Time Management and Stress Management - Essay Example

Surname: Supervisor: Subject: Date: Time management and stress management Time management is a critical skill in study and career life. Time is a scarce resource that is never recoverable when lost. It is therefore important for human beings to economically manage time well so that maximum results can be reaped from the limited time available. It is almost impossible for anybody to succeed in their careers if they are not good time managers (Harvard Business School 5). Stress management on the other hand is vital in achieving optimum productivity at work and also in life. Ability to manage stress should therefore be of prime importance for organisations and individuals (Kottler and Chen 8,10). It is in understanding of this importance that I have prepared this paper to highlight how I intend to develop an understanding of best ways to managing yourself as a practicing or potential team or cell leader. This paper will be structured into two main parts; part one will discuss how I will effectively manage personal time to achieve team goals while part two will discuss how I will manage my own stress. This will be achieved through the respective headings and appropriate subheadings Personal time management My strengths in time management From my personal reflection about time management, I think I have scored above average although my time management cannot be said to be way too excellent. However I have been very effective with beating work deadlines. One of my best time management practices is to record my tasks in my to-do-list. From there I go on to decide when to work on a certain task. However most of the times I find myself working on a task when I have little time left. I therefore find myself working under pressure to deliver on a task whose deadline is a few hours away. Even though I seem to work best under such kind of pressure, I believe the quality of work is compromised as I don't mind about the quality but rather beating the approaching deadline. I believe with proper planning on how I can approach by setting my own deadlines to complete the work will go a long way into reducing the pressure and also ensuring quality of work. One important tool that I could utilize as suggested by Harvard Business School is a prioritizing to-do-list which will help me list all the tasks that I am to accomplish in the order of important and urgent tasks first while the unimportant and not urgent tasks come last (54). This tool can only be effective if I commit to respecting the deadlines I set for myself. One of my key strengths in time management is that I can only do one task at a time. I leave little room for distraction. This ensures that even though I finish my tasks in the last minute I utilize every little time I have. Distraction can really make an individual to lose a lot of valuable time without realizing until the task is due (Harvard Business School 26). I believe I can build on this strength to reduce the level of procrastination I have since social life is also a distraction to career commitment if not used responsibly. Weaknesses I am particularly poor in ensuring in leaving contingency time to dealing with an unexpected scenario for example an important personal commitment in the middle of a task. This happens since I embark on my task when I have very little time left. I utilize the little time to my advantage but then it can be impossible to complete the task if something unexpected happens. I have not been good at setting personal goals for myself as a team leader. The problem with this is that we as a team can find ourselves being distracted by side issues since we don't have clearly defined goals. Goals help a team and individuals as well to assess their resources including available time and plan effectively having considered the importance of the goal and the resources available (Harvard Business School 71). If I develop a practice of setting goals and especially personal goals for a task, then I will be able to focus my energy towards the attainment of the goal and also assess the capability to finish the task on time. I have not been prioritizing my to-do-list even though I have been keeping a to-do-list. This in effect means I don't put emphasis on what is important to me and urgent and what is not. The risk with this is that I regularly find myself working for unimportant task before important task and regularly find myself working to beat deadlines of important tasks. I believe with a prioritizing to-do-list tool I will be able to take care of this weakness and finish important and urgent tasks on time. Four work related smart objectives Respond to clients’ queries I believe clients form the most critical part any business. A happy client is a guarantee of success in business. Without satisfied clients, a business will soon lose its competitive advantage and attractiveness pin the face of competitors. Clients want their issues addressed promptly; they peg their opinions on a company on such simple but important issues. It is for this reason that I have placed this as my first objective in relation to importance and urgency. I want to respond to all clients issues in the order of the issues that appeared first in order to reduce the backlog and amount of work to do. Respond to management directives and requests Every management cannot run without intensively engaging its employees at different levels to get information and also to execute several strategies and actions all in the business of running the organisation. I therefore think it is important to help the management by providing the required information and also respond to management’s directives. I plan to respond to surveys on job satisfaction so that management can be able to decide how to improve working conditions for all the employees. There also several reports that I need to finalize to hand in to my immediate manager to provide vital information for the benefit of the company. I prioritize this as my second important and urgent task. Respond to colleagues request for information I am of the opinion that in order to ensure organizational effectiveness communication between colleagues is important. There are several requests for information from my colleagues from other departments. I will set it as my third most important and urgent task to ensure that help them in execution of their duties File information that is not available in the database All information related to my work is not available in the database and as such I have got to arrange information in my own personal files to help me work smoothly. This will reduce time wastage and also ensure vital information does not get lost. This is my fourth task in terms of priority. It’s not so important as compared to the other three tasks and as such it can wait for the others to be completed first before it. Stress management techniques Cognitive restructuring I believe one of the things that piles stress on us as emotional human beings is the mood and attitudes that we have. According to Kottler and Chen when we have a bad mood in relation to our work and also a bad attitude towards work, it is all about what we think and feel about the job. If we don’t have positive mood and attitude, then the highest probability is that we would be highly stressed by the job (241,242). This tool suggests that one should first identify the importance of a job to their life and how they can use the job as a stepping stone to a better future. One should realize that their happiness is not determined by their job to such a greater extent that it should stress them. This cognitive restructuring reduces stress and ensures higher productivity (Kottler and Chen 246). Focusing on key responsibilities Workplace stress also emanates from multiple responsibilities within very limited time. A key technique then will be to determine what your job entails and analyzing whether you will be able to accomplish the tasks in relation to your capabilities (Kottler and Chen 302). One should learn to be assertive enough to avoid responsibilities that are not theirs; it is important to take just what one can handle in light of time and capability limitations. Available support for stress management Some of us have high levels of stress tolerance and techniques to avoid stress, however some don’t have tolerance for stress neither do they have techniques to handle stress. All the same even the strongest among us need help some times. That’s why stress management support is vital in managing stress at work and also in social and family life as argued by Kottler and Chen (358). At the work place, the human resource counseling department is an important establishment meant to look into the well being of us the employees. I especially appreciate the effort the department makes to ensure work-life balance and job satisfaction is achieved. Established professional counselors are also important in today’s career and personal life; they have excellent understanding of the major stressors pin life and how they can be handled to improve the mental wellbeing of their clients. Even though a company may not always engage their services, an employee can always make a step towards seeking their services whenever he/she feels he needs them. Friends, family and colleagues are also a valuable source of support for stress management that mostly goes unnoticed. Friends have close informal relationships that enable them share a lot about personal matters including stress. By establishing friendly relations between bosses and their employees, stress levels in organisations can reduce considerably (Kottler and Chen 360,361). In conclusion, I believe I have a few strengths in time management such ability to avoid distractions and list my tasks but I lack vital skills such as goal setting and prioritizing of my tasks. If I improve on these then I will be very effective in terms of time management. I also believe I have very good stress tolerance and avoidance however I believe measures put up by human resource department such as counseling are vital in helping lower stress levels and increase productivity. Work cited Harvard Business School. Time Management: Increase Your Personal Productivity and Effectiveness. Harvard Business Press, 2005. Kottler, Jeffrey and David Chen. Stress Management and Prevention: Applications to Daily Life. 2. Routledge, 2012. Read More