Introduction
My report is on time management. In it I will be discussing what time management is, what its importance is and how it has assisted me in preparing this assignment. On top of that I will also like to bring to your notice a few issues of TIME MANAGEMENT and in the end I will give you my critical analysis.
2. TIME MANAGEMET
"Time is the scarcest resource of the manager; If it is not managed, nothing else can be managed" Peter F Drucker, (1909-2005).
Managing time is everything in today's ever changing and very demanding world. We all spend a 24 hours day and no matter what we do, we cannot increase the number of hours in a day and time does not wait for anyone. Every day brings new opportunities for people and what we do with that day is entirely up to us. Basically, time management teaches us how to make the most out of time. Time management is all about planning your actions before you start to work on them (those actions can either be personal or professional). Managing your own time does not just benefit individual but it also helps people around you especially in today's corporate world where every task is a team task. One thing about time management that we all need to keep in mind is it happens in PRESENT moment, the choice of how you manage your time is only available to you now. (jiscinfonet)
3. STRESS MANAGEMENT
I would like to take the opportunity to discuss stress management here because it has a direct relationship with TIME management.
Stress is simply a reaction of your body against different chemicals released by the blood. It can lead to either good or bad experiences. So, the whole point behind managing it because if u cannot manage it then it will affect your time management which will lead to less productivity and efficiency. (mtscil)
4. METHODOLOGY
4.1. VARIOUS METHODS
Now, again coming back to our topic time management we need to discuss different methods I have adopted while I was preparing my assignments before I had to do my assignments in a very short time so I found these techniques very useful and they have facilitated me a lot.
Main job was to identify or should I say planning for the assignments was the main idea. So first thing I did is I just asked myself what exactly I need to do, how I am going to do it, when I will be doing it, and what places I need to go to do my assignments. Basically, It is all about planning from start to finish and sticking to it.
4.2. NOTE TAKING
Now coming to the second task, after carefully deciding what needs to be done I started doing things the way I planned them. The first thing I realized that assignments will be from the course so attending classes regularly and taking proper notes became my first priority. Now the question arises how a person can take effective notes so key things that needs to be keep in mind are selection of correct information, try to find out which data is irrelevant and get rid of useless data etc. Going to library to find certain books and after that reading those books and consulting them with other students. I have used different tools of time management which I have learned by studying this course one of them was weekly planner chart and I have found it really useful. I want to add that in my assignment.
4.4. EXPLANATION OF WEEKLY PLANNER
This was the weekly time table I have created for myself and I have successfully managed to act upon it. During the day like from 09:00 to 17:00 I use to be in college in first three days of weak, on Thursday and Friday I use to work from 10:00 to 18:00 on Saturday and Sunday I normally use to socialise and use to do other tasks like cooking etc. I have even planned that on which day I will be studying which particular topic for example on Monday I use to study ''MANAGING CONTROL AND ACCOUNTABILITY OF FINANCIAL RESOURCES'' on Tuesday '' INFORMATION SYSTEM AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT'', Wednesday ''MANAGING PEOPLE IN ORGANIZATION'' Thursday ''STUDY SKILLS IN POSTGRADUATE LEARNING'' and on Friday and Sunday I use to give each subject approximately one and a half hour. So, that is how I have done my planning, that's how I managed everything and as a result I managed to finish all the assignments in time while I was managing day to day stuff as well and I have achieved all that just because of thinking how can I manage my time.
But one other thing I also found was that it is very difficult to stick to the time table you made about managing your time because life is really demanding now a days so a person really need to flexible so that he/she can easily adapts to changes. In this scenario I can give you my personal example because I had to travel to Manchester on one weekend so it was almost impossible for me to stick to this time table so by using my initiative I decided that I will study for about three hours while I will be on bus and that's what I did so this is another example of me managing my time effectively.
5. CRITICAL ANALYSIS
I have found these time management tools really fascinating by using them I have been able to achieve my goals up to a great extent. Because of time management I now keep a well prepared to do list, I can track and manage multiple priorities at one time or in simple words I can say that now I know where I am standing in my day to day life. I know what needs to be done, how and when I am going to do it.
As I said in the beginning that ''TIME MANAGEMENT'' is directly related with ''STRESS MANAGEMENT'' and what I have learned from my experience that by using these time management skills we can tackle with our stress issues because once you have made a plan that what are you doing, when and how you are going to do a particular task and when you will be finishing then an individual will not get stress at all. Only thing you need to do is you need to plan well, you need to make sure that your targets are achievable and realistic and that is not a tough task because as an individual I know my strengths and weaknesses and I have planned according to that and even if u put a MANAGER in my position who is managing a team of 6 to 8 people he will be fully aware of the strengths and weaknesses of his team and he will easily be able to tackle day to day issues of his business and can help his team to achieve company targets.
