Secret
of success is Time Management
There is a famous story about Napoleon
Bonaparte, which most of us know – a great warrior and French emperor of early
19th century. Someone asked
him about a secret of his success and victory in almost each war. What he said is a universal truth! He said,
he ensures that he is present in battlefield few minutes before his enemy! This can be a mission statement for success.
We
all seem to be very busy!
We come across many people in our life,
who are never on time for anything.
Coming late to office is a usual scene, but we find
people coming late
for birthday parties, or marriage function or any similar event. And they have their own reasons for being
late! There are suppliers who do not
supply material on committed date. There
are buyers who do not pay to supplier on committed date, and both of them have
their own reasons for delay. When
someone calls us few times, we do not return the call, even though we see 4/5
‘missed calls’, because we are ‘busy’ in some other activity. If someone is saying ‘I am busy’, or ‘I was
very busy”, he is not telling the truth!
It is just a matter of priority. He has no priority for you but he
cannot say so directly. Instead, its
‘busy’!!
Phenomena
of ‘busy’
There is nothing like ‘busy’. Nature has no concept of ‘urgent’. These are created phenomena because someone
has not done his work at the time when it was supposed to be done. Many a times, they have a chain action as one
delay triggers another. (we are familiar with an announcement in delayed
flights: ‘we are sorry for this delay, which is caused due to late arrival of the
aircraft!’). We also have seen that
sometimes, a function is delayed because either a chief guest has not arrived
on scheduled time, or some guests are yet to arrive! Those who have come in time for the
programme, are forced to wait until ‘late-comers’ arrive. It’s in a way penalizing the punctual people.
Its
unusual to be ‘on time’!
We sometimes see a big news in social
media and on electronic media about timely completion of a railway project, or
a flyover bridge. The timely completion
of a certain work becomes a news! This
is because invariably every such project is often delayed. This is a classic example of mismanagement of
time. The delay is caused because
someone has not done his given work in expected time. This triggers further
delays in related activities. When many
people do not do their work in time, the result is catastrophic!
In our actual life, we are so much used
to these delays around, that sometimes we ourselves contribute to it
knowingly. If we have a birthday party
to start actually at 7.30 PM, we deliberately announce the party time as 7.00
PM, so that even if some people will come late, party can still start at 7.30
PM. In reality, sometimes, we are forced
to start it at 8.00 PM, since some guests have still not arrived!
In short, absence of time management can
give rise to:
-
Delayed completion of tasks
-
Increased tolerance to delays
-
Letting habit of delay to percolate in our lifestyle
-
Developing disregard to time and punctuality
Is
punctuality impossible?
Things can start getting better if we
learn to respect time. Time is an inseparable part of our life. Everything that happens, happens with ‘time’
reference. There is no event or activity
without time, or “anytime”! We wear
wristwatches, or use our mobile phones for time reference, we make sure to know
what time the match starts, what time is the meeting etc. But still are unable
to meet the scheduled time. The best use
of Railway timetable is not to check the train timings, but to know how much
late it is!
Time is such a precious and only
commodity, that is available equally for everybody. The day is of 24 hours for everybody –
whether it’s a president of a company or a farmer. The difference is how we utilise those 24 hours. Here comes the effective management of
available time.
Its
in Nature to be timely
Although, we have ample examples and
incidents of ‘late’ and ‘delay’, we also have several examples of things
happening on time. We all know that
sunrise and sunset happen at scheduled time each day. We can forecast sunrise and sunset times for
years ahead. Our trains and flights can
arrive late but never ever sun misses his times! When the nature does not like word ‘urgent’,
why we use it? Why something becomes
urgent? It is just because, someone has
not completed his task at the required time.
This can open many possibilities of reasons. Most important reason can be disregard to
time.
‘Time is money’: we have heard this many
times. But in reality, time is NOT
money. Read what wise men say: "We can get more money, but we cannot get more time".
Successful
Time Management:
In our life, we come across many people
who are very particular about time and are punctual at every activity they are
involved into. Switzerland followed by
Denmark, Japan and Germany are the most punctual countries. The list starts with names like Mahatma
Gandhi, JRD Tata, Dhirubhai Ambani and many more. They are never late for their
work, commitment, office, or for attending a function. They hate late-commers. Can we observe them
how they are able to manage their timely activities day after day?
How
to manage time?
Do we have too many things to do within
a short time? Or are we spending our
time in incorrect ways? There is a famous saying: “The way we spend our time,
defines who we are!”. Something is
definitely serious in this situation.
We can avoid this with a simple rule:
“Make promises which you can fulfill. And make sure to fulfill the promises
made”. This will kill the words ‘busy’
and ‘urgent’, since this will hit the root of time requirement. To be more specific, and brief, we can adopt
any or all of below points to obey time management:
-
Make
dynamic planning. The planning should be realistic
-
Make
Schedule/Plan of activities for a day and for coming days as far as possible
-
Try
multi-tasking wherever possible and necessary
-
Start
early
-
Think
of time availability before making a commitment
-
Learn
to say ‘no’ to certain work if it does not fit into your time frame
-
Realise
- each activity is of equal importance and priority
-
Remember
that each activity deserves to have its required time.
-
Allow
some free time in between for emergencies/contingencies
-
Make
sure to obey committed time frame.
Advantages
of Time Management:
Time mismanagement or not being
punctual, has many disadvantages. On the
other side, being on time, meeting time commitments and observing set schedules
has many advantages like –
-
Increase
in our self-confidence
-
Increase
in efficiency and output
-
Projects
our image as a reliable, dependable and trustworthy person
-
Contributes
greatly in success.
-
Makes
us famous and popular.
-
Being
punctual by ourselves, helps others to be punctual
-
Imbibes
professionalism in us
-
Inculcate
better life style
-
Makes
us forget to say ‘Sorry”!
If you have filled all your timeslots
properly, you are a ‘busy’ in its literal sense, and a saying ‘Most busy man
has time to do everything!’ can well fit you.
Being punctual is a habit, though not
inborn, and can be inculcated by efforts and consistency. When majority of people have good time
management, defaulters will also fall in line.
This can create a new world order of punctuality!
Credits: Everhour blog, thoughts of many mentors,
experience
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