Real-World Time Management (Worksmart Series) - Softcover

Alexander, Roy

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0814401708 ISBN 13: 9780814401705

Verlag: Amacom, 2008

Inhaltsangabe

In this instructive guide to time management, author Michael Dobson provides tips, techniques, and commonsense advice that will give anyone better agency over his or her time and significantly increase productivity. Real-World Time Management does this by offering readers valuable tips on how to: set priorities; stay on track; keep a closed-door policy; avoid interrupters; and reduce stress. You’ll also learn how to handle distractions, stop procrastinating, delegate tasks, deal with meetings, and manage time effectively while traveling.Most of us dream about having a few extra hours in our day for taking care of business, relaxing, or engaging in the activities we most enjoy. But how can we make the most of our time when it seems as though there aren’t enough hours in the day? Now newly updated, this enlightening and essential guide will help leaders and frontline employees alike wrangle and order their time--no matter how hectic their lives may seem.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Roy Alexander (New York, NY) heads his own consulting firm in New York City and is particularly noted for his sales and communications consultations in energy-related fields.

Michael S. Dobson (New York, NY) is a consultant and popular seminar leader in project management, communications and personal success. He is the president of his own consulting firm whose clients include Calvin Klein Cosmetics and the Department of Health and Human Services. He is the author of several books including "Managing Up" (978-0-8144-7042-8).

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REAL-WORLD TIME MANAGEMENT

By Roy Alexander Michael S. Dobson

AMACOM

Copyright © 2009 American Management Association
All right reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-8144-0170-5

Contents

Preface to the First Edition...............................................................viiAcknowledgments............................................................................ixChapter 1 How to Think About Time.........................................................1Chapter 2 In the Field: How Time Managers Make It Work....................................7Chapter 3 The Daily To-Do List: Your Basic Tool...........................................15Chapter 4 Planning: The Little Parachute That Opens the Big Parachute.....................21Chapter 5 Sensible Project Management for Small to Medium Projects........................27Chapter 6 Effective, Yes! Efficient, No! Key to Priority Time.............................41Chapter 7 Save Priority Time by Reducing Stress...........................................46Chapter 8 How to Avoid Self-Inflicted Delay...............................................53Chapter 9 The Meeting: Opportunity or Time Waster?........................................59Chapter 10 Starving Out the Time Gobblers..................................................64Chapter 11 Delegation: Giving It to George and Georgina to Do..............................68Chapter 12 Communications: Time-Saving Plus or Boring Minus?...............................74Chapter 13 Why Do We Procrastinate—And What Can We Do About It?......................81Chapter 14 The Telephone: Tool or Time Thief?..............................................86Chapter 15 Operate Your Workstation or It'll Operate You...................................91Chapter 16 Taking Control of Technology....................................................99Chapter 17 The On-the-Go Manager Prioritizes Travel Time...................................104Chapter 18 March of Time in the Global Village.............................................108Index......................................................................................111

Chapter One

HOW TO THINK ABOUT TIME

* * *

"For tyme ylost may nought recovered be." —CHAUCER

More than 600 years ago, Geoffrey Chaucer—en route to Canterbury—marveled that time (once lost) could never be recovered. Through the centuries, men and women have continued the quest for that "ineffable ineluctable essence" of time control. Consultant Peter Drucker, a modern tour guide whose destination was not Canterbury but the industrial park called Good Management, said grimly: "Time is the scarcest resource. Unless it is managed, nothing can be managed."

WHAT THE TEST SAYS ABOUT YOU

Give yourself 4 points for every "often" you checked. Give yourself 2 points for every "sometimes." Give yourself 0 points for every "rarely."

Add your points and place yourself with the proper group:

49–60 You manage your time well. You are in control of most days and most situations.

37–48 You manage your time well some of the time. However, you need to be more consistent with time-saving strategies. Adding new techniques is allowed!

25–36 You are all too often a victim of time. Don't let each day manage you. Apply the techniques you learn here right away.

13–24 You are close to losing control. Probably too disorganized to enjoy quality time. A new priority-powered time plan is needed now!

0–12 You are overwhelmed, scattered, frustrated, and probably under a lot of stress. Put the techniques in this book into practice. Flag chapters— for special study—that treat your problem areas.

THE CONTRADICTIONS OF TIME

Yes, time can be managed, but not the way you manage other resources. In fact, "time management" may be a misconception. In many cases, time manages you.

Business is concerned with wise management of resources: capital, physical, human, information, and time. The first four can be manipulated. You can increase your workforce, decrease it, or change its composition. With capital, you can increase it, save it, spend it, or hold steady. You can invest it in a new plant or use it to fund a branch office. If you need more, you can issue public stock, get a loan, or increase your product prices.

But time, the "ineffable resource," is unique. It is finite. There is only so much time, and no matter what you do, you can't get more. It's the only resource that must be spent (invested or wasted) the instant you get it. And you must spend at one never-varying rate: 60 seconds per minute, 60 minutes per hour. No discounts, no inflation.

Thus, the very notion of time control is a paradox. For you can only manage yourself in relation to time. You cannot choose whether to spend it, but only how. Once you waste time, it's gone—and it cannot be replaced.

In fact, time was created by humankind as a convenience—an expensive convenience when you buy it from someone else. In Maryland a man pays his doctor $100 for keeping him waiting. In New York a woman pays someone $300 an hour to do her shopping—out of a catalogue. For under $200 you can have a fax machine put in your care, alongside your cellular phone.

What has all this gained us? Not more time. We already know there isn't any more. Not more freedom. If you pay someone to pick up your laundry while you stay late at the office, you're only trading one chore for another.

But do not despair. Time management techniques can save you at least an hour a day, probably two. But the real question is, Will you use those two extra hours to good advantage?

Time is the basic stuff of the universe. Most people feel they're wasting barrels of this irreplaceable commodity. They're right. Good management of time is probably the single most important factor in managing yourself, your work, and indeed the work of others. Once you stop trying to wrestle time to the ground, its grip on you eases. Don't try to "conquer" time. Work with it. Make it your friend.

Time management, like other management disciplines, responds to analysis and planning. To place yourself on good terms with time, you must know what problems you encounter in applying it wisely, and what causes those problems. From this base you can improve your effectiveness in and around time.

Time management, a personal process, must fit your style and circumstances. Changing old habits requires strong commitment; however, if you choose to apply the principles, you can obtain the rewards.

Where is the best place to begin digging into priority-oriented time management? Check the ways you control time available to you now. No one has total control over a daily schedule. Someone or something always makes demands. However, you have as much control as anyone else—and probably more than you realize. Even within structured time you have opportunities to select which tasks to handle at what priorities. In exercising your discretionary choices, you begin to control your time.

TIME: AN ENIGMA WRAPPED IN A RIDDLE

Probably everyone has said at one time or another: "I would if I had the time," or, "There just isn't enough time," or, "Someday, I'll do that when I have time." The idea that people are about to run out of time is widespread. But that just isn't true. It's a paradox. Although...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Amacom
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2008
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 0814401708
• ISBN 13: 9780814401705
• Einband: Taschenbuch
• Auflage: 2
• Anzahl der Seiten: 128
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: gpsr@libri.de; gpsr@libri.de; ; Europaallee 1; Bad Hersfeld; 36244; Deutschland