With
help of a short assessment from Michigan Technological University (MTU), I was
able to get a little more clarity on how I manage my time. This assessment is
made up of 9 questions and a week exercise of keeping track how you spend your
time (exsel.mtu.edu). At the end of the week, you can compare your results to
those in the exercise to reflect on what you spend the most time doing as well
how well you manage your time in between activities. For the question part of
the assessment, each question has a number to the left of it. After answering
all the questions, you add up all the numbers to the left of each question and
that’s your result. If your answer is higher than 10, then you need to adjust
your priorities as well as take more responsibility managing your time.
Evaluating
my time management skills, I can say there’s a need and room for improvement.
Overall, it has increased my internal locus of control because I’m responsible
for my own actions, consequences, and future. Therefore, I see trends in which
I tend to unconsciously follow and do, such as setting my watch 10 minutes
ahead, I’m aware of my surroundings and the environment around me, look for
areas in which I can succeed and improve on, and look for information that may
help me achieve my goals. But with my results, 15, I discovered that I don’t
keep track too well of my time. I let non-important tasks take up some of the
time that can be spent to do important tasks, which is true. For example,
during my personal time I let tasks such as being outside walking, reading
non-school related books take up more time than what it should be. I could be
using this time to catch up on spring cleaning or getting ahead on homework.
Even at work, I let routine tasks take up more time than expect. Rule 4 and 5 of
efficient time management states “managers must prioritize their tasks and do
one important thing at a time but several trivial things simultaneously” (Whetten,
2011).
As
mentioned above, some of the areas I can improve on are not letting routine;
non-important tasks take up more time than needed, prioritize important/urgent
tasks, complete tasks before their due date/time, save my best time for
important matters and more. Overall, this has to do with managing my time more
effectively and efficiently. Organizing myself, and the tasks at hand might
actually free up more time for me to relax or take on bigger tasks that may
help me succeed in the future. This will reduce the stress of meeting project
deadlines, have more time for personal tasks, and have more time for family and
so on.
The
tools and rules provided in chapter 2 can actually serve as a guideline on how
to properly manage time more effectively and efficiently (Whetten, 2011). Following
the week exercise provided by MTU, I noticed that I spend more time sleeping
than exercising and doing chores/errands combined. I also spend just as much
time distracted outside, reading non-school related books as I do studying and
doing class work. Therefore, thanks to these findings, within the next few
weeks my personal short-term goal is to get a grasp on my time and how I spend
it. Starting on not sleeping more than 8 hours, instead wake up and get caught
up on homework or chores. Rather than taking a nap after work to catch up on sleep,
stay up and work on schoolwork or reading school related chapters. I can also
try to have others take care of routine tasks at work rather than take it upon
myself to finish the tasks. Remember; take small steps at a time. A huge
dramatic change in my schedule may actually backfire.
Sources:
Whetten,
D. A., & Cameron, K. S. (2011). Developing Self-Awareness. Developing
management skills (8th ed., p. 70). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Prentice
Hall/Pearson.
No comments:
Post a Comment