 We are talking today about stress and time management, but as we go forward if we have any I would want this Session to be as interactive as it possibly can be so if you have questions you would like to contribute with ideas Please feel free to do so So coming to what we're talking about today Our talk is the time the topic that was given to me was on stress and time management And if you really look at it today I think today is one of the very pertinent or important days for us to be stopping and discussing about stress The reason for that is that today is actually the world heart day and we have a number of places today Where there is a lot of dog going on about how we can fight heart diseases and what is it cause that we find that? There are the rising incidences of heart attacks and heart failures and people of very young ages also and The main reason that we have been able to find or the main reason that we've been able to identify Has been the fact that a lot of individuals today Experience or go through life experiencing very high levels of stress And we don't have any way by which we can actually relax ourselves. We can really calm ourselves down and constant Experiencing of pressure or stress of any kind actually results in various kinds of problems So what we are talking about today is first we will try and understand or define What do we really mean or understand by the concept of stress if you look at Webster's dictionary? It has very simply actually understood stress as anxiety strain or tension that is caused by a new situation or an outside force so it's That's the most common or the most Simple definition that we can really define it as it consists of a number of negative or uncomfortable Emotions and experiences that we actually undergo which could be because of some kind of a difficult Environment that you may be in because of a certain change in the outside environment It could be a very new situation that you are interacting with and don't know how to deal with or it could also be people and other Individuals that you are experiencing or dealing with in the outside environment When we look at this definition We can see that a number of aspects that we can actually draw out of it are regarding stress And the first one being the fact that it is an everyday event a lot of us go through life at times Experiencing or thinking that we aren't stressed out We don't really experience stressful events on a regular basis But the fact is that stress is not something that you deal with only once in a while when you are in a catastrophic Experience or a catastrophic event or when you've gone through some kind of a major tragedy in your life But it is something that we all experience on a regular everyday basis And it could be there even in the smallest train ride that you may be taking to get to your workplace Or the smallest journey that you may have to do or a simple argument in the workplace All these different experiences all of them actually could be reasons that cause stress or make us experience stress So it is not really a something which is once in a lifetime occurrence But it is something which is regular which is there as part of our regular everyday lives The second aspect is that it lies in the eyes of the beholder It basically means that we have all of us have our own different perceptions of different situations What is stressful for me may not be very stressful another person and what is stressful for another individual may not mean the same thing to me So for each one of us a stressful situation is what I actually land up perceiving or what I Understand as stressful for myself Not what other people may experience it yes to a large extent a lot of different people Go through life Experiencing different kinds of things which may similarly be stressful for example if you have an argument in the workplace It would be stressful for a lot of us not just one or two individuals But some of us may be more affected by it some of us may not be so affected by it So it basically when the boy will be trying to understand stress from our own perspectives It finally lies on how you are actually perceiving the situation The next aspect is that it could also be something which is self-imposed Basically that is we land up having a lot of expectations of ourselves in life We actually consider or we want to achieve certain kinds of things in a certain time Time span in our lives We have a number of ambitions of ourselves all of these if they are Unrealistic if they're not really founded in realistic time frame that we may have or realistic abilities that we actually have then our Expectations will be disappointed and unrealistic expectations when they are disappointed result in the individual being stressed out and upset with themselves and finally it is embedded in the environment We can see the amount of technology around us and we know that when we deal with so much technology And it's constantly changing keeping ourselves updated with the new kind of technology All of that can actually be a very stressful experience. So stress is something which is there part of our environment You travel all of us traveling a lot of for example in big cities We live in crowded Localities or we have to go shopping in places where the market can be very crowded or traveling for work spending hours doing various kinds of Commuting all these reasons are part of our environmental constraints and these environmental constraints again are very responsible for creating stress in individuals So what are the different kinds of stressors? Psychologists and researchers have tried to understand what do we mean? How can we actually categorize stressors the first one that we're talking about is the stressors of Frustration, but this is basically and we can understand is that when my Desire to achieve a certain goal or a certain want that I have and I want to fulfill it if that is Thwarted in the environment if I'm not able to achieve or get what I wanted to get in the job scenario I wanted to get a promotion and I find that I don't get it but someone else who's working