Organisational Behaviour Project

INTRODUCTION Time management is an essential tool to success. You can't manage time, it just is. So "time management" is a mislabeled problem, which has little chance of being an effective approach. What you really manage is your activity during time, and defining outcomes and physical actions required is the core process required to manage what you do. Time management can refer to all of the practices that individuals follow to make better use of their time, but such a definition could range over such diverse areas as the selection and use of personal electronic devices, time and motion study, self-awareness, and indeed a great deal of self-help. As narrowly defined, it refers to principles and systems that individuals use to make conscious decisions about the activities that occupy their time. Time management is about managing your day affectively so you can achieve all that you want to achieve. It is also about making use of time today, so that you can obtain larger, long term goals whose deadline is sometime in the future. Being able to manage your time well will leave you with a feeling of mastery and accomplishment, knowing that you put your time to good use. Having busy lives with enormous demands from so many sources means life often feels like a juggling act. People can become overwhelmed with the amount they have to do, making them tired, disgruntled and demotivated. Motivation is important as it can lead to an apathy which can prevent you from doing anything, even though you know there is so much to do. As such, time management can be seen as making the best use of your time, so you can handle all your responsibilities, without giving in to the misery of procrastination

Stephen R. Covey and his co-authors offered a categorization scheme for the hundreds of time management approaches that they reviewed:

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First generation: It is basically an reminders(based on clocks and watches, but with computer implementation possible)can be used to alert of the time because of this a person comes to know when a task is to be done.

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Second generation: planning and preparation (based on calendar and appointment books) it includes setting goals, making a plan of how to accomplish an goal and also prepare the strategy how to complete that goal..

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Third generation: planning, prioritizing, controlling (using a personal organizer, other paper-based objects, or computer- or PDA-based systems) activities on a daily basis. This approach implies spending some time in clarifying values and priorities.

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Fourth generation: being efficient and proactive (using any tools above) places goals and roles as the controlling element of the system and favors importance over urgency.

OBJECTIVES OF TIME MANAGEMENT

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Time management will teach us the techniques that will help us to direct the work life instead of merely managing the time.

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To teach a frame work for developing a mission and vision that gives purpose and direction to the work.

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It teaches us how to prioritize our highest leveraged activities, leading to significant increases in productivity.

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It also teaches, how to improve your productivity and accomplish more with a minimum efforts and within time, and also reduces the waste so you will have more productivity time each day.

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Because of proper time management you can set and achieve our short term as well as long term goals.

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Getting things done without any anxiety, overwhelm, and because of this there will be reduction in stress.

DEFINITION OF TIME MANAGEMENT Time management may be defined as the discovery and application of the most efficient method’s of completing assignments of any length in the optimum time and with the highest quality. This definition explain that time management is an application with which a person can accomplish the task or any other goals or any other assignments which he has given from his superior or any other authority which can be of any length can be completed within time and with the highest quality.

This definition of time management has widespread applications: •

It denotes the "best" time, which is usually but not always the shortest time.

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It pertains either to continuing and repetitious activities (e.g., daily logging-in of shipments received) or to occasional activities(e.g., selection of new CEO).

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It includes production of anything, such as manufacture of a tangible product, provision of a service, preparation of a written document, development of a procedure, or arrival at a decision.

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It may include a progress-point assignment (e.g., development of plans for the preliminary testing of a new product) or an end-goal assignment (e.g., a final marketing plan for a new product).

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Development of plans for time management must necessarily presume the existence and application of such desirable personal and work qualities as motivation, discipline, consideration for others, and the desire to succeed

Time Management - Productivity Time management is about improving your productivity. The ratio of your output to input should go up. If not your techniques need improvement.

Productivity: This relationship can be simply stated as the ratio of Output to Input (both measured in some fashion).

Output Productivity

= Input

The formula indicates that Productivity can be increased by either increasing the Output or reducing Input. Let's examine an example for company A producing Whizzo Springs.

