Time is your most precious asset. An asset which is available to all in the same measure, and it is an asset that distinguishes people from each other, by their individual patterns of spending/using it. That efficient time management is inextricably linked with success, enjoyment of life, work-life balance, and fulfillment of individual goals is not something we need to make people aware of. In this article, we would be drawing attention to three ordinary and everyday habits that prevent people from managing time efficiently. And we would like to offer some tips and insights to manage those destructive habits in a workplace.- Refusing/Delaying the Defining of Personal Career Goals: This little recognized mistake sets off a chain reaction that destroys your time management. When your personal career goals remain undefined, you are unsure of where you want to go in ten years, or ten month's time. This uncertainty affects your time and its priorities from being managed efficiently on an everyday basis. You may not recognize it, nevertheless it weakens the setting of your priorities and you often end up spending more time on things that you would have recognized as nothing more than distractions, had your career goals been well-defined.
- Not Giving the Time to Prioritize Time: It may be surprising, but most ‘busy' and apparently ‘successful' people culture a habit of ‘going with the flow' plunging themselves without thought into clearing assigned duties and priorities, without a second thought about individually prioritizing their own time. This habit keeps those ‘successful' people from achieving greater success and satisfaction in life, and keeps them ‘forever busy' without any time to spare for their own persons or family. Not giving the time to prioritize one's own time, does not only lead to failures, it also leads to dissatisfaction, and sometimes breakdown of personal lives due to lack of attention. To prioritize your time, first you decide upon your prioritization against your career goals, then work goals, and then ‘go with the flow' with suitable adjustments. You also need to prioritize between tasks which are ‘important' and tasks which are ‘urgent' to make adjustments to your timetable on the go.
- Being the Master of Multitasking: Curiously, many people fail to understand the nature of multi-tasking and think that multitasking boils down to ‘simultaneous and active' participation in conflicting tasks. Many workplace heroes fail to realize that chatting while emailing, or attending a phone while doing accounts actually lead to wastage of anything up to 40% of more time than ordinarily required for sequentially doing those tasks. It also leads to a greater number of errors which again costs time and resources to rectify, and sometimes the multi-tasking can also lead to grievous injury or loss of life like when talking on the phone and driving. Multi-tasking in office or work environments indicate handling different projects over the same period of time, or finishing different tasks within the same period of time, but does not extend to managing conflicting tasks simultaneously like dealing with the customer on a phone while dictating a note of accounts to your secretary, and doing both at the same time.
