Day planners, and time management tutorials aren’t sufficient for managing time in real time. There is hardly anyone who could achieve success through such methods. Prioritizing a day’s schedule is more daunting than performing the tasks themselves. One must become acquainted with the proper definition of time. “Time is a point or period when things occur” according to a dictionary.
Real-Time Vs. Clock Time
There are two types of time. These are, namely, the real-time and clock time. In clock time, every day, hour, minute, and second, move at an equal pace. For instance, when a man reaches the age of 50, all these components of clock time also attain the same.
Such is not the case with real-time where time behaves in proportion to an incident. Say, a child aged 12 years starts acting like a grown-up just 2 hours after completing his 12th birthday. On the other hand, waiting at a motor vehicle department for 2 hours seems as tedious as waiting for 12 years.
Reasons For Time Management Failures
Time management woes are regular experiences that people go through, especially at their workplaces. Even after waking up optimistic, the day advances with complete or partial disruption in one’s time management plan. What is the reason for this failure even after making serious attempts through conventional time planning methods? The secret is uncovered in the further discussion.
Gadgets only show clock time and manage it but they are not fit for managing time in real situations. Real-time refers to the phase in which one lives and is active. Either it flies away quickly during entertainment or keeps growing when one is at work.
Individuals have the potential to manage the time that they create. Unlike clock time, real-time is a mental creation. So, there is no need to lose heart if anyone is unable to cope with time management at the moment. Proper planning is bound to yield successful results whether it is project management or personal life.
Individuals must do away with self-limitations of time for managing or starting a business as and when it should be. Every business comprises three activities irrespective of their types. These are:
- Thoughts
- Conversations
- Actions
One needs to manage time in terms of these aspects. A business owner has to concentrate on the time to devote to these three areas despite interruptions coming their way. An individual should neither attempt to eradicate interruptions nor become a slave to them.
What Should One Do To Gain Success In Time Management?
Here are the secrets to controlling time as per the scheduled plans.
Prepare a schedule
One should prepare a schedule containing the thoughts, actions, and conversations to be accomplished in a week. This will help to discriminate between productive and unproductive thoughts, actions, or conversations where one is spending time. Looking through the schedule from time to time reminds one how much is done and what is remaining. It is a pre-estimation of a day’s activity duration just like in project management.
Allocate time
It is time to reject to-do lists that only keep growing and becoming useless. Instead, appointment books are beneficial that assist in creating time blocks for separate tasks. One should fix appointments with oneself for high-priority actions, conversations, and thoughts. Scheduling the start and end timings for each task is essential. It will bind an individual into the discipline of meeting these appointments on time.
Time commitment
Spending 50% of a day on productive actions, conversations, and thoughts is necessary. The remaining bit will happen on its own as this practice starts growing on an individual. It becomes a habit to not waste time even unintentionally and there lies the success.
Schedule interruptions
Interruptions within a time management plan are inevitable. It could take the form of office breaks or circumstances leading to schedule delays. By hook or crook, no schedule can exist without gaps. So, it is better to include them as well in the time plan. This would also serve as a reminder for avoiding situations that could bring interruptions.
Plan the day
30 minutes from when one’s day begins is ideal to plan the rest of the day’s schedule. The moment when one is planning is the crucial point and task one performs. All problems get sorted easily without any further efforts in time management.
5-minute assessment
It is unwise to keep hopping from one appointment to another without taking a 5-minute off in between. These 5 minutes are vital for reflecting on the task completed and finding out if it has produced the expected result. It detects what was missed out in the previous task and decides on how to incorporate that into the following activity.
Schedule distractions
Even work-related emails and phone calls fall within the list of distractions at work. Other than refraining from unnecessary use of social media, individuals should plan a schedule for attending to calls and emails. Immediate response is advisable only if the business demands it.
Despite following the aforementioned instructions one should not be compelled to complete every task planned for the day. If 20% completion of the activities yields 80% results then that is an excellent achievement. PMP Training course guides one in the same way for sticking to the timely delivery of a project.