Example: Production (output)

15,000 items 500 (total hours worked by say 50

Hours (input)

Productivity

members of staff)

15,000 / 500 = 30 per hour

Let us say that we are desperate to improve market share (always desirable) or maintain market share (due to competition) We may make a strategic decision that we need to reduce the manufacturing costs. How can we do this? Well we must increase time management Productivity, that is the number of items produced for every man hour cost. How can we do this? We can either increase the Output or reduce the Input (or both).

WHY TIME MANAGEMENT IS IMPORTANT FOR SUCCESS The importance of time management would strike you at some point of your career. You would be inundated with work, and you will need to evaluate how to manage your time. There are a few factors why time management is important for your career success. Following points can show the importance of time management.

1. Time is limited. Time is a very special resource in that you cannot store it or save it for later. Everyone gets the exact same amount of time each and every day. If you don't use your time wisely, you can never get it back.

2. Time is scarce. Most people feel like they have too much to do and not enough time. Lack of time is blamed for everything from not getting enough exercise, poor finances, unachieved goals, too much stress, bad relationships, and even an unfulfilled life. Time management helps you use the time that you do have in better ways.

3. You need time to get what you want out of life. You need time to do almost anything worthwhile in life. Waiting for more free time is a loosing game that almost never results in getting time for what you want. You need to learn how to make time for the things that are important to you. Even if you can only afford to give a small amount of time each week to your goals, you'd be surprised at how much progress you can make.

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You can accomplish more with less effort.

When you become more productive using improved time management skills and tools, you can accomplish more with less effort. Reducing wasted time and effort gives you even more productive time throughout the day. Both of these allow you to make time for a wide range of activities that bring more balance and fulfillment to your life.

5. Too many choices. In this day and age, there are so many ways you can spend your time, that you need some sort of plan to make intelligent choices.Time management helps you make conscious choices so you can spend more of your time doing things that are important and valuable to you

6. Small Steps Build Into Big Goals To achieve career success, one important thing is to set goals. And goals need to be mapped onto a timeline. That timeline needs to be managed. Any goal that does not have a timeline is as good as a moving goal post. Career success does not come in a day. It takes time.Understand the importance of time management, as your career success depends on these small steps across time. If you not take care of the seconds, the minutes will waste, and so will the hours and days. All these will accumulate into poor results. The importance of time management is to understand that small steps across time build into big goals. And a main part of achieving goals is about time management.

7. It Lessens Stress One of the most common question I get from managers is ‘How do I lessen my stress?’ I have learned that the first thing is to have them think about their time management skills. The importance of time management skill is also understanding that it can help lessen your stress. If you have poor time management skills, work gets backlogged. You are caught chasing your own tail; overdue work gets caught up with current work while future projects are being given to you. These unattended work piles on the pressure. Before you know it, you are stressed over work. You start to complain about being overloaded. However, you fail to realize that it is your lack of time management skills that has created this stress.

PROCESS OF TIME MANAGEMENT Ever notice that the time you have to work on a project or assignment disappears with very little actually being completed? You are not alone. Students, and adults, everywhere could use a tip or two on managing their time to be more efficient. Following are the process of how to manage the time.

Before you start working 1) Make sure you understand what exactly the project or assignment is and also you should know what exactly to be completed for this you can ask your teacher all question which you are having before you start to work.

2) If working in a group, discuss the assignment with all your group so that the members should understand what is to be done.

3) List all tasks that must be done to complete the assignment or project, don't worry about what is the most important yet. So as per the list you can complete your task.

4) Prioritize your tasks. On your list, number the tasks in order of importance. Rewrite the list if necessary. Make sure the tasks can be completed in a timely manner - do not have a task that is next to impossible to complete in the time allotted for example: rewrite a Shakespeare play in modern English in a 54 minute period.

5) If working in a group, delegate responsibilities. Divide up the tasks as equally as possible and assign people jobs that best complement their strengths for example: give the artist of the group the drawing tasks.

