Time Management or Time Adjustment

Time management is a topic that has been spoken about by large number of scholars or rather by intellectuals. One must feel that this is a most discussed, explained, trained about topic in the world. Still we often hear people saying that “I don’t have enough time to complete my tasks or routine or I am short of time to finish my work in deadline etc.” Is it actually so??? Do people really run short of time??? I don’t understand this phrase. What I want to say is that everyone has same time during a day and that is 24 hours, 1440 minutes or 86400 seconds. That’s it. Boss, everyone has same chunk of time during any damn day or night. No one is privileged even with a single extra second. So, how can one say the time was short??!!!

This is where I want to focus in this article. Everyone on the whole earth is provided same time, neither a single second extra nor a second less. So, what we could do for time management? Okay tell me can anyone really manage time? Can anyone give me one more second in a day when I am happy or when I am enjoying with my family or friends or some near and dear ones or when I am feeling that this is a beautiful moment of my life and I want this day to have 25 hours? Or on the contrary can anyone cut the days short when I am having troubles in my life or big issues at my office or having fight with the person whom I never want to get hurt because of me? No one can do so, not at all. However strong you want to do any such thing for me, but no one can do that. Everyone is helpless against nature. It’s a nature’s rule and we have to follow, we have to obey. So, What? How can you manage such time?

You know, time can never be managed. That’s the truth. You have to adjust according to the time, according to the circumstances around you, according to the sensitivity of the situation surrounding you. So, the phrase should be “TIME ADJUSTMENT” instead of “TIME MANAGEMENT”. All you can do is to adjust yourself with the need of the current situation or prospective situation, in case you are being proactive. In worst situation you have to stay calm and firm and let the time pass away. In joyful moment, if you do not participate, the moment will pass away and you will be alone and alone you can smile, you can laugh but you cannot enjoy. So all I want to say is that we need to learn how to adjust with the time, the situation; the circumstances. I am working at my office and in evening I need go leave early to attend a social function or get together, I will be relieved by my boss only if I have completed all my task of that day before leaving my office. He will make sure that my absence does affect the efficiency of an organization. Same way I want to make sure that my absence at the function or get together shall not affect my family or my near ones, so I have and have to clear my desk and accomplish all the assignments accorded to me before I leave.

So, basically you have to balance the things at optimum level or to the best level you can. Then, only you will be able to utilize your time and enjoy it to the best.

For effective time adjustment we require to understand certain things very clearly. The preference of a particular thing or situation shall be decided overall.  So how to do it?  Let’s understand this how it works. One has to analyze the basics of the task.

1. Priority

2. Efficiency

3. Execution

Priority: You have to prioritize the things you are supposed to accomplish. Whether it may be personal list or professional list. Rather I would say you must balance your personal life and professional life as well. People often says don’t mix your personal life and professional life at any point time. That’s rubbish. Everyone is affected in personal life because of professional life and in professional life because of personal life; and the one who is not affected in such any way must be suffering from dual character decease. If I am enjoying my work at office I will be giving highest result and so my personal life will also be smooth. On the other hand if I am not so good at my work in office I will be sure affecting my personal life as well in a sense of stress, aches, short temperament and may be many more such things. So, I have to prioritize the task to be accomplished, according to its necessity.

While prioritizing the things you must take care of its necessity, its result and effectiveness after fulfillment. We have lots of things on hand to complete, but many of them can be delayed because of their zero impact after doing so. Thing we prioritize shall justify its place before a particular thing and even after a particular thing.

Efficiency: If you want to finish your work in a particular timeline, it may or may not affect efficiency. Most of the time it happens that, in a pressure of time we try to just complete the task and don’t give it a proper respect or say we don’t give it our 100%. You know what will be the result? Either the whole assignment will be a disaster or you have to rework on it, as it is not good enough up-to the mark. So, it is utmost necessary to develop your skill under pressure and perform with better efficiency in such a situation. Second, thing we shall consider as a manager or an authority is that, we have to decide who can handle a project or an assignment effectively. Who is the best option available to us? One can’t tackle everything and everyone can’t tackle anything. So, you have to consider the different quality of people and have to decide who the best option to accomplish the task is. One can have better technical skill while another may have good leadership skill and a third one may own excellent analytical skill. So, you have to make a team or make an effective hierarchy.

A leader must own some skill i.e. how to motivate the team or how to keep them engaged with the assignment effectively, how to use their ability and how to make them perform as a team.  These are the responsibility of the leader of the team. When you have a best team, you can achieve best efficiency, even in shortest time. If leaders don’t possess a clear vision of an assignment, he cannot convey to his team a proper guidance or direction; and as a result the team may waste its time on unnecessary and unproductive things and there will be a fuss.

Execution:  This is the most important stage in any process in my point of view. Whatever level of intellectuals are involved in planning, whatever may be the proficiency of the management, whatever may the advisory panel you have, if the execution is not done in a right way, you fall flat on your face. You have to plan according to the requirement of the assignment considering the time you have to accomplish it and also considering the time it deserves to be provided for fulfillment. Like I said before, if the more time is vested in unnecessary or unproductive assignments, you will lose time for the most required, profitable or justifiable assignment.

Further, what I think is execution definitely requires over-watch. Once you start execution, you must ensure that, nothing is wasted, whether it may be a time or efficiency. For most perfect execution, you will require continuous supervision on the process. If anything goes wrong, whether by controllable or uncontrollable reasons, you must be ready to respond the situation and tackle the situation.

So, all I believe is Time cannot be managed, you have to adjust according to the requirement of the time, and that’s why I call it Time Adjustment and not Time Management.