பருவத்தோடு ஒட்ட à®’à®´ுகல் திà®°ுவினைத்
தீà®°ாà®®ை ஆர்க்குà®™் கயிà®±ு. – குறள் 482
காலந் தவறாமல் காà®°ியம் ஆற்à®±ுவது, ஓடுà®®் செல்வத்தை ஓடாமல் கட்டுà®®் கயிà®±ு ஆகுà®®்.
—சாலமன் பாப்பையா
காலம் உணர்ந்து அதற்கேà®±்பச் செயல்படுதல், அந்த நற்செயலின் வெà®±்à®±ியை நழுவவிடாமல் கட்டிப்பிணிக்குà®®் கயிà®±ாக à®…à®®ையுà®®் .
—à®®ு. கருணாநிதி
Explanation:
Acting at the right season, is a cord that will immovably bind success (to a
king).
Reference: https://www.thirukkural.net/ta/kural/adhigaram-049.html
The above
is an excerpt from Thirukkural which is a classic Tamil language text
consisting of 1,330 short couplets. All these 1330 couplets cover almost all life
lessons one can ever go through in his / her lifetime.
And why did
I start this blog with this? Well recently I saw a video on my Facebook timeline
in which they were debating about languages and followed by a documentary where they spoke length and breadth about the Tamil culture and thought process of our ancestors. It made me feel privileged and fortunate
to be part of a society which prevails from an very ancient time. As a small token
of gratitude wanted to start this blog with a couplet which though was written in 300
BC but amazingly still holds good and I'm sure it will hold good for the forthcoming generations too.
Coming to our topic Time Management. If you ask any successful person about their mantra of success they would mention ‘n’ number of things starting from Vision, Goal, Passion, Persistence, Perseverance etc... But if we look deep, they would have decided to dedicate their entire time for one purpose which they had envisioned in their minds. There would have been no procrastinations, no tomorrows, no excuses, which is precisely where we as a common man would have gotten differentiated from them. One thing they would have done effectively is manage their time on a daily basis for over a period of time till their goal is not met.
While everyone has their own goals (short /long) and
milestones added to their timelines, I will tell you a couple of techniques which helps
me keep moving forward and in turn can help you as well.
Time
management is an important aspect in everyone’s life for achieving their goals. But
often it takes skill and experience to master it. While some have the liberty to make mistakes and learn some may not have it. Most of the time in 90% of
the cases it’s the bad experience which forces a man / woman to learn this time management.
For a lazy
person like me the following situation is common and maybe you can relate to it
too. During my school and college days I used to get holidays before semester
exams / final board exams. Right before the holidays begin, I plan for all the
days with each day covering each subject / topic. The problem with those plans
is that I used to have a reserve day or two for revisions. While the plan is
always perfect but till date, I have a record that I have never ever used those
days for revision. And it is always that I did all the catch up only during those
reserve days. In the exam hall after receiving the question paper I would
repent for wasting those valuable time that I had for preparing for the exam. Somehow,
I managed to get through those times unscathed.
A common thing
which I did all those years and sometimes even now is procrastinating things to
the last minute. No matter how many times I suffer and repent I kept doing it,
until I got into job. In job the stakes are high, and during my early days of
my career this habit of mine was pulling me down. Peer pressure, and deadlines
were such that if I don’t do it on time, it not only affects me but the entire
team. All these years the after effects were only applied to me, but this was new
and I could not afford let my team down (which eventually had other ripple effects
too).
Well one
good thing is that I had the habit of planning my things ahead, the problem was
only implementing it. And eventually when I started implementing those plans
the satisfaction that it gave was a heavenly feeling which I cannot explain. A
sense of achieving something with a plan and doing it for the sake of doing it
at the last minute are two different things which gives the same result, but
the latter one has no learning to it.
While
introspecting myself I found that I had too many distractions, it was a time where
I got my first smart phone, I had unlimited access to internet, Facebook and WhatsApp
were trying to find ways to intrude and keep us engaged. I was finding to difficult
to concentrate on one thing for a longer time unless it is a critical situation
and every one is trying to solve that one issue. In the middle of these
distractions once in a while I used to spend some time in exploring ways and
suggestions on how to improve my concentration levels. During those enlightening
times where we lay down and think “Namma valka etha nokki poitiruku….” I got to
know this useful tip called “Pomodoro technique”.
What is a Pomodoro Technique:
The
Pomodoro Technique is a time management system that encourages people to work
with the time they have—rather than against it. Using this method, you break
your workday into 25-minute chunks separated by five-minute breaks. These
intervals are referred to as pomodoros. After about four pomodoros, you take a
longer break of about 15 to 20 minutes.
Learn more about it here: https://www.lifehack.org/840656/productivity-timer
The only
thing which made me lean more towards this technique is that it encouraged to
take frequent breaks. The idea here is to concentrate on your work for 25 minutes
without any distractions which eventually improves your productivity. Suppose you have a task which will take an hour to
complete, you will split it into two pomodoros. You set a goal for your 1st
25 minute and try to achieve it, take a 5 min break and go on to complete the
second in the next 25-minute window. Now don’t start calculating and question
me that 25 + 25 is only 50 how is it equal to 60 minutes. Initially I too did
not believe it and when I started implementing it and got the taste of success,
I started practicing it on a daily basis. It was very difficult to start with but the key here is honesty, you have to
be true to yourself and no distraction means, no phone calls, no browsing, no
social media, no multitasking, absolutely nothing but only work at hand. Your productivity improves with time and and once you are pro at it all your work gets done well ahead of the deadline. If you don’t believe me, give it a try
once and see for yourself. Next time when you start a work try to break down into smaller tasks which you can complete in say for example 15 mins window and complete it. There are a lot of apps now in the app Store and play store to help you with this technique, but a mere in built timer app in your phone would be more than enough to implement it.
Though it helped me lay down the foundation for concentrating and planning my tasks, I found it difficult to follow later on as there were more responsibilities added and I had to do multitasking at times, which is breaking the prime rule of this technique. At some point I was doing too many tasks and was finding it difficult to juggle between them. This is where the next technique came in handy.
The Four Quadrant rule:
1. All important and urgent tasks go into the "Do" box.2. All important and not so urgent tasks go into to "Decide" box where we have to find a time later in the day to complete it.3. All urgent and not important tasks should go into the "Delegate" box where you see if there are possibilities of delegating. But it should fit in thier "Do" box4. All other tasks are basically optional, doesn't matter if you complete it or not.
Thank you for taking time to read this blog. Catch you in the next one...
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