6) Plan what needs to be finished and when. Individually or as a group, set deadlines so as not to get stuck or in a rut on a particular task.

Let's go already 1) Once you have your personal list of priorities, start on the most important one. If it is a larger task, divide it into smaller ones.

2) As you finish a task, cross it off your list. This will give you a sense of accomplishment and show that you are really making progress.

3) Concentrate only on the task at hand. Do not be distracted by the other items to be completed; you will get to them later.

4) Put yourself into an environment that suits your working style. If you need to isolate yourself from your fellow students to work efficiently, do it! Put distracting items away or move away from them.

5) Once you have finished a task, move on to the next one. You can go back and make small changes later.

Effective Scheduling Plan Your Time. Make Time for Yourself.

Having being looked at the priorities and your goals – these define what you aspire to do with your time. Scheduling is where these aspirations meet reality. Scheduling is the process by which you look at the time available to you, and plan how you will use it to achieve the goals you have identified. By using a schedule properly, you can:

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Understand what you can realistically achieve with your time;

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Plan to make the best use of the time available;

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Leave enough time for things you absolutely must do;

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Preserve contingency time to handle 'the unexpected'; and

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Minimize stress by avoiding over-commitment to others.

A well thought-through schedule allows you to manage your commitments, while still leaving you time to do the things that are important to you. It is therefore your most important weapon for beating work overload.

How to Use the Tool: Scheduling is best done on a regular basis, for example at the start of every week. Go through the following steps in preparing your schedule:

1. Start by identifying the time you want to make available for your work. This will depend on the design of your job and on your personal goals in life.

2. Next, block in the actions you absolutely must take to do a good job. These will often be the things you are assessed against.

For example, if you manage people, then you must make time available for coaching, supervision, and dealing with issues that arise. Similarly, you must allow time to communicate with your boss and key people around you. (While people may let you get away with 'neglecting them' in the short-term, your best time management efforts will surely be derailed if you do not set aside time for those who are important in your life.)

3. Review your To Do List, and schedule in the high-priority, urgent activities, as well as the essential maintenance tasks that cannot be delegated and cannot be avoided.

4. Next, block in appropriate contingency time. You will learn how much of this you need by experience. Normally, the more unpredictable your job, the more contingency time you need. The reality of many people's work is of constant interruption: Studies show some managers getting an average of as little as six minutes uninterrupted work done at a time. Obviously, you cannot tell when interruptions will occur. However, by leaving space in your schedule, you give yourself the flexibility to rearrange your schedule to react effectively to urgent issues.

5. What you now have left is your "discretionary time": the time available to deliver your priorities and achieve your goals. Review your Prioritized To Do List and personal goals, evaluate the time needed to achieve these actions, and schedule them in.

By the time you reach step 5, you may find that you have little or no discretionary time available. If this is the case, then revisit the assumptions you used in the first four steps. Question whether things are absolutely necessary, whether they can be delegated, or whether they can be done in an abbreviated way.

Remember that one of the most important ways people learn to achieve success is by maximizing the 'leverage' they can achieve with their time. They increase the amount of work they can manage by delegating work to other people, spending money outsourcing key tasks, or using technology to automate as much of their work as possible. This frees them up to achieve their goals.

Also, use this as an opportunity to review your To Do List and Personal Goals. Have you set goals that just aren't achievable with the time you have available? Are you taking on too many additional duties? Or are you treating things as being more important than they really are?

Key points: Scheduling is the process by which you plan your use of time. By scheduling effectively, you can reduce stress and maximize your effectiveness. This makes it one of the most important time management skills you can use.

Before you can schedule efficiently, you need an effective scheduling system. This can be a diary, calendar, paper-based organizer, PDA or a software package like MS Outlook. The best solution depends entirely on your circumstances.

Scheduling is then a five-step process: 1. Identify the time you have available.

