1. Look through the text and explain why it is so important to manage time:

Saving your time

Time is one of your most valuable but limited human resources. Time management is a process that helps you use them to your best advantage by planning what you want to do, analyzing how you presently use time, and setting priorities. It helps you get more done, with better results, in less time.

When you plan in advance what needs to be done to complete a task, you are able to accomplish the task in less time with less effort. People who do not plan because they "don't have time" are failing to see the significant long – range savings in time as well as the improved performance that usually results from prior planning.

Crawford Greenwalt, former president of Du Pont, once said that the top workers at the company are those who first plan what they are going to do and how they are going to do it, and then they follow their plans step by step to complete the activity. Research studies have proven that when more time is used for planning, less time is needed for completing the assignment.

Planning is setting short-range and long-range goals. A "Things-to-Do" list helps you identify your goals. A time log, kept for several days, helps you analyze how you presently use your time. Carefully study your time logs. You will be able to identify several time blocks each day that were either wasted or poorly used. We all have them. Make a list of several things you could have done during that time. If you save just one hour each day or 365 hours each year, you will have an extra two and a half weeks a year. Think what you would be able to do with that much extra time in your life. Labeling activities as "must do," "delegate," "should do," or "nice to do" shows which tasks are most important.

Fig. 4.2. Things-to-do list

	Date___________
	ACTIVITY		PRIORITY		TIME NEEDED		COMPLETED
1.	classes		A		6 hrs		
2.	courses in German		B		1.5 hr		2 hours
3.	go shopping		D		½ hr		15 min.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.

When you set priorities, you first of all identify which items on your list are of greatest importance or value for you. The highest value items should be completed before items of low value. Second, you estimate the amount of time that will be needed to complete the task. This helps you to organize your time more efficiently. Setting priorities helps you to organize your work, budget your efficiency. Using a "Things-to-Do" list helps you to quickly and easily label each task on your list, as shown in Figure 4.2.

Once you have determined the priority in which your tasks should be completed, you need to develop a schedule.

A schedule is a plan for how you will use your time during the day. It organizes brief time periods such as bus rides or idle waiting to be used effectively rather than wasted.

Techniques of saving time include:

1) rank and complete tasks in the order of importance;

2) concentrate on doing one activity at time;

3) plan difficult or creative tasks to be done when your energy level is at its peak;

4) estimate the time required, develop a time line, and set a deadline for each task;

5) anticipate and plan for busy periods in your schedule;

6) strive for excellence, not perfection;

7) take breaks to relax your mind and muscles;

8) plan for leisure and recreation activities;

9) don't intentionally put off doing.

Lack of planning and organization is our greatest time-waster. Everyone is guilty of wasting some time. It may be only a few minutes at a time, but each of those few minutes add up to hours, days, weeks that are wasted. Often we waste our time on doing activities that are unimportant and provide us with few, if any, benefits.

To help you eliminate low-value tasks, consider the 80/20 rule. It says, "If all items are arranged in order of value, 80 percent of the value would come from only 20 percent of the items, while the remaining 20 percent of the value would come from 80 percent of the items". The examples are:

• 80% of your telephone calls come from 20% of your callers.

• 80% of a business's sales come from 20% of their customers.

• 80% of the dirt is on 20% of the floor area that is most often used.

Other timewasters include disruptions, telephone calls, unexpected visitors, and doing low-value activities. The important thing for you to remember is not to waste your time on the low-value activities that produce few benefits. Focus your time and energy instead on the 20 percent of your activities that are high value and produce 80 percent of the benefits. Saving just one hour a day gives you an extra two and one-half weeks a year.

Time is one of your most important and valuable resources. When you enter the world of work, you sell your time to an employer. Your time helps determine the level of income you will earn, and your income influences the lifestyle you will achieve.