with me gets that promotion So my own want or desire or goal that I had in mind for myself is Frustrated over here and that could be one of the reasons why people experience stress So one of the most common aspects what we're talking of over here is that researchers have actually therefore categorized stressors Either in terms of of frustration where your goals have not been met or you've been not been allowed to make take care of your desires The second aspect is your conflicts and the third aspect is the change All these three are different kinds of experiences that we have or situations can be categorized in and cause stress to the Individual the second one that we're talking about which is conflicts a number of times We I may desire a certain goal, but may not have the time frame to take care of those desires So the competition that my own wishes have with each other that could be some kind of conflict that I face within myself I may want to do a number of things in the same time period I may want to come here for a talk today as well as go for another interaction session at another place Not being able to resolve this conflict with my own wishes is something which could be a stressful experience for the individual Also at times when we live within the family scenario We may find that different people who are in close relationships of different people have different desires or different wants and Those different wants conflict with each other again That could be a cause for causing conflict and Trustration within the family the final we're talking about is the change aspect Whenever we undergo any kind of a change in the environment that we are in even positive change can at times be a cause for stress for individual So even if you moved into a bigger house from your older house that positive experience You may be very happy about being able to shift in you may be very excited about being getting a place that you really like However, despite it being a positive experience It can be a cause for stress for the individual because your routine may have to be Readjusted you may have to go there and find someone to come and work in the house to take care of the daily Chores all those different kinds of demands that would come in with that new change or new situation that you are moving in that would again Be a cause for stress for the individual So we have three different kinds of aspects here We have frustration we have conflicts and we have change and most of the situations that we experience in life Can be related or put down or categorized in these three aspects which could be the causes of stress that individuals experience How do we respond or how does an individual actually respond when they experience a stressful situation our first reaction by and large is of negative emotions Emotions of anger annoyance a prehension anxiety worry Annoyance at people around you all these are the negative emotions that are immediately experienced when I am facing a Stressful situation so it is that the negative emotions are the primary reactions that individuals have Emotionally when they are faced with any situation whether it's a frustration. I wanted a promotion. I did not get that promotion I am very upset. I feel very disappointed at the same time I'm very angry with the colleague who may have beaten me to the promotion So all these are actually my reactions of negative emotions to the situation and the people who may be causing that Stressful experience. We also have instances where individuals actually experience positive emotions now It is not something that many individuals would be able to identify or Say that they are or realize that they've actually experienced a positive emotion when they dealt with the difficult situation however, when we look at any difficult or new situation as a challenge and the Excitement or the enthusiasm or the courage the individual feels within themselves to actually deal with that new challenge Those would be the positive emotions that would be there within the within the person as a response to stressors These positive emotions would also play a very important role when we talk about later on on being able to deal with or Handle stressors better in life or being able to adjust with difficult situations better in life The next aspect that we have when we're talking about reactions of stressors is the aspect of physiological reactions These physiological reactions can be understood in two different aspects the first one being the flight or the fight syndrome These are basically those physiological reactions within the body when a person is experiencing a stressful situation Increase in the heartbeat increase in the pulse rate the increase in the blood supply of To the extremities of the body increase in the adrenaline which is pumped into the bloodstream All these are our physiological reactions to stress and what these two in terms of the flight or the fight syndrome is they Basically help us to actually either stand there or fight it out on the challenge that we are facing or they are responsible for helping the person Escape from that kind of a difficult situation The next aspect is our general adaptive Adaptation syndrome which was given by Celia in 1974. I'll show us a diagram over here for it Okay, what we have over here is the general adaptation syndrome that we're talking about This is again a part of the physiological reactions that the body experiences and we're basically trying to understand it in terms of the time Frame or the time span in which we experience a stressful situation And we have the resistance that the body has actually to the stressors What we see is that the initial part when we for the first time come in contact with a stressful situation We find that the immediate resistance of the body may actually go down for a little while How which is the alarm reaction of the alarm phase in which the individual is that's the first instance I've been faced with a difficult situation as That goes as I had the time passes and I have a little more experience for that situation The individual starts recuperating