Time Management

Time is a relative dimension and part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the duration and intervals of an event. It is also referred to as the 4^th Dimension as described by Einstein in his theory of relativity. Time is one of the most important aspects of a common man in everyone’s day to day life, may he be a President of a country or a farmer in the field or a common man taking care of daily life chores or a simple housewife or a student preparing for his examination. And it is this importance that gave raise to the art of time management to efficiently run all activities of life.

What is Time Management?

Time management is the act or process of planning and exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency or productivity. Time management may be aided by a range of skills, tools, and techniques used to manage time when accomplishing specific tasks, projects and goals complying with a due date. This set encompasses a wide scope of activities, and these include planning, allocating, setting goals, delegation, analysis of time spent, monitoring, organizing, scheduling, and prioritizing.

Initially, time management referred to just business or work activities, but eventually the term broadened to include personal activities as well. Usually time management is a necessity in any project development as it determines the project completion time and scope. Nobody plans to fail yet everybody fails to plan.

Time Management in Life:

Time becomes a relevant factor right from the day that we become aware of our very being. Time management has been an inbuilt system of man unlike another other living creature on this Earth. From the moment we are born, our parents start planning our future and sketch a landscape of activities to be undertaken and completed by them and us, and after witnessing our persona they make variations accordingly, from time to time. For example, fixing the time to nurse the baby (us) to sleep and to wake the baby (us) up, when the baby (we) should be neatly dressed up and all sorts of things. This way they indirectly teach us the way of planning and time management, even though we have not the slightest idea to how to draw our future plans in writing. The first thing that we learn in the 1^st standard is to follow ourselves through a given timetable, which is the technique followed by all schools to manage the time so that the teachers can do justice to every subject with utmost efficiency. Thus, making a plan in relation with time is actually Time management. Then as we grow older, parents plan which school we should go to, what books we should buy and within how much time the projects given to the child (us) should be completed. We are taught in class and by our parents to read and write, and thus, once again, we learn to read between the lines and management of time. And before we know it we are ready to give examinations.

Value of Time Management during Examination time

Before and during the examination, Time Management becomes most important; to make sure we do proper justice to the questions asked and not leave any question unanswered. Before the exams, we make a timetable which is nothing but time management again; we give more weight-age to the difficult subjects and less time to the easier ones. Then comes the time of exams and again the art of time management comes in handy.

We are given 3 hours. In these three hours we have to go through the question paper, decide the time to write answers for objective and multiple choice questions, fill in the blanks, subjective questions, and write answers with a lot of understanding, memorizing and that too with speed. Once the verbal time management required to answer a question paper in three hours is done, we actually start writing the paper. We finish off all objective and multiple questions within the first twenty to thirty minutes, giving one to half a minute to each question. Then we come to the subjective and essay type questions. Now since these questions need more time, as some questions need logical thought and a framework to answer them, with a proper introduction, explanation of the topic and a proper conclusion. And if there are ten questions, then we have to separately define time for each question, 2 minutes for thinking and 13 minutes for writing the questions. In these questions, some may take 10 minutes to write down whereas others may take 16 minutes to write down the questions. Hence, round about in one hour to one and a half hours depending upon the number of questions and the diagrams to be drawn as per the question we will be able to completely and efficiently answer the questions.

            Hence examination is nothing but proficient time management with maximum number of correct answers.  It is our self-evaluation process to judge how proficiently and precisely we can answer, and where we stand in our school/college/class.

Women and Time Management

Time management is one of the most over-simplified golden rules to be followed to be successful in one’s life. But somehow, we become the culprits of over-simplification of the some of the basic rules to live a successful life, as we often overlook them. That is why we have to plan with reference to the time limit that is given. And planning is nothing but a systematic approach to a situation to get the solution early.

Suppose that a homemaker is continuously working at home. But there is a lot to a homemaker’s job. Yes, perhaps one of the most difficult of the situations time management.

There are four examples:

Homemaker in India

Homemakers abroad

Working Women in India

Working Women abroad

Let’s discuss the first one. When a lady after her marriage gets settled in her new home and decides to be a homemaker is a big decision and task in itself. The lady has to take care of her in-laws and her husband, and also needs to spend quality time with them to have a healthy relationship. Thus, the moment she gets up early in the morning, she plans her day finding out the way most proficient to get her work finished up before time, so she could spend some time with her husband and her in-laws.  

