Time Management

Time - management training is popular and widely available. The evaluation of time - management training programs, however, has been limited. Several authors assert that effective time management results in less stress for individuals; more efficient, satisfied, and healthy employees; and more effective organizations. The research has generally revealed that time -management training can affect the amount of time spent by participants on high-priority activities. For example, Macan found, in a sample of working wives from dual-earner families, that those who had received time management training spent more time on relaxing activities after the training than did those who did not receive training. One might infer from the findings that the training resulted in an increased use of time - management behaviors that then led to the positive outcomes.
The effects of time - management training on other outcomes, such as control over time, job satisfaction, stress reactions, and job performance, has, also, received much attention. Participants who perceived more control over their time also reported fewer stress responses and more job satisfaction. Research participants' reports of time - management behaviors have been found to be positively related to supervisors' ratings of job performance.
Perhaps time-management training allows the participants to compare themselves with others, providing them with a realistic benchmark with which to evaluate their situation. They might have realized their work situations were not unlike those of their co-workers. In a similar vein of research, some authors found that comparative knowledge can help correct negative feelings of self-blame and put other issues associated with burnout into perspective.
It is also possible that time management training just makes people feel better about themselves and their situations. Hall et al. found that research participants who received time - management training reported a greater amount of self-efficacy for time/stress management behaviors than did nontrained participants.
Several time-management studies reveal that the participants reported decreases in somatic tensions after time-management training, whereas those who did not receive training reported a similar degree of somatic tensions both times they were measured. Trained participants also learned some relaxation and tension-relieving exercises (although these were minimal parts of the training).
Literature review on time-management enables us to develop better understanding of time-management techniques and consider time-management as one of the best approaches in dealing with stress in the work place.
Prior to the time-management training an employee should monitor herself/himself to determine the source of his/her stress. Usually poor time-management skills become the main source of stress; however, there may be more complex causes which require psychological help. It is essential to provide employees with a way of establishing a degree of objectivity on themselves. Only in this way can problems be identified and understood and the necessary changes be planned. The solution is a simple, effective technique that does not require any great expenditure of time or financial resources. It is called self-monitoring, which means keeping a diary. People can learn to monitor both their behavior and their thinking.
The idea behind self-monitoring is quite simple. Employees keep a systematic daily record of their behavior, over a number of weeks, and sometimes months. With the guidance of the counselor, they learn to identify patterns and trends in their behavior--how they react and respond at different times and in different situations. These patterns elucidate and clarify where their problems lie, and why.
Each employee has to have a small notebook and allots a page to each day. The date and the day of the week are put at the top of each page. They then keep a systematic daily record of their behavior--the "whens, wheres, whys, with whoms, and how muches" of what they did and how they felt. This can be done by making short notes at intervals during the day; but, generally, people write a resume of their day in the evening, when they have a perspective on how the day, overall, has gone. This also establishes a habit. The importance of writing their notes every day is consistently repeated. Memory is fallible; but, more importantly, the very days people do not feel like keeping their diary usually turn out to be the most informative. Overall, diary keeping only takes a few minutes, and even less as one gets used to it. Hours can be wasted going over things in one's mind.
After a minimum of 2 but preferably 3 weeks, the diary is reviewed with a counselor. It may have to be read through several times before any trends become obvious. If a counselor decides that the source of stress is employee’s inability to manage his tasks effectively time-management training should be conducted.
Successful time management is a lifetime skill that is well worth mastering, and is largely about being in control rather than letting work and/or life control a person. Some employees may already use time-management techniques. They segment their days into fractional usable parts. They keep detailed personal calendars and schedules to make the most of every minute and be consistently on time. They buy time - management advice books and tools. Some employees create timetables. While developing their timetable workers are convinced that it is possible to complete all the assignments before the deadline and, thus, avoid additional stress.
Delegation is one of the essential parts of time-management. Delegation is actually more than shifting the weight of a project from your shoulders to another’s. Effective delegation is about entrusting others with projects you are held accountable for. This means that the employee is empowering others to act and initiate changes independently while, at the same time, assuming his/her responsibility for certain tasks. It is important to keep in mind; if something goes wrong with the project, the employee remains responsible. Shifting workload does not necessary mean shifting responsibility. The tricky part of delegating is to do so in such a way that you feel comfortable tasks or projects will be accomplished in a given amount of time and yet taking precautions to ensure things do not go wrong.
To enable someone else to begin the work, an employee must know what authority, if any, will be needed to accomplish the task and most importantly, if the person we are delegating to, is capable of taking on the challenge of the project or task. By assessing the skills and capabilities of others, we will be able to properly select the right person for the job. Selecting the proper person may not necessarily mean that person is the most intelligent rather it means that person is best suited to perform the task or project at hand (Maslach, 1982, p. 121).
To organize their time, some employees can prioritize their activities in terms of their urgency and importance. Urgent issues demand immediate attention or action while important issues are personally meaningful. Activities can be placed in four categories (Adair, 1988, p. 78):
1 Urgent and important
2 Not urgent but important
3 Urgent but not important
4 Not urgent and not important
Category 1 activities include responding to crises and meeting deadlines. If an employee spends too much of his time responding to immediate problems he might be moving into the danger zone of high stress levels and possible burn-out.
Category 2 activities allow employees to plan ahead (e.g. ‘What steps do I need to undertake now to meet my performance targets in six months’ time?’) instead of being glad just to have survived the day at the office, to take preventive measures to reduce the frequency of crises and problems, and to develop balance in life. Employees should remember not to neglect these activities just because they are not urgent, otherwise they soon will be (e.g. you become run-down through overwork because you kept putting off implementing a ‘less hours at work and more fun and exercise’ plan).
Category 3 activities often include responding to the requests of others (e.g. ‘I need your help to finish my report by Thursday’; ‘Listen, can you chair that meeting for me, I’m so busy?’). As for category 1, employees are reacting to events but these activities are not important in helping to achieve their key personal and organizational goals.
Category 4 activities involve looking busy (e.g. shuffling papers, hurrying to and fro, organizing your desk). An employee may convince himself that endlessly revising your time management plan is an important activity when, in fact, it is time-wasting. Activities in this category are neither urgent nor important and should be removed from employee daily schedule.
As indicated above, the majority of our time should be devoted to important (i.e. goal-directed) but not urgent activities (category 2). This emphasis on what is important to you may smack of selfishness, but we would suggest it is more accurately called enlightened self-interest, i.e. you put your own interests and goals first most of the time while putting those of others, particularly significant others, a close second.
Thus, we can conclude that employees can create more time and avoid stress by getting organized. Using a time management plan is useful in implementation of our priorities in life. Employees should concentrate on the results, not on being busy. Time management techniques are essential in organizing more productive schedule for employees and, thus, improving performance of the organization as a whole.
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