Be it sourcing, manufacturing, fabric, dyeing, accessories, management, merchandising or any other department in a company it always requires good time management. In fact, time management is crucial in garment manufacturing where productivity defines the final cost of product.
We are always behind time deadline in daily aspect of life either in office or personal life. We start day with missing breakfast or late in reaching office or missing preparation for weekly meetings or missing the file. So it is crucial that whether you are a student, a working professional or a homemaker, you should learn to manage your time effectively.
What is Time Management ?
The art of arranging, organising, scheduling, and budgeting one’s time for the purpose of generating more effective work and productivity is known as Time Management. So, time management involves exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities with a focus to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity. Hence, time management helps an individual to be more organised and more productive.
Various Elements of Time Management ?
- Being aware of your time
- Being aware of your Time Wasters Priorities
- Self-management
- Management of your Personal Resources
- Goal Setting Measures of your Achievement
- Planning
People can spend their time in only the following three ways:
- Thoughts
- Conversations
- Actions
Various Time Management Styles ?
Achievement Management : Achievement Management style includes and describes people who measure their success by how much they take on. Such people cannot say “no” to accept more projects and can get overwhelmed. Such people find it difficult to do everything to the best of their ability and may tend to forget a task.
Casual Management : Casual Management style includes and describes people who are the procrastinators of the world. Such people believe that they will get the work done when they have time and as a result easily lose track of time.
Crisis Management : Crisis Management style includes and describes people who consider each event of their life as if it is the top priority. Such people tend to take on several projects all at once. They have trouble deciding between which one is a priority and which is not. Hence, many projects may get started but don’t get finished.
Precision Management : Precision Management style includes and describes people who are the perfectionists of the world. Such people tend to work to deliver work that is consistently of high quality. However, the high quality is delivered at the expense of a lot of time.
Social Management : Social Management style includes and describes people who are the social butterflies of the world. Such people would rather “talk” than “do.” Social managers often lose track of time as they busy themselves chit- chatting the hours away.
“No matter what type of work you do, your work will be composed of only three items. So, the only thing that you need to do to manage your time well is to decide the proportion of the distribution of these three items in your work.“
Steps for Managing Your Time :
Step 1: Set Goals
The first step towards managing your time is to ‘Set Goals’. While setting goals, you should always keep in mind that you should set goals that are specific and concrete. Never define vague goals. Also, make sure that you determine and set both long-term goals and short-term ones to support them. Another important thing while setting goals is to also set a deadline for your goals.
Step 2: Develop a Schedule
The next step after you have set goals for yourself is to develop and plan out a schedule. Initially, planning may seem a hard task, however, with practice it would become the easier and more natural. There are a few considerations that you need to keep in mind while developing a schedule.
- Hence, while making a schedule, ask yourself these questions:
- What goals do I expect to accomplish?
- What approach do I need to adopt to reach these goals?
- What tasks are more important than others?
- How much time will each task require?
- What time of the day is best fitted to do each activity?
- What provisions do I need to keep my schedule flexible to allow for unexpected things?
Step 3: Revisit and Revise Your Plan
Now, you know the goals that you want to reach and you have developed a planned schedule to reach those goals. The next crucial step in time management is to check whether the plan is working and check how you are actually using your time. This step will help you identify the deviance between your planned schedule and your actual followed schedule. You need to then alter your schedule or your actions and revise your plan for better time management.
Various Components of Time Management :
Planning : For effective planning it is important that you know the difference between ‘Urgent’ and ‘Important’.
Organizing : Organizing is an important component of time management. When you are better organized, you are better prepared to do your tasks more quickly and diligently. You do not waste time in searching for and locating misplaced things or gathering resources at the last minute to do a task.
Delegating : Delegation is an important concept when you learn about time management. Delegating is: ‘The act of delegating, or investing with authority to act for another’ or ‘the distribution of responsibility and authority to others while holding them accountable for their performance.’
Managing Interruptions : The following are some of the methods to manage various kinds of interruptions:
- Managing Workspace
- Managing Documents
- Managing Drop-in visitors
- Managing Phone
Scheduling : Scheduling is the process by which you look at the time available to you and plan how you will use it to achieve the goals you have identified. By using a schedule properly, you can:
“Understand what you can realistically achieve with your time. Plan to make the best use of the time available. Leave enough time for things you must absolutely do. Preserve contingency time to handle ‘the unexpected’. Minimize ress by avoiding over-commitment to yourself and others.“
Role of Technology in Time Management :
Using modern way of technology like phone, email, teleconferencing and chatting can prove to be great tools of communication while saving time and effort. However, using them effectively without wasting much time is crucial. For instance, while on a call, make sure you keep track of the time and do not waste time on idle chit- chat.
While emailing use specific and meaningful subject lines in your emails. Teleconferencing tools like Adobe’s Acrobat.com, Microsoft Live Meeting, or Citrix’s GoToMeeting can also be used for effective time management. Even chat is a good option as writing through emails, a lot of time may get wasted in to and fro emails.
Role of Biological Clocks in Time Management
The ‘biological clock’ or your ‘body clock’ decides how of your body works and the variance of energy levels for different types of people at different times of the day. Please keep in mind that if you are a ‘night owl’, then you should shift these times about 3-4 hours later in the day.
The article is contributed by Kasiviswanathan Palanisamy | Board of Director, Picanol India. An eminent Speaker, Business Head, Whole Time Director, Team Motivator, and article Writer, Having total 30 years’ experience in Indian Textile industry being deeply involved in the spinning, weaving and processing industry. He has thorough knowledge of almost all supply sources of textile machinery.
Associated with selling of world class imported spinning, weaving and processing machines in India. Well-known in Indian textile industry and positioned in Delhi for last 25 years. Associated with Picanol Group for the last 26 years. Since 2008 Head of Picanol India followed by elevating to Executive Director focusing on sales of Picanol weaving machines,.