James T. McCay structured the book in 4 Parts to help make The Management of Time easy to read with understandable language. The book presents practical methods for overcoming the time pressures of today and preparing us to easily handle the much greater time demands of the future.
Going Beyond Superficial Time-Saving Techniques
In The Management of Time, McCay goes beyond superficial time-saving techniques showing us the intimate relationship between time pressures and rate of personal growth. As he points out:
“If a man is chronically short of time he is probably being swamped by the growing challenges of his job.”
If you study and use McCay’s approach to time management and self-development the results will be twofold:
- you will find that the lurking presence of time pressures will vanish;
- you will experience the exhilaration of continuing growth and expanding personal effectiveness.
THE MANAGEMENT OF TIME is Structured in 4 Parts
McCay structured the book in 4 Parts to help make it easy to digest and begin to use the time managemnt tools that he was presenting.
- Part 1 – The Meaning of Time Pressures: Chapters 1, 2, 3
- Part 2 – Overcoming Time Pressures: Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
- Part 3 – Skills for Managing Time: Chapters 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
- Part 4 – Plan for Development: Chapters 19, 20, 21
Summaries of the 4 Parts
Let’s look at the Summaries of the 4 Parts.
Part 1 – The Meaning of Time Pressures: Chapters 1, 2, 3
The Meaning of Time Pressures outlines the challenge of change and the working principles you can use to meet it successfully.
- To achieve and hold a position of leadership in this age of innovation, man must spend part of every day and self development.
- Most managers today share a keen awareness that they haven’t time to do all that should be done.
- The tempo and complexity of business operations are on the increase.
- Increasing time pressures call for more than a gimmick solution. The answer to time pressures can only be found by re examining your basic working principles.
- The principle of overcoming time pressure is this: time is related to output – increase your output and you will have more time.
- The principle of increasing your output is this: output is related to refinement of technique – as you refine your techniques of self management you will increase your output.
- The feeling of being short of time is very often a symptom of accumulating obsolescence of your knowledge and skills.
Part 2 – Overcoming Time Pressures: Chapters 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11
Overcoming Time Pressures describes three bases for increasing your rate of growth and overcoming time pressures.
- You can increase your output as you increase your capacity to get accurate, clear and fast impressions of what is going on around you.
- To improve your mental picture making capacity you need to increase your alertness, increase your available energy, and increase the range of your knowledge and experience.
- To increase your alertness you must overcome your tendency towards being preoccupied. You’re lying
- You can gain more moments of alertness each day through changing your routines, practicing some skill daily and through cultivating interests centering on observation.
- And to eliminate criticism, defensiveness and other negative factors, it will build up your available energy.
- To save energy you must know where you’re losing it.
- You can create an ever more effective shield against energy losses as you increase the number of moments throughout the day you check on your activities at all levels.
- Remember that at best you can only get a fraction of the information about what is going on. Check to find out what other people see in order to improve the quality of your impressions.
- To increase the range and speed of your picture making you have to train your brain through exploring new ideas and sensory experiences.
- To keep control of your expanding knowledge and experience, give us some attention every day to increasing your skills.
- Use the creative power of sleep. The more demands you make on yourself, the more sleep you will need.
- Most of the opportunities for growth lie in the unfamiliar. Avoid judging the strange and give yourself an opportunity to growth or observation.
Part 3 – Skills for Managing Time: Chapters 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18
Skills for Managing Time offers you powerful verbal and non-verbal techniques and tools of time management that can accelerate the pace of your decisions and actions:
- When you can’t find an answer, stop, and save time by restating the problem.
- Talking is more than a matter of transmitting words; You speak with your whole Organism.
- Keep alert to the effects of distortion circularity and use your language with precision and delicacy.
- When speaking or listening, make sure you are in contact with the other person and you will increase your output and save your time.
- A lot of people to participate in the creation of your plans and ideas and they will learn to value them and care for them.
- To get understanding and agreement in less time, draw a diagram.
- Remember that one appropriate analogy is often worth 3 hours discussion.
- What is most important is not to be able to read rapidly, but to be able to decide what not to read.
Part 4 – Plan for Development: Chapters 19, 20, 21
Plan for Development brings together the previous concepts and methods in Part I, Part II, and Part III into a complete plan for time management.
- Fight preoccupation by changing your routines and expanding your interests.
- Conserve your energy by cutting down on criticism and defensiveness.
- Expand your capacity to see by exploring the world’s of ideas and sensations.
- Develop your skills through daily practice.
- Support your growing resources by helping others to grow.
Start Now
Start Now. McCay advised us to start now. Just plunge in to managing our time.
Tomorrow, you promise yourself, will be different.
Yet, tomorrow is too often a repetition of today.
Regardless of your formal education, experience, position or age it is never too late to start on the the adventure of managing your time.
Now is the time to act, gain time and grow.
The Management of Time
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The Management of Time
