Everything in this world has something to balance its existence. If there
is white, there is black; if there is darkness there is light, if
there are time wasters, there are time savers. So now let us focus
our attention towards those time savers because they are our best
friends when we talk about Time Management.
Again, as in the case
of time killers, I am just listing out a few general examples over
here. These are by no means the only time savers in the
world.
The Top Ten Time Savers for Time Management
- Telephones
- Computers
- Elevators
- Fax Machines
- The Internet
- Coffee Machines
- Bulletin or Notice Boards
- Photo Copiers
- Efficient Filing Systems
- Good Secretaries and Junior Staff
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Let’s take a quick look at all these.
- Telephones.
Surprise! Surprise! I had included telephones under the list of time
killers but telephones are in fact one of the
best time savers that man has invented. Just imagine the amount of time you
get to
save by just
making a telephone call!
Suppose you are to have a business lunch (sometimes
called a working lunch) with an important client.
Obviously you have to reserve a
table in your favorite restaurant. Now, imagine
you have
to go there in person
and get things done directly. The task would
easily take away at least two or three hours
of your time
when you
take into
account
the journey,
the traffic and all that. On the other hand,
this is something you can easily do over the
telephone
while
you are comfortably
seated
in your
office.
So telephones are certainly one of the best time
savers in this world. But of course, it all
depends on how
you use
the telephone.
- Computers
I don’t think that enough can be said about the time saving roles
of the computer. But then I don’t think
that I have to say much. I suppose every one
will agree that computers are indeed
time-saving
machines.
- Elevators
Next we come to elevators and elevators too we know save a lot of time
that we would other wise have to spend plodding
up flights and flights of steps. Elevators save not just time but energy
as well. But one
annoying thing about elevators is that sometimes
even f we punch the button repeatedly,
the elevator takes for ever to reach or floor.
Now, if you just have to go two or three floors
up or down in such cases it is always better
to take
the stairs
instead
of
waiting ten
or fifteen
minutes for the elevator to come to your floor.
It’s better
for your health too, top climb a few stairs
every day.
- Fax machines
Like telephones, fax machines too save a lot of time by enabling us
to send important documents across continents
if needed and that too within
a few seconds.
- The Internet
It goes without saying that the internet has revolutionized our concept
of time itself. With facilities like email,
scanners, voicemail and video conferencing, even the fax machine has become
outdated.
Talk
about fast…
- Coffee machines.
I did it on purpose. When people see that a coffee machine has been
included among the list of time savers, they
tend to screw up their noses and
raise their eyebrows. But would you believe
that earlier, before coffee machines had made their presence felt in offices,
people used to take coffee breaks that lasted up to half an hour?
- Bulletin
or Notice Boards
Bulletin and Notice Boards are very time effective way of reaching
out to a large number of people. Instead of
conducting one of those long
meetings in which every one gets a chance to
go on and on, it’s
is bets to convey messages with the help of
notice boards and bulletins which can be displayed at a place accessible
to all.
Oh yes, then comes
the question of how to make sure that the message
is read by all those concerned.
Simple, include space on the notice where the
concerned people can put down their initials
as proof that
they have read
the message.
- Photocopiers
Often we tend to underestimate the importance of photocopiers in an
office. Those machines just sit there and take
copies of what is fed into them
all day long. It does seem like a job which
does not require any brains. And that is why we do not give these machines
any
credit. But once
these machines fail, we understand their worth.
Of course we can take multiple
prints using a printer, but cost wise and time
wise a photocopier
is much better. It is really faster than a printer and
it costs nothing to take copies.
- Efficient Filing Systems
This had already been dealt with under office organization,
but I just want to add that a good system
of filing definitely saves a
lot of
time. Being able to find an important document
or file should not be a matter
of luck. There should be a proper place to
keep the files something which people call a cabinet. And the files
should be kept in
a proper order
with easy to read and intelligible name tags
and labels. And in the files, the documents should not be filed
in a haphazard
order but
should have
an order that makes it easy to locate a paper.
The same thing applies to the files you have
on your computer, you should name the files
properly and
not use abbreviation
that could
stand for
anything. People tend to try and save time
by using
abbreviations which sound quite ridiculous
once they forget what it
really stands for.
- Good Secretaries and Junior Staff
Good secretaries are always an asset to an office. If your secretary
is as dependable as a screen saver, then half the battle is won.
But on the other hand if your secretary is as feather brained as
a hen,
then heaven help you! The advantage of having good secretaries and
junior staff is that you can delegate a lot of things to them.
I told
you earlier that it is not always necessary that you do everything
by yourself. You should be able to delegate a lot of things, but
first of course you have to be sure that the people you are delegating
to
do something are good enough.
Once you are able to share your work
load with someone, you will have at least one hand free, and I am sure
you will be able to
put that
hand to some good use.
Now, over here I have just highlighted ten
time savers. It would be a good idea for you to look around and identify
things that
could save
your time. Answering machines for one save a lot of time. If
you really are too busy to attend your calls, let the machine do the
talking for
you.
In this context I think it would be appropriate to talk
about one thing that most people often go wrong with in their quest
to save
time, and
that is trying to do two things at the same time. But that
takes us to our next chapter. |