Strategies to Time Management
Strategy is a planning ahead to achieve a specific goal. Some of
us plan a time management scheme for one or two years, while
others plan five or ten years. In college, we were taught to
manage our time according to long-term and short-term goals. The
short-term goals are five years, so in this article we are going
with the college teachings that were provided to me. I
personally do not believe that anyone has the authority to plan,
since tomorrow has no guarantees, but stepping aside from my
beliefs, I noticed that when I do plan, organize and strive to
manage my time, I find life is easier. At the same time, I
watched as my plans fell apart at the seams, so today we are
going to plan a strategy and add a backup plan.
Backup Time Management Plan
Ok, we have the plan laid out, and we do not see any future
complications. We show up at work as usually and follow our list
we have written to instruct us which task is most important to
achieve first to reach our goals. Things are running smoothly!
In the next half hour, the boss runs up and tells everyone go
home, there is a horrible storm about the hit.
The next day you come to work and find the company in chaos.
What are you going to do? Do you have a backup plan? After you
lay out your plans to manage your time, your next step is to
layout a backup plan that supports your original strategic
planning. Today many companies store their important documents
on computers.
This is fine as long as you have the files labeled accordingly.
Some companies even back up their files to a storage medium,
either in another computer on site, or else on discs or tapes.
The tapes sometimes are stored in an off room on the premises.
Bad deal! When that building is hit by a fatal storm, causing
disaster what are the chances of those vital files surviving.
The key then to strategizing to manage time is to send those
documents to a storage medium off the premises and at least 50
to 100 miles away from the area. I studied backup, I do backup,
and I backup, and know that the importance of backup data is
VITAL to managing time. If you have a smaller company there are
disaster backup plans that can meet your needs, but be alert
that some of these disaster backup plans are 'low end' plans.
The programs are for those of us with a single or a couple of
computers, rather those large companies that often have a
mainframe computer as the central communicator. The source
provides a minimal source for storing checklists as well as
storing company information. But again, if you do not have your
data stored off the premises your backup time management plan is
in trouble. While there are many solutions or methods for
strategizing a time management scheme, no scheme is bullet proof
unless your plans are backed up!