and then comes back bounces back and the resistance actually increases This is the point where some of the positive emotions also help you deal with it When you look at the stressful situation as a challenge that you need to overcome it again Helps you encourages you to deal with it better and the individual's resistance to that Will actually go up or become better from where it had dipped over here and that is the stage of resistance However, what we find is that if the individual's body is actually constantly played with stressors for a very long period of time This stage of resistance also has a limit to which your body can actually take it And after that the reaction actually starts deteriorating and we come to the stage of exhaustion Where the body now starts losing its resources or losing its ability to actually fight or deal with the stressful situation And this is the point where people actually start developing various kinds of heart diseases or they start developing various kinds of Peptic ulcers all those kind of reactions that are there in the body are basically reactions that the body has at the stage of Exhaustion then all our resources all this physiological reactions that we had actually whichever useful for helping us deal with the stressful situation After a period of time do start taking its toll on the body of the individual do start taking a toll in terms of what the Strength that the body actually has and it starts negatively impacting it So the general adaptation syndrome that was given by Sally actually said that yes stress is useful But to only a certain amount that we can actually use it after that point once we reach the stage of exhaustion in most Individuals a continuous experience or exposure to stress actually starts depleting their general health Okay, we come to the next aspect of constructive coping which is the ability to recognize as stressors and develop stress control techniques Which are in enriching for our lives now the important aspect when we talk about stress is that we need to if you want to Overcome stress or you want to deal with stress better? It is first very important for us to understand what are the different situations that actually cause stress to me I have to identify what they are for me and again within different situations I would have different intensities at which I would actually experience stress So I need to understand or define that for myself. What is it that causes me more stress? And what is it that causes me is less stress once I've been able to identify those different situations I've developed my own techniques which are going to control that stress Which would help me cope with that situation a little better and these which are actually helpful or which are healthy for an individual both Physiologically as well as psychologically and not by using ways which may actually hamper my health So the first step that we have over here is we may confront problems directly It is task relevant and action oriented the first approach is very direct and discusses a little more going forward This is an approach where we actually understand or we look at what the problem is that is causing stress to an individual and the person Tries to overcome that situation or tries to The understand that what are the changes at my behavior? I need to undergo either in my behavior or learn a few more skills to deal with it So it's a task relevant the task that is at hand which is causing problems to me How am I to overcome those problems and it is an action oriented approach? It is not an approach where the individual sits back and lets the environment do what it is doing and keeps on experiencing stress It is not a situation where you emotionally get exhausted and drained and just let things be as they are But the person actually does something acts on it takes control over their lives and brings about a change in dealing with that stressful situation The second is the aspect when coping is based on reasonably realistic Appraisals of one's stress and coping resources. We need to when we're talking about healthy coping We need to understand our own limitations and we need to understand the our own abilities and have a realistic estimate of these It is it doesn't help if we have any kind of unrealistic Expectations of ourselves. So we need to really do a rethink. We need to see what are our abilities How can I deal with certain aspects and what are the reasons that I am what aspects? I cannot deal with if for example I I'm I get very stressed out if by going in for public speaking sessions then I need to understand what are my abilities What am I drawbacks? What is it that causes stress to me? I try and overcome those if I can't overcome some of those problems then I actually get a realistic Perception or realistic realization that I would go in for those instances or experiences Which I can deal with and not go for those experiences or situations where I can avoid public speaking So I may I need to do that realistic appraisal and then develop coping resources Based on that realistic appraisal The third is the aspect of learning to realize and manage disruptive emotional reactions We all experience emotions. We already discussed a lot about negative emotions at a person experiences when we have Neuricative emotions, they do not give us the positivity or do not give us the focus as to how we can actually deal with the situation So I should understand I should realize what are the negative emotions that I experience and a number of times we actually experience situations in Whenever we experience a stressful situation We if we call it the antecedent we become stressed according to the emotional part of it because we see the Consequences as what is going to happen immediately that is if I am in a difficult situation I immediately understand that it is the this difficult situation implies that I'm not going to be able to successfully handle it I will not be able to deal with it effectively and so those consequences mean that I experience a lot of stress if I Actually break this down and that is why this is