Jobs & Careers: Special supplement of The Tribune, Chandigarh, India. Feature page

HOW is it that some people manage to pack in so much into a day – meetings, report writing, answering mail, administrative work, workout in the gym, business lunches and cocktail parties, without seeming to be exhausted, fed-up and hassled? How come you are struggling through classes, or assignments, feel guilty about taking time off for socialising and barely managing to climb up the stairs to work or college, forget about exercise? There never seems to be enough time for all the activities you want to do, and you always seem to be a step behind on your work. The secret lies in effective time management.

TESTING TIME

Here is a short quiz to assess how well you manage your time. Answer "Yes" or "No" to the following questions:

Have you estimated how many hours per day you need to study/work to achieve your goal?

Do you tend to complete your assignments on time?

Have you estimated how long it takes to complete each assignment?

Do you begin working on long-term assignments as soon as you get them?

Do you make list of things to do in your head rather than on paper?

Do you participate in social activities even when you should be working/studying?

Do you schedule time for important activities?

Do you handle the easiest tasks first?

Do you know exactly what tasks you are doing when you start work?

Do you sacrifice meal times/ sleep so as to complete assignments?

Give yourself one point for each ‘YES’ answer to all questions except 5,6,8 and 10 and one point for each ‘NO’ answer to questions 5,6,8 and 10. Total your points now.

A low score indicates a need for help with time management and a high score indicates use of effective time management techniques.

Did you know that you spend about 45 per cent of each day meeting biological needs (8 hours sleeping, 2 hours eating, 1 hour dressing and grooming). You spend another 40 per cent of the day at work. That’s 85 per cent of the day and you haven’t accounted for shopping, socialising, cooking, cleaning house, etc!

Unfortunately, there are only 24 hours in a day which cannot be multiplied or stretched. So, how can you fit in all your activities into these 24 hours, and still have time for leisure. The secret lies in controlling your time, rather than letting time control you.

If you examine all your activities during a day you will find that there are some tasks you do that ensure you survive. These are maintenance tasks, which are more or less, unavoidable. These are activities you do to keep things going: you have to sleep, eat, drive to work, open mail, go to the bank, pay your bills and so on.

There are also maintenance tasks you have to do at work: paperwork, returning phone calls, some meetings, answering mail? These are short-term needs you must meet to maintain your current way of life, to survive. They are part of life.

The other activities you do are not essential, but rather help you improve your life. These are improvement tasks, they add value by moving you closer to your long-term, ambitions. Improvement tasks can include things like exercising, building stronger relationships with family and friends, learning new things, traveling, and so on. Improvement tasks at work could be: networking, learning a new skill, establishing development goals, teambuilding. You certainly don’t have to do improvement tasks, but you certainly should if you want to grow, make things better, and thrive in your work and personal life.

So how can you utilise your time effectively so that you can combine your maintenance and improvement tasks and add value to your life. Time management does just this. It is nothing more than simple sets of decision making that allow us to set our own objectives and evaluate how we are doing.

To start with, can you can use the time used for maintenance tasks to improve your life? So that you now have more time for the activities you wish to pursue. Sure. For eg, you have to eat, but you can eat with family members or with colleagues to improve relationships. You have to drive your car to work, but you can listen to books on tape to improve your knowledge. Or say your office is on the third floor, you can take the elevator and save time or take the stairs to improve your health.

Mentally go through a typical day you might have at work. Think about specific job tasks you regularly perform, no matter how simple, and list 10 to 15. Identify and list the various activities on which you spend your time each day, the assignments and tasks you have to complete and the dealdlines you have to meet. Go through each task and make a decision whether you consider it ‘maintenance’ or ‘improvement’. Ask yourself: ‘Does this task maintain value by keeping things the same or add value by making things better and different?’ As we saw, maintenance tasks take up most of our time. There is precious little time left for the improvement tasks that truly add value. Since we spend about 40 per cent of our waking life (150,000 hours) at work, we’d best make the most of it. So, prioritize your activities according to those which add maximum value to your life and work. Then rewrite each task with an improvement value you can bring to the activity.

Plan and organise your activities for the day and possibly the week too. Prepare a schedule you can follow. From time to time, evaluate how you actually followed your schedule. Make a note of the time wasted, and of course time well-utilised. Also, identify if others have influenced or involved you in the incorrect utilisation of your time. You can then be prepared to avoid such instances in the future.

While assigning time for each activity, make your schedule flexible so as to reserve time for contingencies and diversions. Time management experts suggest you plan for just 50per cent of your time. Taking on too much can sometimes have a negative impact. Not only will you find yourself unable to complete the extra work, but also the quality and quantity of what you do complete will suffer. Learn to say ‘no’ to any new activity that you cannot fit into your schedule.

At the same time, be careful not to procrastinate, putting off tasks, or deferring actions that need to be taken immediately. While it may be fine to occasionally put off tasks until later, often we tend to make procrastination the norm rather than the exception for tasks we find difficult or not enjoyable.

On the other hand, aiming for perfection may also prove to be counter-productive. You can spend many extra hours perfecting an assignment which would at best fetch you just a couple of extra marks, or a nod from your boss, while the same amount of time spent on pending tasks could prove more beneficial.

Determine what it is you really want to accomplish in life — release everything that is trivial, unwanted or irrelevant.

Review your schedule from time to time and modify or change it according to changes in your lifestyle or circumstances. Be sure to allocate sufficient time for adequate rest, sleep, exercise, meals and of course fun. Scheduling the fun out of your life is certainly not effective time management. Whatever the situation, master your time rather than allow it to master your life. Smart time management brings success.