http://static.flickr.com/56/193033180_8f1a1040d5.jpg
Time management
Today world is filled with
meetings and schedules. We live in a hurry to move forward. How do we can cope
with this? How can we manage our time which is more precious than anything
else? I will share with You methods I use to manage my professional and private
time.
No need to worry. Deadline is
tomorrow...
In my opinion one of the
problems in work is tight plan of completing given tasks. It is hard to survive
when you are not able to say "no" to your boss and You start doing
something new and ongoing, previous tasks are delayed. Problem happens when
deadline for them is coming because You leave everything you have been doing
and finish them. Usually it requires staying after hours to finish them.
Quality of such work in most cases is very low and you must improve it which
takes additional time. As a result of such actions You are physically and
mentally worn out. In short time perspective it may seem right. Working in such
conditions for long period of time is
very harmful and ineffective. How do You need to solve it? Prioritize them and
if they're time consuming you must give clear information to your superior that
you have no free time to start additional tasks. You can use Your professional
calendar ( if Your workplace use some mailing software like outlook or
thunderbird ) to document it and to set reminders.
Another problem in successful
time management are long-term tasks. They can be threatening because of big
amount of time with no activities which can lead to intensified procrastination
and situations mentioned above. I strongly recommend finishing tasks before its
deadline. You will achieve lots of free time to focus on other professional
activities. Sometimes due to external factors it's impossible to finish task in
advance. In such situations I recommend controlling progress of task to prevent
any possibilities of failure.
(pic above: http://www.healthinharmony.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/messy-desk1.jpg )
Sitting on defused bomb.
I use term of "defused
bomb" for situations similar to those listed below:
- Task in progress is abandoned by superior.
- Task is getting more complicated and it's scale slowly becomes enormous.
- Task requiring more knowledge than You have and You think You can finish it all by yourself.
- You face difficulties during working on task and You don't inform Your superior about them.
The situations have one thing
in common: higher probability of failure. To appease or prevent negative
results time management comes in handy. Before taking any steps on start You
should gather all possible information You can and try to predict any risks
involved. It takes time but as a result You improve yourself as a professional
( similar tasks require less time when they reoccur ) and quality of your work
becomes near to excellence.
http://muncievoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/office-workers.jpg
People above can’t manage
their time and have lots of unnecessary stress.
P.O.W.
After reading my advices You
can think that I am prisoner of schedules and my calendar. You couldn't be more
wrong. Thanks to time management I prevented few big failures in my work and I
don't have to work a lot after hours. I also became more efficient as a
professional, so my superiors see me as reliable and responsible resources.
I hope You will find my
advices useful and you will dodge harmful situations!
Here are some useful links
for You:
Few questions to You:
- Have You ever tried to manage your time in work or in school?
- Do You think that working in accordance to Your own schedule can imprison Yourself to calendar and notifications?
- How do you manage tight situations in your work/school when deadline of finishing task is very close?
Sources used in this article:
http://static.flickr.com/56/193033180_8f1a1040d5.jpg ( Office at night )
http://www.healthinharmony.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/messy-desk1.jpg ( Girl at messy desk )
http://muncievoice.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/office-workers.jpg ( stressed workers )
Comments
In the past I deepened only my memory and it worked pretty good. Of course from time to time I used to forget about something but never about something really important. Bus as I write earlier this tend to happen more often than usual. Maybe that’s all because I’m getting older and my memory is not what it used to be.
I don’t think that I will become some time management zombie, that I won’t be able to live without it. I don’t think that this is even possible in any case. You just have to have some priorities, you have to realize that some tasks are more important than others and act accordingly. This brings us to the last question. When you have many tasks that deadline approaches and you begin to realize that you won’t be able to complete them all in time. I think that the key to solving that problem is good knowledge about yourself. You have to calculate which tasks are you able to complete in time and which are just impossible to complete and you have to abandon those for the time being. Don’t lie to yourself. Spending 22 hours each day trying to complete them all is just stupid. You can carry on like this for 2-4 days not longer. And your working efficiency will not be so great. You have to prioritize and minimize loses that’s the key. Of course you should try to avoid situations like those mentioned above. And try not to take to many tasks on yourself. It’s important to be able to say “no” to the customer no matter how much money he is willing to pay you. It’s better not to take a new project that take one and not finish it in designated time.
I think that everyone tried with better or worse results. In my case the results were pretty bad. With organisation is one thing, but following this schedule is another. I just need someone to watch over me :P
2. Do You think that working in accordance to Your own schedule can imprison Yourself to calendar and notifications?
It depends how flexible you are, but if you want to follow it from start to the end then I think yes. If you organize every second of your life then you are panicking if anything unexpected occurs.
3.How do you manage tight situations in your work/school when deadline of finishing task is very close?
I panic, then I panic some more, do what I am supposed to do while panicking from time to time and after everything is done, presented and rated I take some free time from the rest of the world.
I don't think there is a person in world that has not ever managed his or her time in school/work. Mundane question.
Do You think that working in accordance to Your own schedule can imprison Yourself to calendar and notifications?
If I'm working according to my own schedule how in the world am I supposed to be imprisoned by a calendar or notifications? I make my own decisions, therefore I don't need calendars and such
How do you manage tight situations in your work/school when deadline of finishing task is very close?
Usually when there is work to be completed and you wait till the very end to make anythink, you already have made a bad decision and/or not managing time corectly.Strange question when asking for time management.
Sure, I use calendar for my appointments and Excel spreadsheet to track my commitment to different projects.
2. Do You think that working in accordance to Your own schedule can imprison Yourself to calendar and notifications?
I wouldn't call it 'imprisonment', I like to think about it more like 'discipline'. You just new to get use to it and make it a habit.
3. How do you manage tight situations in your work/school when deadline of finishing task is very close?
Two things: NO MULTITASKING, NO DISTRACTIONS.