my antecedent here and this is my consequence over here If I actually break it down and which is what we do when I was talking about the rational emotive therapy that my friend If you have a situation it is not the situation that we actually see as causing the stress But this it is our own perception of the consequences of that situation So if we are actually able to bring in the behavior part of it that here is a challenging situation Which requires that I learn to deal with it or I need to develop a certain extra skill Or I can change my behavior in a certain way and deal with that situation then it Automatically does not translate into the consequences that I am perceiving it to do. We have a stressful situation There as faculty there is a difference of opinion opinion between individuals. I Shared a certain view I said I want a certain course taught in a certain way and somebody else came up and gave me a different perspective That difference of opinions that is the situation that I have over here and the consequence of that difference of opinion for me becomes I am very stressed out. I get very upset. I'm very angry that someone actually did not agree with my opinion Now these are my emotional negative emotional reactions to a situation Which can actually be understood in a slightly different way even if I have a difference of opinion over here But I can understand and see what the other person's Perspective is or I could actually see or try and explain my perspective to them or try and see that Rational or the relevance of what their perspective is and maybe change my perspective what they are asking me So it automatically does not bring me to those negative emotions or the negative consequences And that is what we talk about when we need to understand what are our negative emotions that we experience and how we can actually Manage them better. Okay, so we have to learn to realize and manage disruptive emotional reactions If you talk about there is another concept called the emotional intelligence Which I'm sure a lot of us must have heard about It's a concept which basically talks about being aware of what your own emotions are First being realistic and understanding our emotions to ourselves and then being able to manage them and managing emotions Does not really mean always curbing them or not really expressing them but expressing them in socially acceptable ways and again What we find with emotional intelligence is that if a person actually is able to express their displeasure or a slight Negative emotion that they may be experiencing then they are they do not actually reach that acute emotional anger or acute emotional Negative emotional states because by being able to express those emotions when they're not so intense in socially acceptable ways We actually are able to protect ourselves from reaching very extreme negative emotions Which have various other physiological impacts as well And finally we also learn to exert control over potentially harmful or destructive habitual behaviors This basically talks about the aspect of a lot of people get addicted to smoking get addicted to alcohol to drugs or taking various kinds of calming medicines to calm themselves down every time they experience stressful situations all these Various chemical reactions or chemical substances that we may be using do have some kind of a physiological Impact on our bodies and therefore it is very very harmful to use them and to use them over a period of time Therefore, it is important that if we are addicted to some of these habits We need to realize what are the stresses that actually result in a person resorting to those habits and Thereby try and overcome or try and get rid of these kind of destructive habits The next we have is we spoke about the problem-solving approach and the steps that we could use to manage stress Is to look at the problem head-on see what is it that actually causes stress to you what Results in anxiety and once we are able to look at the problem head-on We would be able to find out solutions for it So the first aspect is that for us to tackle the problem head-on is that we clarify the problem Understand is it my difference of opinion with my colleague which is causing stress to me? Is it my desire to only have my way which is causing stress to me? I need to identify exactly what is it in that situation that causes stress to the individual once I know the exact specific Problem it becomes very easy for the individual to then generate alternate courses of action by which they could actually Resolve it so the first step is clarifying and identifying what your problem is and again What your perception on that problem is is what is important the number of times in difficult situations We look at other people to tell us what the problem is What they may be interpreting out of the situation may not be exactly what is causing stress to you? So it is very very important for each one of us to understand and clarify our own stresses to ourselves The next step is we generate the alternate courses of action So we try and see that if this is the problem what are the different ways by which I can resolve this problem What are the different alternate courses of action that I can take and in that while I'm generating alternate courses of action? It is important not to really get into the evaluation part of it just brainstorm and come up with as many different ideas as many Different kinds or even if they are in the beginning sound a little crazy to the individual It's good to come up with as many ideas as possible You can evaluate your options later on but it's good to generate as many alternatives It gives us also the realization and confidence that there are so many different ways by which you could resolve it Then the problem does not remain so big or it loses its magnitude for us So the next is once you've generated as many options as possible we evaluate our options see the input each of those options may be requiring in some it may require a certain kind of extra task work that I may need to do in some it may require that I Let go of certain