Time Management for New Employees

Prakash V. Rao

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2015
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781783000531
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business General
• Index: Business

If you want to make an impact in a new role, effective time management is vital. Packed with exercises and strategies, this book is a reliable resource for anyone who understands the value of exceptional time management.

Time Management for New Employees

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Time Management for New Employees

Copyright © 2015 Impackt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

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Impackt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Impackt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: April 2015

Production reference: 1270415

Published by Impackt Publishing Ltd.

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Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.

ISBN 978-1-78300-052-4

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Credits

Author

Prakash V. Rao

Reviewers

Aung Ko Ko

Keshav Kumar

Acquisition Editor

Richard Gall

Content Development Editor

Sweny Sukumaran

Copy Editor

Sharvari H. Baet

Project Coordinators

Priyanka Goel

Rashi Khivansara

Proofreaders

Simran Bhogal

Maria Gould

Paul Hindle

Graphics

Sheetal Aute

Disha Haria

Abhinash Sahu

Skanda Rao

Production Coordinator

Melwyn D'sa

Cover Work

Simon Cardew

About the Author

Prakash V. Rao is trained in computer engineering and management with master's degrees in both fields. With about 30 years of experience in the corporate world, he has risen from the cubicle trenches through the ranks of management up to director and vice-president for two multi-billion-dollar corporations before starting his management consulting practice. As a consultant, Prakash focuses on the areas of management tactics and productivity, and towards this latter end, he has developed several techniques to improve effectiveness, efficiency, and time management. He is now a recognized expert in the area of time management, having authored a book and several articles, having been interviewed on radio and television, and having conducted over 1000 lectures, workshops, and seminars.

Prakash's company, Bank Your Time, provides classroom training, seminars, and workshops in time management and productivity. His courses are also available online as webinars and e-learning content.

Prakash's original approach to teaching time management, the Bank Your Time game, has been adopted by over 1000 users. The details of this game are available in his book, The Bank Your Time Game: Rulebook and Play Guide, ETA publishing.

This book is dedicated to my family—my wife, Bhavani, and our boys, Ananth and Skanda—whose love and support fuels me on to greater heights. Moreover, my older son Ananth was my first ever student in time management—in teaching him, I was inspired to enter the field of time management training and spread the message to others—and my younger boy Skanda was the artist who created some of the images in this book. The book could not have been created without editorial support initially from Richard Gall and then from Sweny Sukumaran, nor could it have come to light without Priyanka Goel's persistence and coordination.

About the Reviewers

Aung Ko Ko is a doctor who turned to management. Having grown up inspired by characters from video games and cartoons, he incorporates the most unconventional of training methods in the sessions he designs and delivers. He was awarded the Top Paper Prize for Human Resource Management by The Association of Business Executives, United Kingdom (ABE, UK), in June 2012, and is currently working his way to a master's degree in human resources management.

Preface

A person is hired for his/her skills, abilities, experience, attitude, and other promising factors, but the person is rewarded for performance—or fired for the lack of it. Time management is a critical skill that helps deliver promised performance. Time management is a practical skill and, therefore, any training program, workshop, seminar, or book addressing this skill must use a hands-on approach. This is a practical book. It is not meant to be merely read but to be applied and practiced. This preface states the objective of the course and lays out the manner in which the objective may be met, that is, the target behavior and the methodology by which the target behavior may be instilled.

Behavior and change

Around 350 BC, Aristotle stated his concepts of Physics, the general principles of change that govern all natural bodies, both living and inanimate. One of his concepts was that heavier objects fell to the earth faster than lighter bodies. In 1589, Galileo dropped two balls of different masses from the Leaning Tower of Pisa to prove that the fall of bodies is independent of their mass. Yet, for over a hundred years more, the University of Pisa still taught their students the Aristotelian version of the principle.

Galileo stated and proved his concept. He did not change beliefs. He did not change behavior patterns.

