We have learned about the time saver to save us from the time killer. But let us take a closer look about our time savers. In this article we will learn more about our time savers.
Telephones
Surprise Surprise, I had included telephones under the list of time killers but telephones are in fact one of the best time savers that man has invented. Just imagine the amount of time you get to save by just making a telephone call.
Suppose you are to have a business lunch (sometimes called a working lunch) with an important client. Obviously you have to reserve a table in your favorite restaurant. Now, imagine you have to go there in person and get things done directly. The task would easily take away at least two or three hours of your time when you take into account the journey, the traffic and all that. On the other hand, this is something you can easily do over the telephone while you are comfortably seated in your office.
So telephones are certainly one of the best time savers in this world. But of course, it all depends on how you use the telephone.
Computers
I dont think that enough can be said about the time saving roles of the computer. But then I dont think that I have to say much. I suppose every one will agree that computers are indeed time-saving machines.
Elevators
Next we come to elevators and elevators too we know save a lot of time that we would other wise have to spend plodding up flights and flights of steps. Elevators save not just time but energy as well. But one annoying thing about elevators is that sometimes even f we punch the button repeatedly, the elevator takes for ever to reach or floor.
Now, if you just have to go two or three floors up or down in such cases it is always better to take the stairs instead of waiting ten or fifteen minutes for the elevator to come to your floor. It is better for your health too, top climb a few stairs every day.
Fax machines
Like telephones, fax machines too save a lot of time by enabling us to send important documents across continents if needed and that too within a few seconds.
The internet
It goes without saying that the internet has revolutionized our concept of time itself. With facilities like email, scanners, voicemail and video conferencing, even the fax machine has become outdated. Talk about fast.
Coffee machines
I did it on purpose. When people see that a coffee machine has been included among the list of time savers, they tend to screw up their noses and raise their eyebrows. But would you believe that earlier, before coffee machines had made their presence felt in offices, people used to take coffee breaks that lasted up to half an hour?
Bulletin or Notice Boards
Bulletin and Notice Boards are very time effective way of reaching out to a large number of people. Instead of conducting one of those long meetings in which every one gets a chance to go on and on, it is is bets to convey messages with the help of notice boards and bulletins which can be displayed at a place accessible to all. Oh yes, then comes the question of how to make sure that the message is read by all those concerned.
Simple, include space on the notice where the concerned people can put down their initials as proof that they have read the message.
From this article we learned, how the time savers can be so useful for us, especially in our busy lives. They are not only helping us to accomplish our work, but they are also helping us to reach our goal in our life.
People live in different situation. As each of the people have different needs. People who live in the city have different needs than the people who live in a farm. But each of them has the same thing time. In this article we will see a sample of a man called Bob, who spend his life in a farm.
Now that you are acquainted with Ben I would like you to meet Bob. Bob lives in the country. He has a farm. It is not a very big farm; it is one of those medium sized farms from which you can get enough produce to make both ends meet. Bob is up at when the cock crows at five in the morning. As soon as he is up, he goes to his dairy and milks his three cows.
I must add that Bob does not walk, he ambles. Having milked the cows he heads back to the farm and sits down with his morning paper. He chats leisurely with his wife who is going about her daily business. Around 8 he hops into his tractor and drives to the nearby dairy to deliver the milk. There he meets a couple of his friends and spends a good half hour exchanging news with them. He gets back to the farm at nine and has a relaxed breakfast.
When breakfast is over, he puts on his straw-hat and taking his dog along starts his daily excursion among his cornfields. His corn has a couple a weeks to go before harvest and now there is nothing much to do but walk around inspecting the rat traps. At eleven he is back at the farm and settles down to listen to his radio playing some old favorite tunes. He has lunch at 1 and then settles down in his favorite chair for a long afternoon siesta. In the evening he again goes to milk his cows, gives them some fresh feed and has one more walk around the farm.
After dinner by seven, by eight he is in bed and the lights are out.