wishes that I want to fulfill So each of those options that I may have generated to solve the problem would have certain cost and would have Certain work that it may require me to do so I evaluate all these options and see which one of those Am I able to do which one of those would I like to do? Okay? How do we resolve resistance in the workplace any ideas? The first thing okay, I'll try guess at it and then I hope some of the others can also join in the first aspect That we have when we talk about resistance in the workplaces I need to then try and understand that if I have a colleague of mine who's resisting an idea of mine Why is that person resisting it? It it does happen and I think it's natural human tendency But if I have shared an idea my perception somewhere again as I said our expectations that we set about situations Also becomes and I don't want the other person to actually question my idea So if I just let go of it and I start or do a Rethink with them that okay, this was my idea. What is your resistance to this idea? What are your inputs about it? Why do you not actually agree with this? We may be able to find that one either the person may have some valid input to give you which you could in use to enhance your idea Or to it could actually give you more ways to actually express your idea a little better and get them to actually accept it Okay, the next is Seeking help that's the other aspect that we are all very hesitant about It's a good way to manage our stressors if I don't know something if I'm unable to do something in a certain time span There is no harm in actually going out and seeking help and taking information from others people who may be better skilled in the workplace And this may again be a way of actually getting those over demanding people onto your site You go to them you seek help from them and since they are getting away by which they also have a share in the work Okay, you can get their buy-in more easily and you would be able to help me It would help destress you because you would have some Experience or you would have someone else also assisting in who knows this Skills knows the certain a kind of expertise so that becomes a de-stressor for ourselves So being able to seek out help from other individuals when you need it is something which is a big And a lot of coping studies have actually found that those people who have support mechanisms either in family or in friends Are by-and-large able to deal with stressors much more effectively versus individuals who don't have the support mechanisms So always try and develop a support mechanism around yourselves and the next is using time more effectively But since we'll do time management more details, so we'll come to that later Another idea that we do have and I think this is something that we could use with our students quite a lot is Gradually inoculating yourself to the kind of stress you're likely to encounter the concept that we are taking over here Is for example little children we inoculate them for various diseases where they're given an injection the antibodies are introduced in the body and the body automatically fights its own finds its own resistance mechanism to deal with those diseases and the child is Inoculated for the rest of their lives now similarly when we talk about stressful situations Once I know that there is a certain situation which is very stressful for me I can I'm not comfortable going and facing it as it is I may actually start by dealing with similar or simulated situations that cause stress to me and Gradually get myself over to the level where that situation does not cause stress to me So taking an example for students that we were talking about if I have students who are Uncomfortable speaking in front of a big group or Uncomfortable speaking in front of a big class what I could do is I first get the student to do smaller Activities where they just have to do it with one other student by doing that They are learning to speak up in front of at least one more person It is not the identical situation which is face talking in front of a group But it is a situation where the person is exposed to actually starting to speak up and it gradually once they get Comfortable with that I next move on to the level where they actually can talk in a smaller group of five or six Students where they have a learning task assigned to them and they work together on that Gradually as they get comfortable with that task I may then move on the student to bring them to the level where they can actually come and talk in front of the class or Talk in front of a bigger group of people So what it involves is we give exposure to deal with realistic simulated situations prior to real situation and Enables once one person to deal with the actual stress is better This is an idea which is by enlargement taken from the army which actually creates Simulated battle situations for people so that they get an idea or an act experience of actually what it is to be in the On the battle front and then they are there in this kind of difficult situation They are not so stressed out if they were dealing with it for the first time So they're given exposure to it they learn to deal with simulated situations And then when they finally go in front of the real actual situation It is not so it's stress causing for them because they've been inoculated to those stressors The next we're talking about is relaxation techniques which we could use when we talk about experiencing very negative emotions How do I if I can't rationally rethink or cognitively understand the situation better than so a good way is to first calm Your cells down to relax ourselves And this is something that whenever in the workplace you experience a stressful situation A person can practice wherever you are the first step And it would be that you sit quietly in a comfortable position if you all want You can actually do this right now as comfortable as our bodies can be feet on the ground Not sitting stiffly tense anything like that. You can close your eyes Then deep and deep and relax all your muscles. So just relax