Many of us claim our days are never wasted. “I’m very organised” we say “I know where I am going and what I’m going to do”. If you truly feel that way then you are in the minority. Most people become frustrated with a day that is unproductive . We would all like to get more done in a day. Often we do come across people saying that i am too busy and dont get time for any thing. I dont get time for myself or my family, my work is soo demanding. But if we analys them closely we shall see that most of them are busy without work. Most of them are actually wasting a lot of time on unproductive things that even twety four hours in a day seem to be less to them. Further you shall see them asking for advice on time management.

“You know i need to manage time better”, was what i heard yesterday from a colleague of mine. “Madhur, how do you find time for everything..?? Teach me time management buddy…” he said.

Friends, I had to remind him that time cannot be managed. No one ever has been able to manage time yet.

Time is uncontrollable we can only manage ourselves and our use of time.The idea of time management has been in existence for more than 100 years. Unfortunately the term “Time management” creates a false impression of what a person is able to do.

Time can’t be managed and ‘Time management’ is actually self management.

Its interesting that the skills we need to manage others are the same skills we need to manage ourselves: the ability to plan, delegate, organise, direct and control. As it is taught in management school, to solve a problem we need to identify the problem.

After observing few people, i could see that they are wasting most of their time in some activities which i would broadly term as ‘time wasters’. These time wasters generally take most of your time during the work and reduce your effectiveness and efficiency at work.Some of the common time wasters that I could identify are :-

-> Interruptions – telephone
-> Interruptions – personal visitors
-> Meetings
-> Tasks you should have delegated
-> Procrastination and indecision
-> Acting with incomplete information
-> Dealing with team members
-> Crisis management (fire fighting)
-> Unclear communication
-> Inadequate technical knowledge
-> Unclear objectives and priorities
-> Lack of planning
-> Stress and fatigue
-> Inability to say “No”
-> Desk management and personal disorganisation

Fortunately there are strategies you can use to manage your time, be more in control and reduce stress, but you can analyse your time and see how you may be both the cause and the solution to your time challenges.

Below, we examine time management issues in more detail

1. Shifting priorities and crisis management. Management guru Peter Drucker says that “crisis management is actually the form of management preferred by most managers” The irony is that actions taken prior to the crisis could have prevented the fire in the first place. The idea is that we should try to be proactive rather than being reactive to save time.

2. The telephone. The telephone-our greatest communication tool can be our biggest enemy to effectiveness if you don’t know how to control its hold over you.I have seen that we waste most of our time by saying “aur batao ( whats more) on the telelphone. My Dad once said “had there been no ‘aur batao’ soo much time would have been saved”. Further, i try not to entertain any persoanl calls during office hours.

3.Lack of priorities/objectives. This probably the biggest/ most important time waster. It affects all we do both professionally and personally. Those who accomplish the most in a day know exactly what they want to accomplish. Unfortunately too many of us think that goals and objectives are yearly things and not daily considerations. This results in too much time spent on the minor things and not on the things which are important to our work/lives.

4. Attempting too much. Many people today feel that they have to accomplish everything yesterday and don’t give themselves enough time to do things properly. This leads only to half finished projects and no feeling of achievement.

5.Drop in visitors. The five deadliest words that rob your time are “Have you got a minute”. Everyone’s the culprit-colleagues., the boss, your peers. Knowing how to deal with interruptions is one of the best skills you can learn .

6.Ineffective delegation. Good delegation is considered a key skill in both managers and leaders. The best managers have an ability to delegate work to staff and ensure it is done correctly. This is probably the best way of building a teams moral and reducing your workload at the same time. The general rule is -this; if one of your staff can do it 80% as well as you can, then delegate it.

7. The cluttered desk. When you have finished reading this article look at your desk. If you can see less than 80% of it then you are probably suffering from ‘desk stress’. The most effective people work from clear desks.

8.Procrastination. The biggest thief of time; not decision making but decision avoidance. By reducing the amount of procrastinating you do you can substantially increase the amount of active time available to you.

9. The inability to say “no!”. The general rule is; if people can dump their work or problems on to your shoulders they will do it . Some of the most stressed people around lack the skill to ‘just say no’ for fear of upsetting people.

10. Meetings. Studies have shown that the average manager spends about 17 hours a week in meetings and about 6 hours in the planning time and untold hours in the follow up. I recently spoke to an executive who has had in the last 3 months 250 meetings It is widely acknowledged that about as much of a third of the time spent in meetings is wasted due to poor meeting management and lack of planning. And what do we end up deciding in a meeting?? ….the date for next meeting!!!!! So a well planned meeting can save a lot of time.

Madhur Khandelia.

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