TIME MANAGEMENT CRITICAL TO EXCEL AT THE WORKPLACE

If you examine the matter closely, time and timing is everything. If you want tell somebody something that in your opinion is critical, it is better to say it immediately rather than later. If our actions, for example, are not timed, they lose their impact. Missing the moment is to miss an opportunity.

You need to manage time efficiently because that is the best way of respecting yourself and others. Regularly coming late for meetings or appointments is actually a way of insulting friends and colleagues because it shows disrespect for time given to you by others.On the other hand, it is important to understand that a busy person is not somebody who does not have time but somebody who actually makes time. In the global context today, it is essential that your time is managed with care and precision.

Here are some useful tips that could go a long way in helping you manage your time productively both in the workplace and at home:

Understand context
It is critical to be mindful and observant of the environment around you. It is your understanding of your environment that helps you discriminate the wheat from the chaff and what deserves your immediate attention and what does not. Maintain focus
In the Mahabharata, Arjuna is asked by Drona, "Arjuna, What do you see? Do you the princes assembled here?" Arjuna answers in the negative. "Do you see your cousins?" Arjuna again answers in the negative. He is asked several questions in a s i m i l a r ve i n a n d he responds to all of them in the negative. Finally, he is asked: "What then do you see?" He replies: "I see the eye of the fish swirling in the fishbowl." Such was his focus. Focus on why you do what you do and why you need to do what you need to do.

Prioritise tasks
Distinguish between those tasks that need your immediate attention,those that can be dealt with in reasonable time and those that are important but not urgent.

Make speedy response a habit
As the old saying goes, 'fast and consistent always beats the slow and steady'.

Managing time helps everybody
When you manage your time efficiently, it helps everybody in the workplace including your boss, your peers, your team and its leader. It is good to be individually brilliant but teamwork involves rallying collective core competencies around a single purpose. You will under-perform if you cannot cohere with your team.

Finally, as Peter Drucker once said: "Everything requires time. It is the only truly universal condition. All work takes place in time and uses up time.Yet most people take for granted this unique, irreplaceable,and necessary resource.Nothing else, perhaps, distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time."