Office goers and the art of balancing time
An office goer wakes up in the morning. He thinks of the day ahead and gets a dreary feeling. There is so much to be done and he has less than twenty four hours to do it in. He has to attend to his profession, he has to attend to the needs of his family, and he has to make sure that his taxes and bills are paid on schedule. So how can he manage his time?
The first thing he has to understand is that he cannot hope to accomplish everything in one day. He has to prioritize. What are the activities that require his immediate attention, the ones that cannot be put off? These are the activities that should be done first. There is that important presentation that he has to make at the office, and he has to prepare for it. Then there are the bills that need to be paid, like the electricity bill and the light bill, and their due dates are approaching fast. These cannot be put off either. He has to buy some shirts, but these can wait till the weekend. He does not have to do that immediately. This is how he has to prioritize.
But the plans for the day do not end with the morning list. He has to go to work and once there he will be saddled with plenty of activities. At the office place he will have deadlines to meet and he will have a boss to answer to. He will have to impress clients with his presentations and he will have targets that demand his attention. This reminds me that there are many research students who are required to write their dissertations successfully and submit it on time. There are students who can’t manage their projects and thus take help from highly qualified writers to complete their dissertation. Coming back, once again he has to get a pen and paper out and make a list of all the tasks that he has to complete. He has to set aside some time for answering e-mails and making phone calls. If he is in a position of leadership then he can delegate all those activities that do not demand his immediate attention. He has to make sure that he meets his appointments and if possible he can have them over lunch or have a working breakfast.
If he has a secretary then he should make sure that she has a list of all his day’s activities so that she can coordinate properly and ensure that he does not miss any of his schedules or deadlines. Office goers these days often spend long hours travelling. Is it possible to put that time to productive use. He could spend that time reading and catching up on some office notes.
Office goers will always face unexpected challenges like that traffic jam that takes hours off his day or that meeting that did not end on time. The office goer has to factor all these aspects in and make sure that he does not pack his schedule too tightly. It is a good idea to keep the weekend a little free since he will need that time to unwind and relax from the hectic activities of the week.