Improvement Project
Time-Management
Time management skills are critical to quality life as it helps an individual to organize his activities and to be able to cover more within a limited time. It also helps by minimizing time wasting on one activity or on unimportant activities. This paper, therefore, presents a time management improvement project on how I spend my time before work and after work.
Ownership and Roles
I am the main stakeholder deciding on how I use the time before work and after work on each working day. I work as a social media manager and a photographer and my work requires flexibility and proper time management. Nevertheless, there are other stakeholders who have an effect on the activities I indulge in during the morning before going to work and in the evening such as my parents, my facilitators since I have registered for online classes on business management, my clients and my younger sister.
- Myself
I am the main stakeholder who controls how my time since photography is self-employment and social media management is a flexible job that I can handle from anywhere provided I have my phone or laptop and an internet connection. This means not only I have direct control of how I spend my morning and evening hours but also have direct control of how I spend my days. I also have control on whether and when I complete my online class assignments and any work over-flow during the early morning, during daytime or after work. I can also make the decision to spend the entire day resting. Nevertheless, Noe et al (2017) state that proper management of time can allow an individual to make the most of every moment and to capitalize on every minute towards the realization of set goals and objectives. One of the ways through which I manage my time is by setting everyday goals and objectives that I strive to achieve before the day ends. I also pre-plan when to complete my assignments before-hand and strive to abide by that plan.
I value social interactions and maintaining healthy relationships with the people around me. I therefore also plan my time to permit social interactions and outings with friends and family during evening hours after work. After work hours can nonetheless also provide time for evening outs and date nights with my partner. Through planning morning and evening timetable a day prior, I can effectively and productively spend these hours.
- My Instructor
My instructor has an effect on how I spend my time since I have to slot in time to attend online classes and to work on the given assignments. The two jobs that I engage with allow flexibility and therefore I plan when to do my assignment during any time of the day.
- My Clients
My clients have a profound impact on how I spend my time throughout including both weekdays and weekends. In order to facilitate efficient client management, I only accept photography reservations that are made three days prior to the shooting day to allow effective planning and management of work and the other activities that I undertake. My social media management clients also take time. My duties as a social media manager include marketing client products through my social media pages to the many followers that I have. As such, if I get work overload during the day then I have to work at night to ensure my clients are satisfied. Work activities that I commonly do at night include photo editing and social media management at night.
- My Parents
My parents also have an effect on how I spend my morning hours before job and evening after work hours, especially evening hours. This is since my parents occasionally send me out to run errands for them or to go shopping for household items. I live with my parents and my younger sister and I am the most likely to be sent to stores during the evening.
- My Sister
My sister also consumers some of my evenings after work time since I occasionally assist her with problem areas in her studies. I also occasionally take her out for walks in the parks and across the city. I am the only elder sibling and she looks up to me, I, therefore, spend considerable time with her every day.
Figure 1 below is a stakeholder map that illustrates how these relationships are further inter-related and needed to support time management.
Figure 1. The relation between Time Management stakeholders
Stakeholders Process Boundaries
The definition of the process boundaries will begin with the stakeholders who affect how I manage my time and proceed through to how I harmonize or balance every activity I undertake. The other processes rules and boundaries that are key effective time management;
- To ensure that I manage my time effectively and achieve a balance between my two jobs, my part-time online education and social interactions including time with, family, friends and loved ones.
- Planning ahead plays a critical role in facilitating effective time management (Qureshi, Pathan & Khuwaja, 2016). I plan my studies and my work before the actual day begins. I have a timetable for all my classes and online discussion forums. I only take photography bookings that are made 3 days before the shoot day to allow me to plan ahead.
- Planning also entails prioritizing wisely and ruthlessly (Kirillov et al., 2015). To ensure I make the most of my time, I prioritize and give first priority to the more immediate and valuable activities before others. For instance, when making my time management plan, I start by filling in the class time first before scheduling photography clients. Social media management I can conduct from anywhere. My free time I spend helping my parents, tutoring my sister and engaging in other social interactions.
- I have previously faced the challenge of time wastage. In a bid to solve this, I evaluate how I spend my time and set time management milestones. Qureshi et al (2016) suggest that using time management tools can also assist in managing time to avoid wastage.
- The other challenge that I face is distractions. Saying no to destructions is sometimes challenging. Nonetheless, I have started to start to solve this by reducing the time I spend hanging out with people who do not add value to my life and spending more time doing constructive things.
- To help manage the time I spend running errands for parents and helping my small sister, I either provide my parents with my daily time management plan or inform them of when I’ll be free to avoid conflict of interests.
Map Process
The processes involved in my time management is visually represented in Figure 2 below.
This process map highlights the various processes responsible for time management a bid to achieve a balance of the activities I indulge in. Any recommendations for improvements to this process will be explored in other project management endeavors outside this one.
Figure 2. SIPOC Diagram for Time Management
As showcased in the SIPOC diagram above, one of the key metrics that will be used to define this process is the time covered by online classes and the number of photography clients per day or the traffic flow of photography clients. Some days may have many clients while others may have more allowing more time for other activities. The other metric is the amount of social media management workload per day. These metrics will be used to measure current process performance and later evaluate mechanisms through which time management can be improved towards the effective realization of objectives.
Additional metrics for this process include:
- Availability and number of errands to run: More errands means less free time for social interactions.
- Prioritization of social interactions: I spend more time with more important and close people and family than with acquaintances.
References
Kirillov, A. V., Tanatova, D. K., Vinichenko, M. V., & Makushkin, S. A. (2015). Theory and practice of time-management in education. Asian Social Science, 11(19), 193.
Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2017). Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Qureshi, A., Pathan, S. K., & Khuwaja, P. (2016). An Investigation of the Impact of Time Management on Personal Life and Study of Students. A Case Study of Institute of Business Administration (IBA), University of Sindh. International Research Journal of Arts & Humanities (IRJAH), 44(44).