, the opposite is often true. You lose time and attention when switching from one task to another, resulting in a loss of productivity. Multiple unfinished tasks can give you a panic attack too which will lower your productivity and put you under more pressure. Routine multi-tasking can also lead to difficulty in concentrating and maintaining focus when required.

a. Motivation:

Managing your time will give you all the more extra time. This should be your primary motivation for time management. Discover something that will motivate you to achieve your goals in the allotted time. Reward yourself for achieving your goals. The most challenging thing in time management process is to drive yourself to execute your scheduled plan.

j. Stay Healthy

The care and consideration you give to yourself is an essential investment of time. Planning time to rest, or do nothing, can enable you to revive physically and mentally, empowering you to achieve goals more rapidly and effortlessly. Learn to manage time according to your energy levels by scheduling priority tasks during your peak time of day, the time your energy level and concentration are at their best. Poor time management can get along with crankiness, fatigue, and illness. To lessen pressure, you should compensate yourself for a time management achievement. Take time to recognize that you have accomplished a significant task or challenge before moving on to the next activity. Scheduling time to relax can help you stay physically and mentally healthy and sound.

Achieve your goals/ E