Business Perspective : Managing time in business is crucial

Time is money, once wasted it will never come back. In any business or workplace the importance of time cannot be emphasised any further. The value of time management lies in the fact that people have too many tasks they need to do but not enough time for the things that they want to do, because most of the time we fail to prioritise the important tasks from the less important tasks. An effective manager is the one who works within time limits to achieve successes in practicing his/her craft innovatively, within a working milieu that is efficient and cost effective and be able to convert the time wasted into figures so as to be in reality as to how much the company is loosing when employees are not serious in time management. It may take a while for someone to learn time management. But, the investment made in learning and applying the steps to better time management is worth the effort. Good time management can reduce job stress and provide greater job satisfaction and accomplishment. People often procrastinate because a task seems difficult, but well managed employees who have the tendency to procrastinate can be dealt with by dividing a large or difficult task into smaller, more manageable parts and starting on one task right away. By planning the task and doing a small part of it, a supervisor is no longer procrastinating and will be a good example to his/her juniors. Doing anything to get started, no matter how small, is the key to eliminating procrastination to save the company time. Starting a task is also helpful since an unfinished task is more of a motivator than an un started task. As each small part of the job is completed, one’s involvement and commitment increase. Employees should be taught that they should always attempt to tackle the tough jobs first and match jobs with his or her body cycles. Difficult jobs should be performed when a person’s energy level is high. Doing a difficult task is much easier when a person is fresh than when he or she is tired. During high energy periods, a person can often solve a problem in minutes instead of the hours he or she might labour over the same problem when energy level is down. Low priority items, which usually require less mental effort, are best saved for the supervisor’s low-energy periods. A good technique for controlling the amount of time that visitors stay in one’s office is to hold stand-up meetings. If the employee remains standing, so will the visitor; and the meeting will be much shorter. For instance, a supervisor meets the person at the door and holds the discussion there so the visitor never gets into the office, or he or she might stand up before the other person is seated. This technique minimizes interruptions and economizes on the utilization of resources and effort. For example, instead of making telephone calls sporadically throughout the day, all outgoing calls can be made at onetime. Callers can also be asked to call during specific hours. In this way, the supervisor attempts to group incoming calls as well as reduce telephone interruptions. Employees should always be trained to have a reserve of things to do during idle periods. The waiting time before the start of a delayed meeting, for example, can be used to catch up on correspondence or to review a report. Or travel time can be converted into productive planning time. Far instance, on the way to work one can plan his or her day or think about how to resolve a problem. In managing time, receptionists can also be kept busy by typing away some minutes or any other document which needs to be worked on, instead of waiting for the secretary to do everything by herself. Tea girls can also be used to photocopy any documents that need to be photocopied during her free time, this can save a company time and resources if only companies stress out the importance of time management by reviewing weekly performances of each employee, this will discourage the employees in time wasting and be on their toes in doing everything at the right time. Ends