“The Lost time is never found again”– Benjamin Franklin
Time Management – Meaning and its Importance
‘Time management is the key to efficient working’. We can define time management as the ability to use one’s time effectively and productively.
A lot many people often complain that they don’t get enough time to achieve their dreams, to follow their passion, to give quality time to their loved ones and so on. Every person gets equal amount of hours in a day, then what separates Sir Ratan Tata and Bill Gates from us? Is it the lack of time or is it the poor time management? Undoubtedly, the answer is poor time management. One skill that makes them stand apart from the rest of us is Good Time Management.
How important time management is in one’s professional and personal life, can be understood well by interpreting that if one manages his time efficiently, he is able to easily take on new opportunities along with the on-going targets and grows personally as well as professionally in a sustainable manner. He gets adequate time to do all those things efficiently for which he has always dreamed of.
“Time isn’t the main thing, it’s the only thing” – Mila Davis. Every individual knows the importance of time; still it’s a human tendency to dilly-dally or utilise the precious time into unproductive work knowingly or un-knowingly.
A shocking result received in a survey done on sales executives, where out of 10 working hours in a day, actual time for the sales work turned out to be around 45 minutes on an average!This compels us to think that if not perceived, how poor the time management can be.
Fact Check: How much time does a persongive to his professional life in a day? A very common answer is 8-10 hours in a day. But the fact is that an average person gives only 10% of his daily allotted time to the business or professional life. Shocking, but true!Imagine, if the time given to professional life is doubled, how impactful it’ll be on the professional growth.
How to be more productive?
By now, we know the meaning and importance of Time Management. Now the question arises – that how can a personutilise the time productively?
A person can become more productive by simply managing and organizing the hours allocated for the professional work. One of the easiest and proven ways for the same is to make a ‘To Do List’. Always start off your day by organizing your day. Make a list of tasks to be done in a day, divide the tasks priority-wise and make it more worthwhile by allocating hours to each task.One hidden benefit of Day Organizing is the Self Analysis of time utilisation on productive and non-productive tasks. Day Plans help us in analysing our priority tasks, time to be given to the important tasks and how much time gets wasted in non-productive works like social media.
Time Management Skills
“If you want to be more productive, you need to become master of your minutes” – Crystal Paine
It’s true that we have limited number of hours in a day, but we can develop our Time Management skills to focus our attention on what matters the most to grow our productivity or business.
Let’s check out the skills required for good Time Management:
- Goal setting
- Prioritizing
- Strategic thinking
- Scheduling
- Delegating
- Decision making
- Problem solving
(Image for time management shown in video is recommended)
As previously mentioned that time is limited for everyone, be it an employee or a business owner, but following few strategies one can make maximum benefits from that limited time even. If right strategies are followed, one can get maximum work done in lesser time period and that makes a good time management, isn’t it. Let’s have a look on the common strategies to be followed to manage time productively.
- Focus – Always start your day with a clear focus. Keep the day’s target in the mind before starting the day.
- Task list – Make a dynamic task list centred on the target of the day.
- Prioritize – Set priorities for high-valued tasks.
- Curtail distractions – While setting day target always keep an eye on avoiding and minimizing the interruptions that distract in achieving the target. For example- avoiding less important tasks and social media.
- Stop dilly-dallying – Procrastination is the biggest enemy for time management. One needs to be focused on target and stop dilly-dallying to master the time management.
- Avoid multi-task – Stay focused on the accomplishment of prioritized task instead of dividing focus and time on multiple tasks, which further lessens the productivity.
- Delegate – Always assign tasks to the person who is skilled enough to do it effortlessly and efficiently. Rather than doing everything on your own, invest your time in planning for further targets.
- Review the day- Always ensure to review the day for the tasks achieved, hurdles faced and lessons learnt to plan next day in a better way.
Benefits of Time Management
Let’s have a look on some of the direct benefits that a person gets from Time Management.
- Increased productivity
- Greater focus
- Less stress
- Better Work-life balance
- Improved Energy
- Free time to think and grow further
Time Management aids in Personal and Professional Growth
Good time management always keeps one blessed with enough time to devote to personal and professional growth for which a person has always dreamed of. It helps in achieving bigger results in a shorter time, making us more productive and giving us enough free time which can be spent well in working towards our dreams and aids in leading a better personal and professional life.
