Time Management

You can create the best time management plan there has ever been and you will still not guarantee success. Best laid plans often go awry once distractions rear their ugly head. Distractions come in many forms and unless you are properly prepared to identify and handle such distractions you are all but assured of failure.   Time is our most precious asset; it is unique in that once you use it up it is gone. You cannot create more time, nor can you reuse it. Taking all this into consideration, it is confusing to understand why we don’t take better care of the time we have.
    Everyone wastes time; it is part of being human (Haynes, 1987). These time wasters basically come from one of two sources. The first source is self, a couple of the more popular time wasters are, disorganization and procrastination. The other source is environmental, some of the many environmental time wasters are; visitors, telephone calls, and crises.
    Disorganization is often the main offender when it comes to self-generated time wasting. One doesn’t have to look too far to locate the culprit. Your study or work area is often disorganized or cluttered. Simply taking the time to organize your desk, materials and even your office machines, such as computer, printer and telephone will lead to increased efficiency. Starting the day with a clean and organized work space often leads to an organized approach to the days tasks.
    Procrastination: Silber (1998) stated,“No matter what the reason, procrastination is a waste of time.”   We have a multitude of reasons or excuses for our procrastination. We enjoy the rush of waiting to the last minute, we are not sure of exactly how to accomplish the task, or we simply are not confident that we can complete the assigned task competently. Procrastination, everyone does it, but when you add up the overall costs of procrastination you will realize that it may be a cost far too expensive to bear.   Procrastination can cost you a career, education or...