In the morning, she has to manage time so that she could provide lunch for her husband and breakfast for the whole family at 9 am. Then she has to manage time to clean up each and every room and do the dusting of the whole house within 9-10 am because by that time the maid arrives to sweep and mop up the whole house. Round about 9:30 am she has to clean up the domestic puja area, keep the puja thali ready her in-laws, and also breakfast which they would have soon after. After let’s say between 11am-12:30 pm, she has to take care of some outside chores of the whole family, like, buying groceries for the next day, and take care of important posts or parcels, etc. and be back at around early afternoon say 1 pm to again serve the in-laws their lunch, and have it too with them. After that she has to clean up the whole kitchen and the dining area so that the maid cleans up all the areas, including washing of the utensils. Then the lady gets sometime in which she has to iron the clothes or stitch them, etc. Then before 4 pm she has to prepare tea and snacks for her in-laws and herself. And after having tea and snacks with them, she has to start preparations for dinner, which should be prepared between 6 to 8.Then she has to find time for own hobbies like singing, writing, drawing etc. or if she is doing some kind of business from home like selling Tupperware and other such products. And if spare time is available she would spend it in gardening too. Then at 8 pm the whole family is home to a hot and delicious homemade dinner. After cleaning up the kitchen and the dining area, at around    9 pm she sits with her vegetables to be cut for next day lunch and prepare beds for her in-laws and her husband. Then at night, if asked she would have to give massage to her in-laws or read out a letter from a relative to them. Woof! Too many things to be handled and yet that lady is full of energy and positivity from dawn to dusk.

The work of a lady staying at home is much too difficult a task yet so elegantly handled because there is time management and pressure, and in between these situations she maintains the house like a palace and her inmates like kings and queens.

Hence, next time you hear a lady saying “I am just a housewife” appreciate her because no one manages time as well as she does. That is what real time management is all about.

Whereas, the homemaker lady abroad has to follow a much higher level of time management. Because in India we have maids, there they don’t because they (maids) are hard to afford. Hence cleaning up the utensils, washing clothes, drying and ironing them takes atleast an hour or two to finish the task because she does it whole single handedly. Yeah! She has a dishwasher, a washing machine and a dryer, but still they are needed to be filled manually and operated manually. Plus when she has parties she has to plan a month in advance to take care of every thing single handedly.

The working lady abroad never has a moment to herself. Because Monday to Friday, she slogs 12 hours in the office and on weekends she has to make enough meals to last her the following week till the coming weekend. Whereas, the working lady in India, is much at peace, provided she gets the maids for cleaning and washing and making lunch and dinners and her in-laws and her husband are very supportive.

Tips for Time Management

1.             Time being such an important task-master we need to set our priorities into which task:

Þ       is urgent or important

Þ       can be taken care of later on after finishing the important work

Þ       can be done later when have spare time

2.            Always use a simpler way to complete a task rather then making it complex.

3.            Always plan ahead.

4.            Always should have a back-up plan or alternative plan to complete the task.

5.            Always keep in mind the importance of the things which make a difference, like, social obligations, family, finances, socialization, work and you.

Methods of Time Management

The Eisenhower Method

All tasks are evaluated using the criteria important/unimportant and urgent/not urgent and put in according quadrants. Tasks in unimportant/not urgent are dropped, tasks in important/urgent are done immediately and personally, tasks in unimportant/urgent are delegated and tasks in important/not urgent get an end date and are done personally. This method is said to have been used by U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower, and is outlined in a quote attributed to him: What is important is seldom urgent and what is urgent is seldom important.

This method is famously known as the “Quadrant Planning”. In this type of planning there are four quadrants namely

1.       Important and Urgent Tasks

2.      Important and Not Urgent Tasks

3.      Not Important and Urgent Tasks

4.      Not Important and Not urgent Tasks

In this method of planning, we need to segregate our priorities and goals depending upon their urgency and importance.

The first quadrant, Important and Urgent Tasks are those tasks which need utmost importance, like parents getting kids ready for school, then parents getting ready for work after getting ready, having breakfast, packing lunch and getting the project ready for the presentation to the clients

The second quadrant, Important and Not Urgent Tasks are those tasks which need importance after say 15 days from now, like organizing a social party, getting kids ready for their school day trip which is after a fortnight, paying cheque to the employees on the first of every month etc.

