Time Management and the Catalysts and Difficulties of It - Essay Example

?Time Management and the Catalysts and Difficulties of it According to Sasson (2008), “Time is a special resource that you cannot store or save for later use. Everyone has the exact same amount of time each day. Time not well used cannot be retrieved”. In a rapidly moving and highly advanced world, time is one of the most important entities. Even though science and technology are capable of finding answers to important and difficult problems, it is impossible for them to bring time under their control. It is often said that time waits for nobody and it acts strictly in accordance with its own rules and regulations. “There are only so many hours in a day, none of which can be reclaimed. It can’t be stored, saved or borrowed. Once it’s gone, it’s gone” (The Importance of Time Management). Even though controlling of time is impossible, management of time is possible. In other words, it is possible for the human to use time in an efficient manner so that he may not face any problems with time in completing his tasks. He can plan his activities for the day and night in advance so that he may not be confused anytime about what should be done at that particular period of time. Since the commitments of modern generation is more than that of the generations in the past, it would be important for them to practice time management principles properly to avoid time related problems in accomplishing personal or professional tasks. Time management has lot of definitions. However, generally speaking, “Time management is about self-management or how you manage yourself in relation to time” (Effective time management strategies). This paper analyses the necessity of time management and the Catalysts and Difficulties of it Time management skills Time is a finite quantity. It is impossible for human to add or subtract some from the existing quantity of time. It should be noted that only 24 hours are there for a day and 365 days are there for a year. Nobody in this world can make any changes in this fixed quantity of time. Therefore, it is necessary for a person to have proper time management skills to avoid problems related to time in completing tasks. The most important time management skills in my opinion are the ability to arrange, organize, schedule and budget Arranging A student like me has plenty of personal and academic commitments. It is necessary for me to arrange all such commitments in a proper way so that I may not face any problems in completing any personal or academic tasks. For example, as part of my education, I may get plenty of assignments for different subjects such as science and mathematics. It is not necessary that all the assignments should be submitted in the same day itself. Arrangement of assignments based on the deadline would help me to arrange the time properly. If science assignment has to be submitted tomorrow I should start it today and complete it today itself. The Mathematics assignment may be due day after tomorrow. In that case, I can start working on it tomorrow. In short, arrangement of assignments based on the priorities would definitely help me complete all the assignment in time. Organizing Students can break the allocated time into educational time and non-educational time as part of the development of time management skills. It is impossible for a student to allocate complete time for educational purposes alone. He may have non-educational activities such as playing, socializing, eating, bathing etc. It is important for him to allocate fixed times for all educational and non-educational tasks. He should organize his activities based on priorities. For example, it would be illogical for a student to spend too much time for playing while he has plenty of academic works or assignments in hand. In such situations, he should reduce the time allocated for playing and add such time to the educational time. He can go back to the old ways of allocation of time, once he finishes his assignments. In short, organizing of tasks based on priorities is extremely important in time management. Scheduling According to Bernard (2010), “By knowing what you are doing and when, then having enough time to do each activity will go a long way to helping you towards a life of reduced stress”. Better time management skills will help a person to schedule his tasks based on priorities and complete all of them without much problems. It should be noted that accumulation of assignment and the failure to complete all assignments in time, may result in the development of stress among student community. Increased stress may prevent them from giving full attention to their studies. In other words, increased stress may result in reduced learning. Scheduling of assignments and other educational works may help a student to complete the tasks in time and to stay peaceful all the time. It is impossible for a student to work strictly on a schedule all the time. As mentioned earlier, his priorities may be changed at different time periods. For example, it would be logical for a student to allocate ample time for socializing, playing and other recreational activities, when he gets holidays. At the same time, it would be illogical for him to use much time for such activities during his schooling days. Students should make a time table do their routine jobs in a regular manner. A well-constructed time table will help the students to find enough time not only for their studies, but also for other activities. In the absence of a time table, students will struggle to find enough time for their studies as well as for other daily activities. Budgeting Budgeting of time means the allocation of time for different tasks. For example, a student like me should allocate at least 2 hours for playing and socializing, 8 hours for sleeping, 8 hours for attending classes in schools, 1 hour for personal hygienic activities such as bathing, brushing etc. The remaining 5 hours can be used for doing home works and learning lessons taught in the class. In short, budgeting of time helps the students to find ample time for all the personal and academic activities. He can make changes in the above schedule or budget, in exceptional situations. Improper usage of available facilities may result in wastage of time. There are certain tasks which needs our immediate attention. Such tasks should be prioritized based on a time frame. Some people have the habit of wasting time because of the improper usage of available communication technologies. Imagine, I want to pass an important message instantly to a friend. It would be illogical for me to send an email to him and wait for his responses. It is not necessary that my friend may be online at that time to receive my mails instantly. On the other hand if I try to contact my friend by phone, I may get him instantly so that I can pass the message to him. Here, the improper selection of communication channel (email) resulted in improper time management in the first case whereas proper usage of communication channel (Phone) resulted in proper time management in the second case. To conclude, time management skills are necessary for all the people in this world to do their works properly. It is extremely important for the student community since they have plenty of academic works along with personal works. Planning is the most important element of time management. A well-constructed time management plans should have four components; arranging, organizing, scheduling and budgeting. The success and failure of a student in his academic life depends on his ability to manage the time properly. Students who have better time management skills may excel in their studies whereas others will struggle to do so. Works Cited Barnard Julia. The Importance of Time Management, 2010. Web. 02 December 2013. Effective time management strategies. The Importance of Time Management, Web. 02 December 2013. Sasson, Remez. Importance of Time Management, 2008. Web. 02 December 2013. http://www.successconsciousness.com/blog/time-management/importance-of-time-management/ The Importance of Time Management. 2013. Web. 02 December 2013. Read More