Why Time Management
Time management is all about accomplishing tasks and objectives within a given time frame. Time has a way of underscoring productivity. That is, the shorter it takes to accomplish tasks, the more productive you are seen to be because you can get more task to accomplish. A person that builds 10 canes chairs in an hour will be seen to be more productive that the person that builds 2 especially when the chairs are of the same quality.
Taking a shorter time to get something done does not mean that such a thing would be of lower quality. This is more so with businesses that have strict quality control measures in place. A time management plan is not all about speed, but speed combined with quality. It is about knowing the things you need to do, and doing them creditably well within the shorted possible period. Your time becomes highly productive if you can accomplish so much within that short period.
Drawing Up A Time Management Plan
Identify The Project Or List Your Goals
You can draw up a time management plan with respect to a project, or simply based on your job duties for the week. We are going to follow the later from this point forward.
List Your Goals For The Week
You might have more than one goal, but there have to be major goals. You cannot put teeth brushing or bathing as part of your goals for the week, unless for one reason or the other, such a mundane task becomes a major issue for you to do. We are using goals for the week, although the same thing can be applied for the day, month, quarterly etc. Let's look at major goals for the week.
Breakdown The Weekly Goals Into Daily Sub-Goals
The daily sub-goals must add up to the weekly goal. This is the only way you will be able to follow a deliberate path in achieving your weekly goal in a strategic manner. These daily goals become objectives and targets that must be met by the end of the day.
Identify The Handlers
These are the people or things you have to handle to make sure daily tasks/objectives are met. You must bear in mind that you are looking at the whole week, so these people should be able to help you meet with your daily target. Also put in mind that this is all about time management, and where it should ring louder, because delegating is a great way to manage your time.
These handlers are strategically important in your job as manager. You might not just be identifying them for the sole purpose of your weekly goal but they could be a source that you can always rely on in future. They become your most trusted members of staff because you now know their capabilities.
Inbuilt Benchmark Already In Place
This is because each day’s task is like a benchmark used to indicate that you have met threshold and milestones. Therefore, each day’s task is like a benchmark that measures where you are with respect to the weekly goal.
Identify Hurdles And Challenges At This Stage
You are fully aware of the goal you have set. What are the hurdles you have to jump for you to accomplish the goal? This is something you should take time to analyze and list. You are still at the planning stage of this, which is the ideal stage to identify and create solution for situations that will gulp your time, and defeat the purpose of a time management plan. It can be argued that this is the r=very reason you are setting up a time management plan.
Eliminate The Identified Hurdles
This is what we touched on previously because eliminating these hurdles at this stage can only make you more productive. This is perhaps the last thing you have to do before following the time management plan. Remember that you have done everything before starting to include the hands, or people you will use to make sure that you meet your goals for that week.
You can now draw up your time management plan with the full assurance that you can follow it without fear.
Follow Through On Your Plan
It is only the plan that you follow through that will give you the greatest opportunity of fulfilling your goals of the week. Following it cannot be over-emphasized. There are a thousand and one things that can disrupt that plan, you should not be one of those things.
Be Prepared For The Unforeseen
Your time management plan can only be as good as how your boss want it to be because a new project might just be dropped on your laps during the week that will destroy your best efforts in keeping to time so you should not take yourself too seriously.
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