How does the time management improve our professional performance?
The time we are in process is undoubtedly a time of many technological changes and also the time of the immediate access to information. This is fact that offers us for sure possibilities that we could not have imagined in the past.
The deluge of all this information, of course, has a cost:
We must be able to receive, process and manage within a narrow time frame (24 hours per day) a great amount of data and information. And this is getting harder. On the one hand, we have the improvement of technology, which has almost negated the times of work that were previously needed days to be executed, but also a large amount of data and tasks that act as distraction.
There are many cases, when we realize that even with these technological tools available to us, we are not able to complete our work in the time we have set. In some cases, the impact is insignificant, but in others the cost is huge.
Poor time management can lead to inconsistency, failure to achieve goals, missed deadlines and even loss of workplace.
The absence of an apropriate Time Management, of course, is not only due to information overloading and disorientation, but also to elements of our character such as procrastination, lack of priorities and discipline. Very often, a poor planning system act negatively too. When the program is full, we are likely not to follow it due to unexpected events.
Due to the importance of Time Management, there are many manuals, books, articles, tips and techniques for successful time management. The truth, however, is that it is difficult to give advices and those techniques to meet the needs of everyone, especially when the difference in culture is mediated. Mediterranean people, for example, adapt very difficult to strict time management models.
There are, of course, some techniques that have proven to help significantly in time management and better performance. Setting priorities and completing the most important tasks first, for example, may sound self-evident, but sometimes it is not implemented in practice. As well as the setting of deadlines, which even for the less important projects, is catalytic for their completion.
Identifying the reasons for poor time management is not that difficult:
It is only necessary to write down the causes for which someone stopped working or suspended it. The professional life is full of changes to the program flow. Phone calls, emails, unexpected meetings or meetings that last far longer than they should, are some of the main reasons that it is difficult to remain productive during the day. By being in the office or working all day long, does not mean that someone is productive. Based on the above problems, Francesco Cirillo developed in the late 1980s, the Pomodoro technique, which suggests small and frequent breaks to maintain mental alertness.
The best advice is, each one of us separately to find out which is his most productive moment during the day and work without distraction then. By avoiding multitasking, and programming based on what is a priority, the results of hard work will be obvious.
P.G.A. & E.L.
