HOW TO MANAGE TIME WISELY

“LIFE and TIME are the world’s best teachers. LIFE teaches us to make good use of TIME and TIME teaches us the value of LIFE” 

                                                                                                         A.P.J. Abdul Kalam 

Do you feel stressed with too much of work or too many responsibilities? Do you feel you have more tasks on hand than you have less time to do them? 

The trick is to organize your tasks and use your time effectively and efficiently to get more things done each day. Time is the only resource we have in equal quantity. Money comes and goes but time once gone will be gone forever. If you value time, time will value you. So, it will be worthwhile to invest your 24 hrs. you value most and are passionate about. The day we start valuing our time we will realize that we have enough time to make our dreams come true.

Mr. Arnold Bennett says that whenever you wake up in the morning, you get 24 hrs. in your purse without doing anything. This is the 24 hrs. that no one can steal from you, nor anyone can snatch and neither you can increase it. Time is yours, now you use it or not, No one is going to penalize you nor ask you what you did for 24 hrs., either live it or squeeze it, it’s up to you, how you manage it.

Time-management techniques can be the best option to improve the ability to function more effectively – even when time is compact and pressures are too high. This technique is going to help you to lower stress levels and improve your productivity both at work and at home. Time management skills take time to develop but will look different for each person. Failing to manage our time, damages our effectiveness and causes stress. Stress is the emotional and physical way we respond to pressure. To reduce the stress of having too many hard deadlines, we need to know which activities are important and which are urgent. 

It is Eisenhower’s Urgent/Important principle that helps you to think about your priorities and to determine which activities are important and which are, essentially distractions. For this we need to understand the distinction between Important and Urgent. 

What is “Urgent” and Important” Activities? 

In 1954 speech to the Second Assembly of the world council of Churches, former U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, who was quoting Dr. J. Roscoe Miller, President of North-western University, said: “I have two kinds of problems: the urgent and the important. The urgent are not important, and the important are never urgent.” This Eisenhower Principles” is said to be how he organized his workload and priorities. This made him recognize that good time management means being effective as well as efficient. In other words, we must spend our time on those activities that are important and not just the ones that are urgent. 

Important activities have an outcome that always leads us to achieve our goals, whether these are professional or personal. 

Urgent activities demand immediate attention, and are usually associated with achieving someone else’s goals. When we recognize which activities are important and which are urgent, it helps to control the natural tendency to focus on unimportant urgent activities, so that we can get enough time to do what’s essential for our success. 

How to use Eisenhower’s Principle? 

To use this principle, you need to list all the activities and projects that you feel you have to do. Try to involve everything that takes up your time at work, however unimportant it is. Next, think about every single activity and put it into four categories: 

1. Important & Urgent: There are two different types of urgent and important activities. Ones that you could not have predicted, and others that you’ve left until the last minute. You can remove last-minute activities by planning ahead and avoid delay. However, you can’t always predict or avoid some issues and crises. Here the best step is to leave some time in your schedule to handle unexpected issues and unplanned important activities. If any major crises arise, then you need to reschedule other tasks. If you have urgent and important activities, identify which of these you could have foreseen, and think about how to schedule similar activities ahead of time, so that they don’t become urgent. 

2. Important but not Urgent: These are the activities that helps you to attain your professional as well as personal goals and helps to complete important work. Make sure that you have plenty of time to do things properly, so that they don’t become urgent. Remember, to leave enough time in your schedule to deal with unforeseen problems. This will maximise your chances of keeping on track, and help’s to avoid the stress of work which becomes more urgent and necessary. 

3. Not important but Urgent: Urgent but not important tasks are those which prevents you from achieving your goals. Ask yourself whether you can postpone or delegate. Other people are the common source of such activities. Sometimes it’s appropriate to say “no” to people politely or encourage them to solve the problem themselves. Better way to do this is to arrange regular meeting with those who interrupts you often, and this can help you to deal with all their issues at once. You’ll then be able to concentrate on your important activities for long time. 

4. Not Important and not Urgent: These activities are just a distraction – avoid them if possible. However, some people want you to do the activities, but they don’t contribute to your own desired outcome. Again say “no” politely, if you can and explain why you cannot do it. If people realize that you are clear about your objectives and boundaries, they will often avoid asking you to do “not important” activities in future. 

Eisenhower’s Urgent/Important Principle helps you quickly identify the activities that should be focused, as well as the ones you should ignore. When you use this tool to prioritize your time, you can deal with truly urgent issues, at the same time as you work towards important, long-term goals. Always schedule your tasks and activities based on their importance and urgency. 

“Don’t let the urgent get in the way of important”.

Shreedevi Nair

Assistant Professor

Department of Commerce & Management

Career Group of Institutions, Bhopal