My father would say, “Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein!” When I asked a group of my peers what they thought about critical thinking and time management, the phrase that triumphed was this, “Life Skills”. Both seemed equally important during the conversation. The interesting thing most didn’t think the two were related.
Constant interruptions can significantly hinder effort, curtail creativity, and decrease productivity by disrupting thought processes and work flows, causing individuals to lose focus and take longer to complete tasks. Poor time management has been associated with high stress and strain emotional exhaustion (Peeters and Rutte, 2005), and health issues (Bond and Feather, 1988).
Assessing My Time Management Skills:
For one week, I kept a journal about the specific details of my day. I used a simple notepad as a way of tracking my activity throughout the days. Every detail was significant to the record. Doing so helped me become aware of how long I was taking to achieve goals. At the end of the week, I reviewed what I spent my time on; tracking exactly where time was being spent. This was an eye opener for me. I asked myself, where am I spending my time? Is the majority of my time spent on catch up activities? Could I have planned better? It was pretty obvious that my time could be managed significantly better. Personally, when I don’t manage my time well, it affects everything, particularly my critical thinking skills. Rather than being organized and devout, they turn to being rushed. Rushed thinking, is not critical thinking!
That being said planning ahead, planning on interruptions (rather than playing catch up when they happened), really played a role in increasing my time management skills!
An Evaluation of How These Skills Have Increased Locus of Control:
Time is the most precious resource in business and society. Unlike other resources, like people and capital, time is often considered fixed. Time management skills have increased my locus of control by allowing me to better plan which inevitably helps me take control!
Personally I am struggling with managing my time, because I am a single momma of am 11 year old and 5 month old. Though I am able to stay home with my baby, I am not lucky enough for him to be a good sleeper. I have tried EVERYTHING, but so far have been pretty unsuccessful at getting him to go down at certain times, for longer than 30 minutes at a time during the day (unless it is after 11pm, in which case he will finally sleep for a 6 hour stint of time). That being said, I have short periods of time in which I need to get everything done (homework, laundry, taking my daughter to and from school, etc.)
Constant interruptions can significantly hinder effort, curtail creativity, and decrease productivity by disrupting thought processes and work flows, causing individuals to lose focus and take longer to complete tasks.Increasing my locus of control in this sense, is planning on more interruptions than not, so that I CAN get things done, giving me more control!
Three Areas in Which Improved Time Management Skills Would Reduce Stress:
1. Planning of time and efforts
2. Measurement of time and efforts
3. Control of time and efforts
An action plan to integrate these areas into my daily routine is as follows:
I often know what I would like to accomplish for the week, but don’t plan when I will do it, before I know it, the week is over and I have that dreaded ‘rushed’ feeling. By identifying the unnecessary steps in my current activity, I could save a lot of wasted time and effort.
Often I will allot a certain block of time for something, without spending the time to first, realistically evaluate just how long it will take. Determining the scope, goals, and metrics for each activity you undertake. In this area, we the find most room for improvement (Lamendola, 2012). Precision here allows you to avoid waste on the one hand and falling short on the other. It also opens up time, which would otherwise be wasted, whereas I can spend more time thinking things through!
References:
Bond, M.J. and Feather, N.T. (1988), “Some correlates of structure and purpose in the use of time”,Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 55, pp. 321-9.
Lamendola, M. (n.d.). Time Tips: The Elements of Time Management. Mindconnection Smart Products Store. Retrieved February 21, 2012, from http://www.mindconnection.com/main/timemanager
Peeters, M.G.A. and Rutte, C.G. (2005), “Time management behavior as a moderator for the job-demand-control interaction”, Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, Vol. 10, pp. 64-75.
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