Just let go let your muscles be loose. Don't hold them safe Don't hold them in a control position and breathe through your nose again Researchers I found and I'm sure a lot of you watch TV and see all these yoga programs I'm not an expert in it, but they again talk about that by and large scientific research has found that when we breathe deeply and through Our nose they are certain points in our brains over here Which actually get relaxed and the person if they are experiencing stress deep breathing actually helps the person calm down So it's important that you relax sit back comfortably close your eyes and just breathe as deeply as you can and Become aware of your breathing. So when you breathe out say one to yourself quietly You could say one you could say home whatever your person is again comfortable doing But focus only on your breathing filter out any other thoughts that come to you You may have just had an argument with the colleague of yours. Just block those thoughts out Don't let them keep coming back into your mind Stop all those thoughts focus only on your breathing and by that by focusing on breathing We will be able to filter out any kind of negative or unpleasant thoughts Continue doing this for 10 to 20 minutes and keep a passive attitude. Don't let any aggression come in I if it's been a bad argument every two seconds the thought will again get back How dare he say this to me how dare they do this to me don't let that come up Just push it aside control your mind control your thoughts and keep focusing on breathing deeply and it is Definitely researchers say this that it's initially very difficult to develop a passive attitude But the more you practice it the better you would get at it and even 10 20 minutes of doing this Anywhere where you've had a stressful experience is something which will be very good and bringing down your negative emotions and will be helpful in actually You're getting your cognitive thoughts back being able to see the Situational in a more rational in a more objective manner and not with those negative emotions which bias our thought processes quite a lot Okay. Okay. The next aspect which we left behind we have to talk about time management also And we do find that in life a lot of times Why do people get stressed out is because they have a number of things to do They are overloaded with work They need to do a lot of things in a given time frame and that may be something that is causing the biggest stresses to all of us Now, how can we handle what are the three different approaches that we could have for managing time? The first is we stretch the hours of each work day if we stretch the number of hours of each work day You will be you have about eight hours to work. You may be working for 18 hours Ultimately, it takes a toll on our bodies. We are not able to keep up with it You don't get adequate time to sleep or eat or rest or exercise and therefore physically It is very very damaging for the body if we manage time in this way The second is we pack more in your work day That is you try and do as much as you can again something which is going to cause a lot of stress to the individual Because if you have too much to do and not adequate time to it You will either land up compromising on the quality which we will not be happy with and if you are if you still try and Struggle to do it It's going to be very very stressful for you because you're constantly running from one deadline to the other And the third approach that we have is do only the important work in the allotted time So it is something this is an action-oriented approach that we are going to deal with time management This is an approach where we actually focus on what is it that is important for me as an individual What is it that I need to get done and get the most important things who done first? So the first aspect in this action-oriented approach is decide where your priorities lie Decide get to know what what I have to do. What if I am a professor? What are my responsibilities and even within these responsibilities? Which are the more important ones which are the lesser important ones and get things done based on that ask questions Like what important activities or tasks would you wish to accomplish and Assigning your own values to tasks and actually completing them will allow you to feel less stressed and more satisfied And that is some one very very important thing I think also Gupta has spoken a little bit about the MBTI to all of you a number of Studies relating personality types to time management have actually found that certain individuals actually derive pleasure from being able to close or finish work So once I get my work done it is something which actually works as a calming influence on the individual So for those of us who experience a lot of stress with so many things to do Actually getting down to writing down a checklist and then ticking off things as we go about finishing them also can be a very calming influence Because it's we can see closure or finishing of things happening So the important keys that we have in managing time. We run a time log. We identify priorities every day We set realistic goals for ourselves use some system for planning established deadlines for yourself Organize your work plan meetings group similar tasks during uninterrupted time blocks and schedule some personal time every day So the first step that we have over here is running a time log and that helps you identify Where are you actually spending your maximum time? So a good way to run a time log is just sit down for a few days observe your behavior Write down all the activities that you may be doing in one day Right from whether you've been sharpening a pencil you've spoken to a friend received a phone call all those activities fill all those activities up in the time log and write the amount of time that you have taken for each and every activity even and try and ensure that in the whole day at least within 15 minutes You are updating your time log. It will be a time-consuming process in the big thing However, if the individual has been able to