6. CONCLUSION
As per my experience and observation ''TIME MANAGEMENT'' is the key to success for everyone. The reason why I am saying this is because I no longer get stressed and for that I give a lot of credit to this time management practice of mine.
Time management has taught me the importance of time. It has made me realize that time is the biggest resource and we can only use it once and it is entirely up to us how we use it. Believe me when I say that we can only get the most out of time if we plan. In simple words '' MANAGING TIME IS MANAGING LIFE'' and if a person knows how to manage life then he will be able to achieve almost everything in life.
In the end I would like to add that now I have no doubts that ''TIME MANAGEMENT'' can make life easy but this is only possible when you know about what are your strengths and weaknesses. Whatever targets you are setting for yourself they have to be realistic and achievable. Other things you should keep in mind that you need to avoid putting things off until the last minute or if you manage to complete a task in good time avoid redoing it, this will simply cause other tasks to stack up which will lead to stress.
TASK 4: EFFECTIVENESS OF RESEARCH STRATEGY
I had to do four assignments in one and a half month time and as we all know doing assignments right is not an easy task a lot of research work needs doing especially when u want your assignments to make an impression. I have understood and followed the research methods that I have learned from my course and they have helped me in preparation of assignments.
I have developed my research strategy after careful consideration and it was based on facts from where I will be able to collect data such as by consulting books then where do I need to go to find books e.g. libraries, we all know internet is a great source for research but I have learned how to do it effectively by using exact phrases, by going to most relevant web addresses. If you are doing internet based research then you must know how you should write that data on your assignments to avoid plagiarism and how to do proper referencing for it. The other important step was to do manage time so that all assignments can be submitted at the same time. For that I really had to sit down and think, I even made a chart which I have showed you above to help me plan and stays organize at all time.
When I think about the assignments that I had to do in this semester I don't find any major research issues I had to do these assignments. I was never a person who has enjoyed going to libraries for finding and studying books that was the reason I had to spend a lot of time in libraries to find the most relevant books for the topics so I believe this is the major obstacle I have found while I was doing my research but I managed to overcame all that in a short time because in UK the libraries are pretty organize and it is not really difficult to find what you are looking for. Overall the assignments were pretty straight forward and the main reason why I think so is because I have planned what I will be doing and when I will be doing it and when I need to finish a certain task therefore, I did not find any major research issues.
From learning point of view I must say I have learned so much from the assignments I had to do because whole my life I have been studying completely exam based courses and they only make you memorize more and more stuff. I am not saying that there is anything wrong in memorizing things but what I must say that proper learning comes only by researching. When you do a research on a particular topic you do it through so many ways by going to internet, by reading books, by discussing your problems to your teachers and friends and believe me when you do all that you will actually start to learn.
TASK 4: EFFECTIVENESS OF PROJECT PLAN
The theory of project management and time management is almost same. You can use one phrase to define both of them and to prove their importance in today's world e.g.
''If you fail to plan, then you are planning to fail''.
Now to discuss the effectiveness of my project/time management plan I must say if you plan well then you will live a relax and stress free life. I have so much enjoyed doing my assignments because I made proper plan for them or I should say now I enjoy doing everything because in order to do my assignments on time I not just has to plan to manage my assignments but I also had to manage all the other activities such as eating, drinking, going out with friends, watching movies, time I need to give to my family. I had to manage all that and I found all that really easy and entertaining because when u know what you are doing, what steps you need to take to do it, when you will be finishing these things really put an individual in the driving seat. All these boost your confidence so much and help you enjoy your work.
So far the question is concern that whether I faced any issues while doing my project then my answer to that is I hardly faced any issues. Because before I started doing the assignments I thought for almost two long days on the fact that how I will be managing my assignments. However, I did find it difficult to stick to my time management chart in the first few days but when I pondered over the fact that I am wasting time which is the most important resource in the world that thought was simple the wakeup call for me and from that point I did not look back at all.
From learning point of view it has been a great experience. The skills I have learned from this exercise are ever lasting and I strongly believe that they will help me throughout my life in managing my social life and work related issues. Because if we talk about project management then I must say everything in life is a project for example I am studying at PGD level it is a project for me after doing PGD I will be doing MBA which is another project and the list goes on and on. Now by utilizing my time properly I have managed to do four assignments in time by keeping good practice of these habits I will easily be able to do my PGD and MBA afterwards. So to sum up management is the key to success. I have managed to develop good management skills from the exercises I have done here. More than that I can now say that because of these exercises first time in my life I have made a chart about how I will be spending my next 2 months while doing the assignments and now I am looking forward to keep these practices going but I have really enjoyed those last two months and my confidence level is sky high at the moment.
