Time Management Program (TMP) ? Part I
I. Time Management Test
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1. Questionnaire Download
Before exploring the subject of time management, it would be useful and informative for us to know our status in the skills of time management. One way to assess our status in time management is to use a Self-Scoring Time Management Questionnaire. You can download a Time Management Program Questionnaire from Slideshare at: http://www.slideshare.net/rajatwit/time-mangement-program-questionnaire-publication
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2. Questionnaire Details
The Time Management Program Questionnaire is divided into two parts: 1) X 36 Item Self-Scoring Questions; 2) X 6 categories (Goals, Attitude, Scheduling, Prioritization, Action Plans, Multitasking) to which the X 36 question items have been categorized; and 3) The scoring which shows the choice of time management skills is based on a continuum of Very often to Not At All. The highest score would show either positive or negative preferred or unpreferred time management skills.
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II. Time Attitudes Development
Time attitudes play an important role in time management. What is an attitude? An attitude can be a positive or negative perception of a person, thing, event or an experience. It is subjective and is formed out of our learned or unlearned experiences, that may change when confronted with new knowledge or experiences.? In relation to time management, our attitude affects our thinking, feelings and responses about time, its value and how it ought to be managed.? There are four specific time attitudes that we should focus on as it commonly affects most persons.
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1. Attitude towards time costing
Benjamin Franklin was one the first man to realize the money value of time when he wrote, ?Time is Money.?? Why do professionals charge their services according to time? Their reason is that their time is equally as valuable as their knowledge and expertise. Therefore, they consider their time should be calculated in money value along with their knowledge and expertise. How much money value do we attribute to our time? If we have an attitude like that of professionals in valuing time on par with money, we are believers in time costing. Each hour we give to somebody, to an event or to something, it is an hour of our lives deducted from our total average life expectancy. Isn?t that precious? Isn?t that actually more than the value of money? Therefore, it is imperative that we have a time costing attitude that cannot be negotiated, explained away or under-valued. Our time is equal to our money which is equal to our life (Time = Money = Life). For college and universities students to understand and adopt time costing attitudes early in their lives would enrich them character-wise and materially later in life.
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2. Attitude about managing interruptions
If we inculcate time costing attitudes in our personalities, we would also want to develop an attitude in managing interruptions. They come in many forms: unexpected events, uninvited guests, irrelevant messages, calls or unproductive small talks. They side-track us from our tasks and cause delays in our schedules. Ultimately, interruptions are robbers of time. It is impossible to avoid interruptions, but is possible to reduce unwarranted, irrelevant and unproductive interruptions. We should develop an attitude for managing interruptions that are simple and effective. We should identify unwarranted, irrelevant or unproductive interruptions and provide the least time allocation for them each day. We should be assertive in attempting to keep interruptions within the allocated time frame through diplomacy. Remember that interruptions robs our time (Time ? Interruptions = Time Lost). College and universities students have many interruptions that sidetrack them from effective academic performances. Adopting an attitude in managing interruptions, would assist them in allocating more time for academic pursuits, which is what really matters as students.
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3. Attitude of anti-procrastination
Procrastination is delaying for tomorrow what can be done today. It can be due to our personality that goes by the feelings and mood.? It can be due to the lack of an attitude for time costing. It may be caused by a lack of knowledge or skill in prioritization. Whatever the reason, procrastination leads us to major on minors and minor on majors in our daily routines. Procrastination is a lost of priority that is unable to discern between urgency and complacency. In order to form anti-procrastination attitude, we should consistently identify procrastinations as it happens and act against it immediately.? College and universities students who adopt an anti-procrastination attitude early in life would be effective time managers and professionals later in life.
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4. Attitude towards delegation
We know that delegation is assigning our responsibility and authority to somebody else while retaining the accountability for it. The purposes could be to relieve us from an overloaded burden or that somebody else could do the job better. But many times, even if it was possible, we refuse to delegate. Why? Do you know that one of the outstanding negative traits of workaholics is their inability or refusal to delegate? Why?? Several reasons can explain for this behaviour. We may refuse to delegate because we think that we are the only one who competent in the particular task. We may be afraid that others might think that we are incompetent. We may refuse to delegate because we might be afraid of losing our credit and glory to another. We might not want to let another person to be perceived as better than us. We may refuse to delegate because we are control freaks, who like to grab and hold on to everything, so that we are assured of power and control over people and events.
Whatever the reasons for non-delegation, an attitude for delegation is a must in time management. By delegating we are: 1) Relieving ourselves from overload, to be able to focus on more important or urgent tasks; 2) We are portraying our professional maturity in the ability to share and work in a team without negative feelings like envy or jealousy; 3) We are sharing in the growth and development of others who in return could be our future resources. 4) Leveraging our human networks and resources to assist in completing a given task.? Delegation portrays our skill in leveraging human resources for optimum time management (Delegation + Human Resources = Optimum Time Management). The best time managers are excellent practitioners of delegation. College and universities students who learn to delegate while learning would become efficient practitioners of delegation when they start working.
Since attitudes affects thinking, feeling and behaviour, having positive attitudes leads to effective practices in time management. Thus, college or university students who wish to excel in time management must inculcate and develop positive attitudes, namely, in time costing, managing interruptions, anti-procrastination and delegation. Next, having seen the four important attitudes that are prerequisites in time management, we can now look at the ?Simplified Time Management Practices.?
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Qualifications: Th. Dip (MTBI, 1978); Th.B. (MBTS, 1982); MSCP (AU, summa cum laude, 2010)
Professional Status: ? Counselling Psychologist
Email Contact Info: ?? thesigannadarajan@gmail.com
Author?s Blog: http://thesigannadarajan.blogspot.com/
Available for: Consultation and Training
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Source: http://selfimprovement.articlelinkspace.com/?p=2374
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