make your time log, it will show you very clearly What are the places where you're actually spending your maximum amount of time? How much time you actually have in your at the workplace and also what kind of Activities that you need to spend more time in and what kind of activities you can actually spend lesser time also maintain a log Recorded as you go along and updated every 15 minutes and at least five days is the ideal amount of time to let us know What are our habit patterns? Where do we spend maximum amount of time in the office? What do we do? What are the different activities we do? We need to get all these Information clearly and then eliminate and modify your pop three consumers time consumers and not deal with all the negative patterns at once When we make a time log you may find that there are a number of activities which get highlighted which come out in the open Which you can see in certain Those may be time consumers or things that you don't want to spend so much time on You will not be able to remove them from your daily activity right the next morning So good idea would be that first pick the two or three which are the most important time consumers You may want to start by reducing the time you spend on them and gradually remove them from your time log But don't try and do too many of them again at the same time because if you do it It is again going to cause a lot of stress to the individual So the time spent now is something that you're going to save later on So it is a good idea to give as much time as possible to making a proper time log The next aspect is we need to identify our priorities Which are the criteria used degree of interest in the task and how much fun it will be all these aspects about how do I really Identify what are my priorities? What is it that is the most interesting class a time maybe doing something that you enjoy doing something that is very Pleasurable for you that could be one criteria that you used to actually start out with the second aspect could also be the Importance and urgency for self and others sometimes certain tasks need to be done Right in the beginning of the day that it may be grading certain papers in a certain time span so that Marks can be given out. So all these aspects What are the most important things that are urgent for you or urgent for other people with whom you may be working in a Group or a team that could be one reason on based on which you decide the criteria and go over the list with questions Like does it contribute to my lifetime goals or my short-term goals? And by once we have all the tasks that we need to do and then we can actually question Each of those on this basis that this is important for me this fits in with these longer goals long-term goals that I have or Short-term goals that I have I can prioritize it better and I could use Alphabets or numbers again to help myself prioritize it The next is setting goals setting goals in life We cannot really be successful in anything if we don't have goals in our lives and even for us to learn to prioritize Our tasks we need to have some clarity on what are my lifetime goals? Am I happy being a teacher? Do I want to move from this job to something else? Do I want to do more research versus more teaching all these different things are basically part of your lifetime goals? And you need to know or be clearer about your goals only then can you prioritize on the tasks that you would have in any day or Any routine and see whether those tasks are actually fitting in with the goals that you have in mind and Try and align them as much as possible to each other and Goals should be specific again specificity It should be clear about what you want to do how you want to do it Not just a big goal of being successful that does not really get us anyway But successful doing what how where when those are the clerk we need to be more specific about it We need to be realistic in terms of something that you can achieve something that you can achieve Realistically in a certain time frame and also measurable. So can you see that if five years around the line? This is what I wanted to achieve have I been able to actually achieve it or not So all these goals the measurable part the Specificity the real stickness and the time frame are all very important Then planning and deadlines that we come to Generally, it is important after prioritizing our task We need to understand or develop a plan as to how we actually going to Fulfill those goals and get those tasks done and it has to it basically provides us a means to establish effective control So if I have a plan in place, I follow that plan I am able to effectively get the task done or get the work done So I need to have some kind of a control in my workplace I need to focus on having a plan for it and if the plans that I make should be logical Comprehensive action-oriented flexible focusing on the future. So it should be logical It should fit into the scheme of things It should actually ensure that the task that I have prioritized should get done the first in the plan that I have in mind It should be easily understandable and to be very action oriented So once I have made the plan the plan should be something that is working as a catalyst to help getting my work done Not leaving me this focus to unclear as to how am I really going to do things going forward in the future It should also have an element of flexibility in it So that just in case if you had a plan to do something right in the beginning But something else came up in the day and you have to push your important tasks to the later part of the day The plan should have certain amount of flexibility in terms of the tasks that you have identified for yourself How you may juggle them around if required and make things easier for yourself Most of us feel very very comfortable when we work for deadlines because if you don't have a deadline It never pushes us to completing things therefore if you don't have deadlines to a certain task from the environment around you Or from in your supervisors then a good idea is to actually create your own deadlines