Managing Personal Work Priorities - Essay Example

Report Name Institution Instructor Date Summary Time management is a critical aspect of every person’s life (Varga, 2011). We all have 24 hours each day but depending on how we manage our time we can either be productive or destructive. Personally, I have had issues with time management. With a few changes on the schedule and prioritizing of tasks and events for the day, I have been able to mark some improvement. I decided to take a test in which I would know my current status in terms of time management and productivity. As such, I recorded the activities of the day for one week. I was able to collect the results and found out the most time consuming activities and the least time consuming activities in my day. The most time consuming activity was sleeping which took 43.6% of my time while the least time consuming activity was appointments which took only 0.49% of the time. The results of the recording also showed that I spend a lot of time getting ready to do take on the day. I also spend very little time shopping like I would desire and there are various distractions at work that if I handle I will be able to be more productive. Part of the recommendation to be more time conscious is to prepare for the week early enough and lock my office door to avoid the early morning distraction that derail planning for the day. Introduction Productivity of a person is based on the way the individual plans their day and how they prioritise their work (Kerzner, 2001). In order to know my productivity levels, I needed to record the event of the day for the whole week and make an evaluation on the way I spend my day. the aim of the test was to know my stranghts and weeknesses inorder to make better plans and thus be more productive I my life. Procedure The test involves the following: 1. Recording of all the day’s activities in a form. 2. Recording the time taken to complete every activity 3. Recording of my personal feeling about the activities that in was involved in the whole day. 4. Record the results for one week. 5. Compile the data collected. 6. Analyse the data collected. 7. Get to know the results on time management. 8. Make recommendations based on the findings and analysis of the results. Results and Analysis I conducted the test between Monday 3rd to Sunday 8th of March 2014. From the data collected for the one week period in which I was recording all the activities that took place in the day, it is clear that sleeping takes 46.3% of my entire week. This is because of the 162.1 hours that have been accounted for, 75.0 hours are spent sleeping. Socializing is another fundamental aspect of my life. In the whole week, 20.7 hours (12.3% of the time accounted for) were spend socializing with friends, family and my partner. BAU takes us the third slot in time consumption. 15.3 hours are spent on BAU weekly which translates to 9.4% of the time that has been accounted for. Traveling is another time consuming aspect of my schedule as it takes up 14.4 hours weekly which represents 8.9% of my week’s accounted time. During the week in which I was doing the recording, meetings at work constitute of 5.1% of my weekly time. This is represented by 8.3 hours in the schedule for the week. Being a girl, getting ready is time consuming for me. Of the number of hours that was accounted for, 4.9% (7.9 hours) was spent getting ready. This involved getting ready for work, going to the gym and also going out with friends, family and my partner. The least time consuming aspect of my life during the week for the study was appointments. I only went to the doctor once which took me 0.8 hours representing a small fraction of 0.49% of my accounted time in the week. Exercising is a part and parcel of my life. As such I visit the gym 3 days a week. I also do exercises at home to keep fit. In total exercising took up 7.3 hours of the week equated to 4.5% of the time accounted for. In my job, meeting are regular and thus consume a lot of time. During the week in which I recorded the time event, meeting took up 5.1% (8.3 hours) of the time. Reporting matters at work is also part and parcel of my job description. As such, from the time accounted for from Monday 3rd to Sunday 8th of March, reporting took 3.8% (6.2 hours) of the time. Traditionally, before I start doing any work or creating my to do list for the day, I take time to read and respond to emails that have been sent to me. In the recording time period, time taken to read, respond and also send email constituted 2.4% (3.9 hours) of the time. During the week I also spent some time shopping. This was to shop for a dress to wear to my partners’ sisters’ wedding and also for groceries during the weekend. The total amount of time that I spent shopping during that week was 2.3 hours which amounted to 1.4% of the total time accounted for. Given the level of passion I have for shopping, I feel that this time was so little and would have loved to shop for a longer time. Whenever the boss was not around, I felt lazy and my productivity levels also reduced. All the above information can be represented in the chart below. Conclusion So far my time management was good but not up to the standards that I would want for myself. There were some destructions that took place which greatly reduced my productivity. During the week I noted that I spent a lot of time feeding the cats and taking them out before work. Sometimes, the cast would refuse to go out and thus derail me for the day. I also experienced a lot of interruptions from the cats while sleeping and while talking on the phone. At work, the most inconveniencing interruption was from the people coming in to work and from the boss when information was needed from me. There are times when the train would be late and delay me. However, this is an aspect that I have limited control over thus I have to find ways to compensate for the time so that it does not affect my productivity at work. Recommendations For more productivity to be enhanced in my day, I first have to make a weekly plan with a primary to do list (Mancini, 2003). This will help me in planning my time. The to-do list will then be compiled with new additions in the evening for the following day. I also need to inform my boss that task be scheduled at the start of the week or the day before. This will reduce the inconveniences of having to consult with me for the better part of the working day. I also need to start checking my emails twice a day. In the evening before leaving the office and in the morning before staring work. This will aid in the planning for the day. Personal motivation is also key. In the morning I usually feel lazy or too tired to wake up for the gym of work. I need to put in place strategies that will encourage me to work harder and bee self-motivated to wake up in the morning and complete tasks in due time. Proper planning will help me balance my personal, social and professional life (Cloud, 2008). References Cloud, H. (2008). The one-life solution: reclaim your personal life while achieving greater professional success. New York: Collins. Kerzner, H. (2001). Project management a systems approach to planning, scheduling, and controlling (7th ed.). New York: John Wiley. Mancini, M. (2003). Time management. New York: McGraw-Hill. Varga, A. (2011). Time management. New York: Nova Science Publishers. Appendix Read More