(Ed’s note: Due to Atty. Domo-ong’s travel to the U.S., we have invited Deputy Director Benilda S. Allon to share with us her speech which was delivered at one of the BSP flag ceremonies.)
Time management may be referred to as the programming of activities within the allotted time to meet the desired objectives.
In any discussion on time management, a lot of things could be talked about but I'd like to focus on only two or perhaps three items –
OPTIMIZE. Time is a very precious resource that should not be wasted. Remember the saying TIME IS GOLD? [Time is] so precious that once lost, it is lost forever. Sometimes we feel we can never find time to do what we need and want to do. Then later blame ourselves for leaving the more important tasks. We can optimize time if we do the right things at the right time.
PRIORITIZE. A colleague at the BSP once remarked, “You will never finish your work, your work will finish you. Take time. Leave something for tomorrow.” He may be right. And if that is so, we need to do first things first. That often necessitates leaving some less important things undone for the next day. This is not putting off for tomorrow what can be done today; this is positively called prioritizing. It is not a case of laziness, but of setting priorities straight.
We at the DRB have our own color-coded routing slips. We use PINK, a subtle version of the harsh RED, to indicate rush assignments – rush not rust; YELLOW for the semi-rush work; and WHITE for the less important or routine jobs. Others would prefer it another way, perhaps they would implement the ABC priority system, where the most valued tasks are coded "A", those with medium value, "B" and so on. But, whatever is used, these are useful planning tools to manage time.
One last thing, "HASTE MAKES WASTE". Our tasks demand no less than our best. Doing things slowly but surely is a lot better than starting off great but leaving our tasks hanging. Let's do things systematically. Some may call this taking one step backward and two steps forward. But whatever we call it, we need to work systematically, one step at a time. We cannot do things all at the same time. After all, we are not machines; we are HUMANS.
TIME MANAGEMENT