or Impose deadlines for yourself even self-imposed deadlines actually work in pushing us to performance and getting tasks done finally in time We need to organize ourselves also wherever we can dedicate the work to other people Wherever we can get other people to help in to incorporate them It is useful because it is not possible for any one of us to do all the things in our workplace at the same time Sometimes there are certain people who are better skilled in doing certain kinds of things There are certain individuals who can maybe you work on the Excel file better can work on a certain structure Of presentations a better versus other individuals So if you have certain people like that around you then learn to delegate the task It's not possible for any one of us to do all the tasks all the time So giving out and sharing with other individuals is a good way to get additional expertise in and at the same time Not overloading yourself with too much work all the time Planning for meetings is also very very critical We all experience meetings where things just get digressed and nothing reaches closure by the end of it You may if the meeting was planned for an hour after one hour you realize what you were sitting there for nothing really gets done So it is important that if we have meetings assigned or we plan to go for a meeting We should have the agenda very clearly stated out We should the person who's calling the meeting should ensure that you start and you end the meeting on time And don't let any digressions happen Okay, and the other reason that people may at times lose interest in meetings or whatever Activities because they're not encouraged to participate in the decision-making If they realize that there is a lot of participation and they do get an opportunity to play a role when decision-making has to be done We do find that people will try and get in there and given their contribution so it's good to encourage others to participate as well and Again for ourselves grouping similar tasks during the interrupted rhyme blocks What we can do is if we have similar kinds of tasks that we have to do a good idea is to actually Put those tasks together in a certain time block So if I am preparing for a certain course and then I need to grade assignments or that same course a good idea is to do all Those activities at the same time in an uninterrupted way because if I study something and then I go to some other Administrative work and then again come back and grade those assignments the amount of focus and energy that my mind would Require to get back into the same topic maybe much more So a good idea is again to manage time effectively. You're in the flow of things. You're already clear about those concepts It goes faster if you do it in the same time block So club those activities together and in those blocks that we keep for finishing a certain amount kind of work or a certain Set of work. It's good to actually try and avoid or keep your interruptions to the minimum Don't let people walk in or don't get students just walking and keep on asking you something focus Because as you keep on breaking your chain of thought while you're doing a specific kind of task It does it takes much longer to bring that focus back in and get the work done So try and keep your interruptions out as much as possible Or it could also be a good idea to find a place or an area where you don't have so many interruptions when you want To get a certain task or work done sit over there finish the work And then you can go back to your regular workplace also important that which is okay in the end But still very very relevant is we should schedule some amount of time for ourselves and for a personal time time in which you actually Unwind and relax and this is very critical because when we say that stress is all about Impacting us negatively it results in burnout it results in exhaustion It is important that we keep some amount of time for ourselves every day where we go back relax and Unwind ourselves it could be going back at home. It could be on the way while you're commuting back You listen to something that has makes you relaxed or you talk to someone whatever it may be for different individuals The relaxation techniques could be different or just sitting there as we discussed and breathing deeply and blocking all our thoughts out That we could be using but all these different techniques could be used to give ourselves that amount of time Where we reduce all our stressors or try and keep them out as much as possible and just relax and unwind ourselves and Yet maintain flexibility. Don't use schedules for rigidity This is another important part while we're talking about time management and using time as effectively as possible It is very important that we don't let that time table become something which is so rigid Which starts causing stress to the individual in return, but it should maintain flexibility for changes or Unknown events that may just come up in the environment all of a sudden so for all those different Dynamic changes we should keep a certain amount of flexibility But try and ensure that we stick to the schedule as much as possible Okay, and therefore we manage your stressors and time and thereby doing that we distress ourselves Okay, so we have an exercise over here where we all can fill this questionnaire up and see how good we are at time management So that time management IQ scores we can work out for ourselves We have a number of statements that we have to respond to each or with often sometimes or really and you can fill these responses up and For the response of often we give ourselves a score of three for a response of sometimes we give ourselves a score of two and Really we give ourselves a score of one and then we can add it up in these scores over here We can see how We would rate ourselves as time managers Okay, so 24 is There's room for improvement start from by analyzing weaknesses in your technique and work to eliminate them one by one You are the score of 25 Okay, keep up the good work, but apply your time saving techniques more consistently