Time Management

Every object has three dimensions and also a fourth dimension - Time. Time is one of the scarcest resources - we are not in a position to 'create' time.

Wealth, health, happiness etc., are discriminately distributed in nature unevenly. Time is evenly distributed to all the living things - human, animals, plants and microorganisms. From the President down to the last citizen every person has got a day of 24 hours.

As Peter Drucker, the Father of Science of Management observes - 'If we can't manage our time, we can't manage anything else'.

Poor planning, lack of self-discipline, procrastination, poor delegation and attempting to do too much are the main time wasters. Many a thing may go out of control. What remains after these 'wasters' is the amount of time presently available to you. Identify these wasters and try to break the grip they have on you.

Doing things in an organized manner, keeping things in proper places, and setting timings for daily regular activities are the main time savers. You should have the courage to say 'No' to others politely when someone disturbs you knowingly or unknowingly when you are busy with an important work.

We need to prioritise our activities. We should plan the activities and allocated time for each and every activity based on its priority. We should carry out high priority work first and then the low priority work.

Spend 10 to 15 minutes every morning mapping up your day. Develop a plan. Keep a daily - TO-DO LIST and establish deadline - what needs to be done by when and by whom.

Find out whether the schedule works. If it does not work, make improvements; draft a new schedule for the next day. It will take some days, a few weeks or a month to stabilize; it will become your habit.

Prof. K. Paramanandham, M.Sc., M.Phil.

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