During my eventful tenure with one of the largest Indian corporate "Bajaj Auto Ltd", I learned one of the most rewarding lessons of my life: Utilization of Time , and such a huge concept was explained in few minutes by the Boss of my immediate Boss: DVP.
It dates back to late eighties when ISO 9000 was a new but promising concept. Obviously, it invaded most of the growing and reputed companies of that time.
So, a huge "System Awareness" program was initiated by the Management across the rank and file, and I was selected as coordinator of my dept with the responsibility to formulate the policies and document all activities pertaining to our working.
I was very much Excited, initially , as any it happens with a new venture , but a disproportionate allocation of time triggered an alarm in the existing system and after an initial round of
discussion my boss recommended a review meeting with his boss, the Divisional Head, to resolve this issue.
discussion my boss recommended a review meeting with his boss, the Divisional Head, to resolve this issue.
The purpose of the meeting was to find out: How I could do justice to my regular job as well as the developmental one like ISO 9000 with proper utilization of available time.
Well, let me share with you what exactly transpired between me and the super boss -- The conversation, that I remember to the best of my memory:
DVP : Hi Abhijit , how are you?
AK : Fine.Thanks. How are you sir ?
DVP : Excellent, but I have a serious problem!
Anticipating a huge firing, the reputation he enjoyed , I slightly raised my eyebrows with a question mark and he delivered the statement of my life
"Abhijit, I am really excited to notice that you are running short of time with some additional assignments in hand. May be you are the right person to suggest me what do I do with so much of free time available. Look at my incoming Tray, its empty. Does it mean , my job is in danger?"
Perplexed, and before I could answer, his Boss, the Plant Head entered the cabin with a big smile and started thanking Mr DVP profusely, "how could you complete this project so quickly ? "
"Nothing special sir. I just delegated it to the right persons I have recruited and groomed for these type of assignments. I did nothing sir, they actually did it." Answered DVP.
Well, the Plant Head left after a minutes and our meeting ended with his comment that I shall never forget in my life:
"Abhijit, if you are running short of time, please try to understand there's something terribly wrong with your overall system. Pl, review it asap, and reduce the clutters.
Believe me, I took it as a challenge and with no modern Time Management Tools like GTD etc at my disposal, successfully reduced the clutter with:
1.Making regular notes on priorities and re-evaluating daily schedule periodically.
I think, maintaining an hourly schedule is too ambitious an objective, and I will simply conclude that it's exaggerated by people suffering from Too Busy Syndrome. Hence, a daily schedule is more than sufficient.
2.Taking immediate action on every tasks and re-entering incomplete tasks at the bottom of the next schedule, I mean the list of task for the following day. That's it. Doing the same even today, but instead of a dairy its my blackberry now.
After a month I happened to meet him in a planning meeting. With a confident smile he asked me, ' So Abhijit, hope you have switched over to my party: Guys with disposable time.
I just smiled back.
10 comments:
Hi Abhijeet,
Excellent write up...... I really liked it.
I think am at the 1st stage, may be a month later I'll also be in your party :-)
Thanks & regards,
Brilliant piece of advise by your boss. I have tried using hourly and upto minute time management and got frustrated since "it does not work!". I started scheduling my day and prioritizing tasks and feel much better but had a concern that I might not be using my time effectively. However, your article and experience proves that this is the right approach.
Thank you
Great article, I plan to share some of your ideas with others!
Thanks Tauseef and Sandy for such an encouraging comments.
Like Tauseef , i have tried virtually most of the Time Management applications both free and paid ones & also web based and local ones ,like GTD Agenda ( Paid Version)and next action etc.
However, nothing really worked and now i am just using the in built task application on my blackberry , which has increased my productivity exponentially.
Only addition is a simple software called followup, which can directly add any communication to my list of task and also the contact name and tel no from my address book
Shortly, i shall write an article on this combination and you may let me know your opinion.
I may be wrong, because millions are using GTD software successfully but i just could not handle those.
Hi Amrata
You are most welcome to the other party.LOL
Great read!!
I make lists and those take away enormous stress out of my system.I could empathize and vibe so much with your thoughts
Thanks !
Thanks Mr Gowri
I also have been doing the same thing and one fine morning just got away with all those GTD software.Believe me,it's cool now and effective also.
It is all in a system, which we device for ourself. Moreover, a right person for the right kind of jobs saves lot of time. We always forget one thing that the managing people is a evolving phenomena and not a static one. Most common mistake, i have seen in many organisations that they stick to a system, which was designed ages back.
Few years back, during my business consultancy days, we used to sit late to finish our work. Our clients were previlaged to call us even after the office hours. One fine day we decided no to pick any call after 5.30pm. After one month results were visible and our clients aligned themselves to the deadline of 5.30pm.
nice writeup... thanks for telling us your experience... I really very thankful to u... and looking forward to more write-ups...this idea of maintaining a check list of tasks on daily basis is surely helpful...
Thanks simrat
Perhaps you have noticed that, most of the articles here are based on my personal experience in all fields of life i have been exposed to.
In this particular case, as already mentioned in the article ,i just got rid of all software and believe me ,now with a simple task manager i am doing better.
I don't disagree with the fact that ,those software may be extremely useful to many but in my case , with a bare minimum requirement , simplicity achieved a landslide victory.
Cheers !!!
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