Whether you want information, training or expert assistance you need to be able to discriminate between the various approaches to time management and select solutions that will work for you. Time management is not new but there are trends in its development as a field of management. On one analysis, each decade has spawned its own approaches that are characteristic of the age. Understanding the evolution of these approaches can assist you to recognise and evaluate the contemporary manifestations of each approach. Following is an overview of some different approaches.
Typical strategies are relatively close range and focus on the short term.
Advice and training covers areas such as delegation, dictation, filing systems, interruptions, mail, meetings, reminder systems, telephones and how to conduct a time and motion study of work activities. However, while minutes or even seconds can mean the difference between life and death or winning an Olympic gold, once you have reasonably sound work habits you are not going to solve your time problems by finding a few more seconds in the day. Typical strategies are more mid-range, medium term. For example seminar brochures exhort people to be results oriented not activity oriented, to set big hairy audacious goals then ruthlessly purse them, and to use your diary as a goal setting and performance management tool. They warn that if you are failing to plan you are planning to fail and that you cannot have career success if you are not effectively managing the resource of time.