2. Block in the essential tasks you must carry out to succeed in your job.

3. Schedule in high priority urgent tasks and vital "house-keeping" activities.

4. Block in appropriate contingency time to handle unpredictable interruptions.

5. In the time that remains, schedule the activities that address your priorities and personal goals.

BENEFITS OF TIME MANAGEMENT

Those who fail to properly manage their time often end up with a list of things left undone. These individuals also are often stressed out, edgy and simply not living up to their potential.Time management is a crucial component for anyone who desires to truly to get the most out of life. Check out the list below and increase your knowledge of how time management can benefit you. The Benefits of Time Management: 1. Control: Proper time management allows you to take some measure of control over your life. By preplanning your activities you help your days to become ordered. Things come up and you may be forced to change your plan at times, but for the most part, knowing exactly what you need to achieve each day and having a plan to ensure that these things get done, will help you be more in control of your destiny. 2. Productivity: Proper time management allows you to be more productive. When you don’t properly manage your time, you often have too many activities and not enough day. Time gets away from you. To counteract this, write down what you need to get done and allocate a definite and realistic period of time to achieve it. When the time period is up for each activity, move on. Doing this will mean that you at least get some things finished and have moved towards completing the other activities. 3. Confidence: Proper time management gives you confidence. This is partly because you have taken back control of your life. Checking things off your to-do-list will cause your confidence to soar as you realize that you can finish what you start. As your accomplishments grow so will your confidence. 4. Fun: Proper time management allows you to have more time for fun. By prioritizing and getting the most important and pressing things done first, you then have time to do the things you really want to do. This might be a favorite hobby, going dancing, enjoying time with your family, or simply resting. 5. Ability to Meet Goals: Another one of the benefits of time management is the ability to meet your goals. It is nearly impossible to meet your goals when you fail to properly manage your time. This is because you never get around to doing what needs to be done in order to achieve the goals you've set for yourself. Something always comes up, or you spend too much time on frivolous tasks, eating away time that should go toward meeting your goals.

The benefits of time management are pretty obvious. Deciding what needs to be done, prioritizing your tasks, and then following through is a way of giving yourself the greatest chance of reaching your goals, taking back control of your life, having some fun and building confidence.

ACHEIVEMENT OF GOOD TIME MANGAEMENT Business firms and other organizations often find it profitable to take tangible steps to learn the best possible time-management strategies. Some or all of the following approaches may be considered: •

Call in an outside person or organization that specializes in time-management consulting and have a detailed evaluative study conducted of the practices being followed.

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Develop task forces within the firm or organization to undertake time-management studies with the goals of finding, analyzing, and "curing" areas experiencing wasteful time procedures.

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Have individuals within the firm or organization engage in educational and research activities related to time management, such as enrolling in college courses, checking the Internet, participating in correspondence courses, and/or attending seminars.

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Check into the possibility of visiting and studying other firms noted for their efficient timemanagement practices.

Ever notice that the time you have to work on a project or assignment disappears with very little actually being completed? You are not alone. Students, and adults, everywhere could use a tip or two on managing their time to be more efficient.

Tips for success 1. Take on only what you can handle in the time allotted. If you get overwhelmed with too much work, you might just decide to give up.

2. If you can't work efficiently with friends, then don't. It is always tempting to talk with your friends about the latest movie, what your did last weekend, or who likes who, but save those conversations for lunch, break, or recess!

3. Make sure your goals are realistic. This works two ways, don't make them too difficult or too easy.

4. Never lose site of the end product. While completing the individual tasks, remember they are part of a larger assignment/project.

5. Know what you are looking for. When doing research, avoid wasting time by knowing exactly what you are trying to find.

6. Tips to avoid procrastination

7. Don't draw out the planning process; just get it done and start working.

8. Complete the task and move on, don't be a perfectionist. Go back to it if you have time later.

9. If it is not the most exciting task, don't let boredom distract you. An even better reason to get it done. Some some self-discipline.

10. Putting a task off until the last minute can result in the task being incomplete or of a lesser quality. It can also affect tasks that require the completion of an earlier item. In the end, don't procrastinate.