The third quadrant, Not Important and Urgent Tasks are those tasks which do not come in the list of immediate attention like: attending calls from mobile call centre, distractions, Interruptions by kids and guests or a phone call from a friend living abroad, checking most of the important mails but not very urgent work is defined in them.

And the last quadrant, which is Not Important and Not Urgent tasks are the tasks like Trivia, Busy work, unimportant chores.

And after we have understood all the quadrants of the Quadrant Time Management or The Eisenhower Method , then all we need to give importance to just one quadrant i.e. Important and Urgent in order to be successful in any phase of life, regarding any situations.

 

POSEC method

POSEC is an acronym for Prioritize by Organizing, Streamlining, Economizing and Contributing.

The method dictates a template which emphasizes an average individual's immediate sense of emotional and monetary security. It suggests that by attending to one's personal responsibilities first, an individual is better positioned to shoulder collective responsibilities.

Inherent in the acronym is a hierarchy of self-realization which mirrors Abraham Maslow's"Hierarchy of needs".

1.      Prioritize - Your time and define your life by goals.

2.     Organizing - Things you have to accomplish regularly to be successful. (Family and Finances)

3.     Streamlining - Things you may not like to do, but must do. (Work and Chores)

4.    Economizing - Things you should do or may even like to do, but they're not pressingly urgent. (Pastimes and Socializing)

5.     Contributing - By paying attention to the few remaining things that make a difference. (Social Obligations).

 

Conclusion

Time management plays an important role in our life and through simple planning and for-sightedness regarding our obligations; we can make our life, easier, happier and a success, as it is us who have too many ambitions and goals to fulfill in life. 

Phony: tthe description about its meaning

It means fake. I think it is good to some extent. When a person tries something impossible and he fails, then people cannot afford to be mean to him. For the simple reason that, what he has done others cannot do. They need to be phony which means not to hurt anyone while flattering someone.  It is always better than humiliating someone.

When I first came to Canada, people around have always appreciated me for what I have done.  They are phony sometimes.But I don’t mind because I know they will never hurt me. My friends, never were phony towards me but the interesting thing for our friendship to grow is the vast difference between the Indian and Canadian cultures. My second host mother never ever criticized me. Though I was seldom making unhappy comments about her way of dealing with her kids and me. But she taught me how to be phony n a nice way.

I think that people can be phony whenever they want to be. But in a nice way as it make their lives easier. If I do not like anything in the Canadian culture then I can be phony and pass the word across the table. This would not be very pleasant for the Cnadians to hear. But if the phoniness is shown in a nice way, then both the parties are happy and both will have a good impression about each other. As I am on a cultural exchange, and it goal is to live in a totally different culture and to understand the culture so as to promote international understanding for all the cultures. But at the same time, I show my culture to them.

Living in a totally different culture is a unique experience. It’s a challenge. Actually people all over the world are the same. But some people are just the worst examples of phony onew, we will ever come across. This has an effect at the global level! One can see that because of people criticizing each other, we have all witnessed the two World Wars.

I think to be phony, is much better than criticizing. Because none of us on the Earth is perfect. But we could try to phony, as we are all free to give an opinion. But how to present that opinion makes a big difference. People should be diplomatic. And the truth is nothing is good, better, best or ugly, wrong but everything in the world is DIFFERENT.

Being an exchange student, I have to be a good cultural ambassador. Being diplomatic makes a good ambassador of the country and culture from where I come. Therefore, “people are the same all over the world and they also love and hate each other but the way an Indian expresses his love for his girlfriend is very different than a Canadian. That’s why they co-exist as different cultures.

Man’s Comfort zone

Man learns when he challenges himself. He learns his limitations and strengths. The way his takes decision,  is constantly making changes in his capacity to take up unseen risks. It is said that man is always a student in this world which senses as a school. Though the man knows  that he will not succeed, he takes the RISK because he knows that if he risks his life he can be a better person and also build up more self confidence in himself. This idea comes from the saying where there is a will there is a way. The more he takes risk, the more experienced he will be in a young age. This knowledge helps him in building his career and future plans in life.  In order to experience something new and different he has to come out of his comfort zone. For him this zone is hard to leave as he has been living in it for many years and is well acquainted with his life.

