WORD FROM REDEEM ZION: TIME MANAGEMENT AS AN EFFECTIVE TOOL

Successful people use time management to achieve excellent results. The key to time management is to realise that one cannot possibly do everything that there is to do. Instead, one has to decide how to spend the limited amount of time available to one each day.

Many people spend their days in a frenzy of activities, but achieve very little because they are not concentrating on the right things. At the heart of the subject is a simple but obvious focus- one has to concentrate on results not on being busy!

Time management is more than just managing time. It is managing oneself in relation to time. It is setting priorities and taking charge of the situation and time utilisation. It is changing those practises or activities that may cause a waste of time.

It is being able to try different methods to maximise the use of time. Like all human beings, business especially small and growing ones, should take into consideration that time is constant and irreversible and nothing can be substituted for it.

Time once wasted can never be regained. Time keeps getting away and it is difficult to control it. Yet, time needs to be affectively managed to be effective. According to Mr. Christopher Gardner, an international businessman, who was brought to Nigeria by MTN Xtrapro, success in time management is measured by the quality of one’s work and personal life. He says maintaining professionalism in work or business also means making efficient use of one’s time by avoiding the use of productive business time for other personal activities.

He maintains that time should be used to develop professional relationships, adding that professional relationships are keys to reaping enormous business dividends. Gardner points out that there is the need to develop a personal sense of time, that is keeping a record of how one’s time is actually spent on various activities, nothing that time is well managed if things that ought to run smoothly are doing so and the desired goals are achieved.

“Organise your office work, choose a time to get certain tasks through, such as answering emails, working on a project or completing paper work; and then sticking to it everyday. “Manage your workload. Every time you agree to do something else, something else will not get done,” he says:

According to the business icon, large tasks should be broken up into a series of small tasks. Plan your activities- schedule a regular time to plan your activities. If time management is important to you, then allow the time to plan it wisely.

The General Manager, Consumer Market, MTN, Mr Kola Oyeyemi says “In an environment like ours, where there is a lot of challenges facing businesses, especially those at their growing stage, businesses should be productive and informative in the least amount of time considering the level of competitiveness in the market place.

A motivational speaker, Mr Andrew Osho says as one move up the corporate ladder, he will find that time is limited; therefore, it is time to delegate tasks.

For small businesses, he explains that entrepreneurs should begin the process by identifying the employees that can be trusted and delegate small tasks to test how they handle those activities. He says “if they are successful, gradually increase the tasks you assign to them and keep track of their results. There is the need for proper time management. “There is always a way to shave off a bit of time by grouping similar activities and doing them in one bit. “How many times have you got to the end of your day and felt like you have accomplished nothing even though you have been “busy” all day?” he says the ability to tell oneself the truth and in turn make up for lapses , remains the beginning of productive time management. According to Oyeyemi, businesses should reserve their most valuable time for the most intellectually demanding activities, with the intermediate value time spent on important tasks that do not require quite the same level of concentration. He adds that low-value time should be reserved for activities that do not require much in the way of concentration. Osho further says, “if you run your own business from home, however, effectively structuring your time in terms of peak, intermediate and low-concentration blocks can make a profound impact on your productivity if you use that time intelligently.”

According to Gardner, “when identifying what you have to fit in to your schedule, think about all areas of your life. Making time for yourself is not something that you get around to only if there is time left over. Making time for yourself is as much a priority as anything else.”

Organigramme : Alternative: TIPS AT A GLANCE v SET YOUR BUSINESS GOALS v FOLLOW YOUR PASSION v STAY FOCUSED v ACCEPT RESPONSIBILITIES v UTILISE OPPORTUNITIES AS THEY COME A good way of identifying activities that should be included in your schedule is to test them against the criteria of furtherance of an objective. If the activity does nothing to further any objective, why are you even doing it?