During the initial years of my corporate career, I took several time management courses and read many more books on the subject. Nothing worked for me until I discovered the true reason why nothing worked for me: merely carrying around an organizer/planner, noting appointments and tasks in it, and hoping for the best does not constitute time management. Unless I changed my behavior, I could only get the same old results. Einstein defined insanity as "Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." I realize now that my behavior at that time could have well been classified as insanity by Einstein's definition.

Time management is not a skill—it is a pattern of thought and behavior based on beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and commitment. Time management training goes beyond stating facts and proving concepts. It involves changing attitudes and behavior patterns.

What changes behavior? Behavior can only be changed through strong motivation that emerges from dissatisfaction with the current state and a deep desire to reach a better state.

This book is intended to help the reader acquire the appropriate beliefs, attitudes, intentions, and commitments required for time management and to bring about the required change in behavior.

A brief history of time management

There have been references to proper use of time in all ancient texts and philosophies. Roman Senator and Philosopher Marcus Aurelius (121-180 CE) said, "Remember that man's life lies all within this present, as 't were but a hair's-breadth of time; as for the rest, the past is gone, the future yet unseen."

Benjamin Franklin is considered the father of time management. He eschewed wasting even a moment. His writings have several references to time management. His posthumous autobiography shows his system for the pursuit of "Order." In a small book of his own making, he assiduously tracked each day's activities.

Modern time management dates back to the 1910 classic How to Live on 24 Hours a Day by Arnold Bennett. In this, Bennett urges salaried workers to claim extra time and use the extra time to improve themselves and to really live as opposed to merely existing.

US President Dwight D. Eisenhower said, "The more important an item, the less likely it is urgent, and the more urgent an item, the less likely it is important." He used an importance/urgency matrix to classify tasks and identify the one(s) that required immediate attention.

In 1973, Alan Lakein brought forth his classic, How to Get Control of Your Time and Your Life. He is credited as the creator of Lakein's Question, "What is the best use of my time right now?" His A-1 technique is still the most powerful prioritization technique for ensuring that time is effectively used.

Hyrum W. Smith founded the Franklin Quest Company in 1981 and created the Franklin Planner. In 1997, he merged his company with Stephen Covey's Covey Leadership Center to form Franklin Covey, one of the world's leading providers of time management training and planner/organizer products.

David Allen brought his perspectives on productivity to Lockheed in the 1980s and went on to create a time management program called Getting Things Done in 2001.

In 2002, yours truly, the author of the book that you hold in your hand, created a game called Bank Your Time to teach time management to teens and youths. The game became a popular time-management training program in several corporations. What you hold in your hand combines traditional time management concepts with ideas from the Bank Your Time game.

Indirection and control

Let me introduce you to the concept of "indirection." There are several ways of getting a task done:

• Do it yourself
• Delegate someone else to do it
• Forbid your children from doing it!

Levity aside, when you delegate a task to someone else, you are creating a level of indirection, that is, you get the results not from direct action but from indirect action. Now, if that someone further delegates the task, there is another level of indirection created. With each delegation or level of indirection, you get farther removed from the ultimate action and you have less control over the process. How do you ensure that the task is completed to your standards? The solution is to give up control and grant power (empowerment) while stressing the benefits of the action and the value it provides.

Why am I belaboring this point?

Let us take the subject of teaching. When I teach the material covered in this book, I have control over the process. I impart knowledge (content) through instruction presentation, examples, analogies, stories, activities, and exercises. With this Workshop in a Box, I delegate the teaching to you and introduce a level of indirection. I grant you control over the process. How can I influence the way that you teach?

I could put on my professorial face and pontificate as to what you MUST do in order to teach this material. Rather than that, allow me to advise you. Let me share with you my knowledge, experiences in teaching this material, the stories and illustrations I use to get the point across, and the activities and exercises that I use to d...

Table of contents

• Time Management for New Employees