It is a big challenge for me to come out of India by myself to Canada and live here for a Rotary year. Everybody cannot do that. In this experience, no student knows how the people will react. At first, the student is excited as he is going to a totally new and different world. He is excited because he has always longed for adventure in North America by himself on the Rotary exchange. Everything is so different. Getting adjusted in a totally different cultural family is a big challenge. Going to a new school which he has never seen before is big challenge because he is not sure how the kids attitude will be and the teachers are also different. Changing families, going to a Rotary meeting regularly, to keep on smiing all the times are big challenges. Doing things that he has never done before since the day he was born is the toughest challenge in his life. Though, there are many ups and downs he tries to make the best of the year.

Going downhill skiing is a challenge for a person who has never ever felt the touch of the snow. But he takes the challenge so that he can know what are his pros and cons. Also by doing such an activity he can socialize and mix in the Canadian culture and also the Canadians develops an ear for his culture too. He does everything that a normal teenager his age would do and guess what he is the best of all his classmates back home and also in the foreign country. People slowly invite him to social gatherings and that’s how the intercultural experience for him and the natives around becomes a memorable one.

Taking the Vandee Globe’s challenge is a real risk. But some people take it. Taking such risks is a part of their lives. It’s the humblest kind of expression. They have been challenging themselves throughout their lives. They feel that they could learn much more by taking up such risks. No matter what other people say but they take up such tasks. I belong to those kind of people who think that it is their right to take up risks and they will take up risks no matter what people say.  

What makes a performance an artistic one??

The modern man is no more a nomad because he has to too many responsibilities. The responsibilities like his career, his family, his bank statements, maintenance of his house. So there is this rat race he is compelled to be in cope up in every sphere of his life. But the more he pushes himself to fast, perfect and punctual in the day to day life, the more he is emotionally becoming anesthetized by his responsibilities. So he is always on the lookout of the social gatherings and most preferably an artistic performance

Man sings to himself to relax in the bathroom or while driving to work but he doesn’t get that much relied until he watches an artistic performance. What makes his performance an artistic one depends on his popularity among his fans.

Man loves the performances wherein spending some amount of time, money and energy can take him away from the rat race to his peaceful, jovial dreams. He gets his peace of mind. He relaxes in those moments and then when he is back to work h can work much better. Once the man has his peace of mind it is usually observed, that his efficiency doubles. Also when such moments are given to a man in between hectic schedules he tends to relax much better. 

An artist spends his entire life, learning the art of expressing every emotion in the poem, song, dance or drama. The more he is able to make the audience feel every emotion in that particular poem, song, dance or drama. Like the time when Beethoven composed the Symphony 9, the emotions that he put together in that symphony becomes still alive when we listen it anywhere. That’s the power of Music and the knowledge of the great musician Beethoven and the way he has composed the song that decades down the line the same emotions are coming alive. Or when we hear the tunes composed by great Musician, J.S Bach or Mozart in any part of the world while shopping or having a drink in the market place with friends why do we get captivated by their songs? The reason behind that is, the correct use of notes to give birth to the particular emotions of friendship, love, hatred and betrayal.

The same reason holds true when you hear Mothers singing to their toddlers. And when they grow up they fondly remember them as this song My Mum used to sing me as a lullaby. Well a toddler is much more intelligent than we think he is.

In India, there used to be a famous singer called Tansen, in the empire of Emperor Akbar. When he used to sing songs from the Raga Miya Malhaar which is a raga of the beautiful monsoon rains, in Akbar’s court, the audience were transcended into that very atmosphere in the scorching summer evenings.

There is a place called Mandu in Central India which still sings the glorious love story of poet –prince Baz Bahadur and Rani Roopmati. Both of them were very good classical singers. In one of the instances, when the prince sang Raga Deepak, the raga of fire, he himself was set on fire until Rani Roopmati sang Megh Malhaar and cooled him down.

For a Dance or a Dramatic performance the same thing holds true or maybe a good movie. The classification of a movie or a dramatic performance in a GOOD one is decided by the audience whether whatever the director has in his mind, using the technology and other means how in the best way is he able to put things in front of the audience.  For example when we see the dramas of Macbeth or Othello, the emotions with which Shakespeare has written those plays, the director who has best created that scene so that we feel the emotions or we feel the era of the play through noise created by the children in the marketplace, or through the cinematography of a particular scene or the hatred caused between Macbeth and his people can be felt to this day because hats of to that particular director to cinematograph and use of sound and other effects in an effective manner. This all is done so the audience of the 21^st century is taken into that era of the Shakespearean play.