Managing time or managing self?

A lot is always said about time management – but do we really manage time? Isn’t it that we need to manage ourselves better in a given timeframe? Let’s not forget that time is constant and fixed.

So here are a few Do’s and Don’ts that can help you manage yourself better, especially if time is running against what you have stacked up for yourself!

Given the volatile environment around us, it is easy to get distracted or pulled into another issue while you have certain commitments. Besides, several little things in bits & pieces manage to creep in and swallow substantial portions of your effective time. So what can you do?

• When you are working of a deadline, stay off social media avenues like WhatsApp, Facebook, etc… these are known to be one of the biggest time wasters. Also, turn off notification alerts and reduce your time on calls that come and aren’t really that urgent – you can request a call back at a later point in time.
• Schedule meetings/reviews based outside your core task work time.
• Reduce break times.
• Even within work, avoid jumping between several tasks (we all have multiple deadlines, but not at the cost of quality).
• Don’t keep saying ‘Yes’ to every second thing that comes your way as a request; it is important to learn the art of tactfully declining or re-negotiating a new task/work.
• As a part of staying focused, you should avoid procrastination in every way you can. Plan your day in advance, schedule your time wisely and surely you will be able to track your accomplishments. Just simple sticky notes or post-its help you a lot in keeping your ‘To-Dos’ in front of you and reminding you of how much you still have to finish.

When you have a humungous task / project, it helps if you break it further down into manageable pieces. This approach has its own benefits.

• Be organized with your work. Those who are organized by way of discipline, land up accomplishing a lot more than adhoc people.
• You can choose to schedule those work pieces, which you are efficient with, at a later stage and focus on the challenging ones first.
• You can classify a mega task keeping in mind the resources available to you; those that can do without your involvement and are comparatively doable without too much thinking can be delegated. Also, sometimes it’s best to leave certain tasks to specialists! Yes, don’t indulge excess time into something you aren’t really adept at.

All said and done, simple steps of plan, plot, prioritize and perform, will go a long way in helping you manage yourself more effectively in timelines.