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.
