Time Management - Redefined
Iqbal AZIM
Board Member, Director - Strategy & Growth Talks about #Strategy #Growth #Leadership #MergerAndAcquisition #SteelIndustry #Steel #IndustrialStrategy #CorporateGovernance #Policy #CircularEconomy #ESG
Time is the only resource we all have got in precise finite allocation, as famously have said by Robert De Niro - "I know life is short, whatever time you get is luck." Time isn’t renewable and replenishable as resource. A second past is past cannot be replaceable, so are our minutes, our hours, our days, and all those periodic tags in life. We take time forgranted, very casual and of often of no importance - that is a reality to accept. The highly organized successful achievers manage their time exceptionally great ways. The greatest skill at workplace an individual can demonstrate is his/er time-management, rest all skills are insignificant in the absence of this one. The key to get anything done is getting started and the best way to get desired results is starting early and finishing ahead in advance. Time management is?the process of organizing and planning how to divide time between different activities and jobs while in perfect alignment of end-objective. Fix time, stick to that for each and every set of tasks – one will continue to work smarter, not harder, to get more done in less time – even when timeline is tight with pressures of deadly submittals and deliverables.
?Where Time Skills can directly impact is varied and vast and can be differential from organization to organization, situation to situation, however let us review few major things of vital focus where poor time management skill can hit directly;
Substandard workflow: The inability to plan ahead and stick to goals means poor efficiency. For example, if there are several important tasks to complete, an effective plan would be to complete related tasks together or sequentially. However, if you don’t plan ahead, you could end up having to jump back and forth, or backtrack, in doing your work. That translates to reduced efficiency and lower productivity.
Distractions and margin of errors: Ineffective time management results in increasing idle time and waste of precious resources. By indulging in social media, incessant chats and texts on apps while at work one is easily distracting self and hence increasing chances and probabilities of errors, mistakes and lapses. Sometimes those errant individual errors cost fortune to the team and organization.
Less Control of process: By not knowing what the next task is, one suffers from loss of control of process of work and assigned set of responsibilities. Less control of process, weaker inputs, inferior intermediaries and poor finishing control are those direct outcomes. When planned with defined time-lines and assigned effectiveness these variables can certainly be controlled.?
Mental Health: Time when mismanaged and wasted leads to chaos and confusions in individual capacity and at team level.?That can contribute to higher stress levels and increased anxieties. Manage your time well to manage your health well (Physical, Physiological and Psychological – the 3 Ps of Health)
Compromised quality of work: Poor time management typically makes the quality of work suffer and impact individual and team performance. Having to rush to complete tasks at the last minute usually compromises quality. Allocated time-line when properly used for, justified reviews, correctional steps, quality control and quality assurances compliances – qualified products and services as results. The most productive individual / team is most time-conscious and quality sensitive, as productivity and quality are two-sided phase of time-management.
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Professional misconduct and ethics: Lack of time consciousness often leads to professional misconducts and compromising ethical factors. A job when assigned with resources and time-line has to be aligned with productivity and objective of the team and organization at large. Work time is for work and personal time is for personal stuffs – lets never be cross-functional in that matrix.
?Time Management is a unique skill which individual at all strata and levels of organization need to practice, principled and perfected with. Leadership and Board should encourage the consciousness by periodic specific orientation and skill-development training sessions.
I am personally not a fan of clock freaking, counting minutes, hush-hush, counting steps, incessantly sticking to gadgets and under surveillance by multiple apps and AI tools – for me these are modern days technological slavery ?? Lets take our time serious and be sincere in everything we do while respective our and others time.
Stay healthy, stay happy and remain productive at work and in your personal life – Happy Independence Day 15TH August 15, 2022.
Senior Auditor at The National Gas Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited
2 年Kudos Iqbal for your perspectives and practical tips, they are very much on point. Time Management is a very important soft skill for both our professional and personal lives. During my undergraduate and post graduate Engineering classes I was introduced to concept and History of Time Management, which started from the Industrial Revolution in the 19th Century by Frederick Taylor at Ford. His focus was on Workflows to improve efficiency and productivity mainly for blue collar workers. This was followed by Peter Drucker’s theory on ‘Managemebt by Objectives for white collar workers. Other gurus such as Steven R Covey brought it further to personal Time Management in his 7 Habits of Highly Effective Persons. Managing time in this fast paced world requires us to become Agile by learning quickly from our mistakes, being flexible and able to rise to challenges. There is a constant need to Plan, Prioritize and Perform to achieve competitive advantage and sustainability. One tool for Time Management is the Eisenhower Decision Matrix on important/ not important vs urgent/ not urgent tasks by doing now, scheduling, delegating or deleting. Taking breaks to boost mental and physical health while improving creativity and productivity.