Time Management in simple language is Managing the time Efficiently. Organizing oneself and efficiency is not only important professionally but also equally important in personal life too. Time Management will have many positive effects on an individuals life. An individual who manages time can manage stress well. An individual with poor time management can feel negative effect not only on his/her professional but in personal life too. Let us understand the importance of Time Management by doing a case study on an employee working as in multinational company.
X is working as Customer Relation Manager in XYZ company. He received an email from his boss stating that he needs to submit a powerpoint Presentation within two days. X was relaxed as he had two days to submit the presentation. The first day was normal for him it was not a hectic schedule. Though, he did not have much work he decided to work on the presentation next day. The next morning when he reached the office he saw a reminder email from his boss, reminding that the deadline to submit presentation was by 1900hrs. X thought to himself that he had lots of time and would finish it post lunch. After finishing his lunch, he came back to his desk to prepare the presentation. As he opened the blank template a colleague reminded him that he had an appointment with Mr D who was an important client and he was waiting for him in the meeting room. X was confident that he will finish his meeting in half an hour and still he will have ample of time to finish his presentation.
The meeting was taking longer than what X expected. Now, he started feeling tensed. Even the client realized that he was not fully attentive. Finally, the meeting ended. X rushed back to his desk. As he checked his mobile, he saw a message from his wife.
"Dear, we are ready and, will reach Sam's cafe in one hour and, as decided we will go to the doctor for Z's vaccination."
X completely forgot that today was his son's vaccination. He could not tell his wife that he cannot come because she had told him about vaccination three days prior and last time also he missed the visit to the doctor with his son. Thus, he made a promise to his wife that he will surely be there with them. He started working on the powerpoint and finished it as soon as he could.
As he hit the send button on his email, he noticed that he was half an hour late for his son's vaccination. He looked at his mobile there were twenty-one missed calls. He forgot to put mobile in ringer mode after the meeting. He got so engrossed in making the presentation that he did not realize that he got late for his son's vaccination. He had sent his presentation before the deadline but, he knew that it could have been better if he had more time with him. He called up his wife but, she did not pick up. As he rushed to the hospital, the nurse told that his wife left ten minutes back.
In above case, X wasted his first day and, on the second day as well he kept postponing his task thinking, he had lots of time. He did not organize nor did he prepare himself for his day. He completely forgot about the appointment and vaccination.
Even when meeting the client he was stressed about not making the presentation that he did not give his 100% to his client. Also, he broke his promise of being there with his family.
X could have handled the situation better, but due to poor time management, he messed it up.
Let us discuss what Mr X did:
- He wasted time on the first day.
- He did not organize nor prepare himself. He could have had more time to prepare his presentation if he could have planned well.
- He could have avoided the increase in his stress level had he prioritized the tasks.
- He did not plan nor prepare on the second day as well. Therefore, he forgot about his appointments.
- He could have shown his capabilities by preparing an excellent presentation.
- He could have attended the client better.
- He was not able to give time to his family even after promising.
- He could have borrowed more time for himself if he managed his activities well. He could have prepared nice presentation and be there with his family too.
- Also sending such incomplete presentation will harm his reputation too.
Tips to Remember
- Planning is important however, flexibility is also an essential element in managing the time well. Prioritizing wisely is the key.
- Define your goals as a long-term goal, intermediate goals and short-term goals.
- Similarly prioritize as Highest priority, Moderate and Lowest.
- Overcome distractions.
- Be realistic while setting up goals and deciding priorities
- Poor time management is lack of self-discipline.
- Attempting too many tasks can also waste time.
- Another cause of poor time management is being disorganized.
- There is the time when you have to say "No" based on priorities. You can't be everywhere doing everything.
- Avoid postponing your tasks as it can create workload later.
Manage Time well as it is Ticking Away.
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