Lets admit it, Bobs life is so leisurely that we feel like screaming when we watch the pace at which he gets along. He is happy and contented and the only clock in his farm stopped ticking a few years ago. We cannot even draw a parallel line between the lives of bob and Ben. They are two worlds apart. The point I was trying to drive home is that it is our life style that decides how much time we have for each thing. The way we live and what we do decides how we spend our time and how much time we have to spend. We choose our life styles and that decides what we do with our time and that is why I said that we live in our own Time cages. (Psst I do not think there are many Bobs alive in the world today.)
So what kind of life do you live. We, that is most of us live in a world of aero planes, and jets, and fast cars and supercomputers and elevators and escalators, and electric trains and a thousand more contraptions and machines that are all intended to save time and do things faster.
Yeah, yeah we talk about convenience, but the fact is that all these machines were the result of man endeavor to get things done faster. And the result is that life moves so fast that we could get dizzy if we were to take a minute break and just look around at all the people whizzing around in the daily business called life.
Twenty four hours is hardly enough for us to finish a days work. And so what most working people do is that they start compromising on the other seemingly not so important thing like eating and getting eight hours sleep in the night. And so we have such a large number of people suffering from stress related diseases like ulcers, high blood pressure and heart problems.
From this story we see that Bob lives in a place where things move a bit slower than Ben who lives in a rushing city. But both of them has the similarity, they have the time they need to cope with.
Have you ever feel that it is not that easy to be more organized person. Sometimes we come out with the fact that the things are not as they have to be. Below are some hints to be come a more organized person.
1. Accept the fact that we cannot rely too much on our memories.
The human mind is exposed to a hurricane of information every day. As a result the mind does a very nice filtering process and very little of what we see and hear is retained in our minds. So instead of depending on our very selective memory why not depend on a piece of paper.
2. Carry a tiny scribbling pad and a pen with you all the time.
The moment you fix an appointment or are asked to attend a meeting, jot it down in the scribbling pad. Do not bother about others laughing at you. You will have the last laugh in the end.
3. It is a good idea to write it down orders in your book.
Each time you tell somebody to do something or when somebody like your boss asks you to do something write it down in your book along with the date and the time. Do not be afraid of being thought about as a person with a very poor memory. It wont be long before people start thinking of you as a highly organized person.
4. If you have an electronic pocket organizer be sure to use it.
Each time someone gives you his or her telephone number, immediately enter it into your pocket organizer, along with the person name of course.
5. Use the backside of business cards to help your memory.
Usually we get a lot of business cards as we go about our daily business of life. The business card of course contains the name of the person, his or her telephone number and probably the name of the firm for which the person works. But the problem is, the next time we meet the person, the face may seem familiar but we wont have the foggiest idea as to where we met the person. The best thing to do would be to jot down a few points about the person and probably the reason for meeting him or her and the place as well. This will certainly lessen the load on your memory centre. But take never to do it in front of the person.
6. Keep away the business cards properly
As soon as you get back to your office take care to keep away the business cards you collected properly.
Dont just stuff them into your card folder. Take care to read them properly and perhaps keep the cards of important clients separately. If you do not find much use for a person card, toss it.
7. Prepare a to-do list everyday.
I cannot over emphasize the importance of to-do lists in getting yourself organized. It is probably the most sensible thing that a busy person should do. In fact I thought of devoting an entire chapter for to-do lists and I think that is just what I will do.
8. Plan what you have to do well in advance.
It is a good idea to have daily, weekly and monthly plans. No this is not about expanding your business and things like that. I am not referring to a strategy plan that involves takeovers and mergers. Those things are beyond the scope of this book. I was referring to having plans about the daily, weekly and monthly activities of your business and yourself as well.
9. Have a fixed timetable.
It may seem kind of mechanical but it would be wonderful if you could have a fixed time for everything and try to stick religiously to the time table. Believe me it really helps because in that way you will have time for everything and everything can be done in the time for it.
And so you are now moving towards becoming a more organized person. But there are still miles to go before mastering the art of time management. And that brings us to our next chapter.
With the above articles, we know that we can be a more organized person if we want to have some effort.
