Time Management for New Employees: Unlock the secrets of effective time management with strategies and tools designed to boost your productivity

There is a story about an army corps of engineers who went to clear a forest. As trained and disciplined as they were, they went about in an organized and efficient manner and cleared the area in a very short time. Naturally, they were quite proud of it, until they got word from the commanders—they had cleared the wrong forest!

Therefore, before we get all fired up and dig deep into the mechanics of time management, let's make sure that we are clearing the right forest.

Underlying every action is a purpose. Purpose drives time management decisions such as prioritization and delegation. It answers the "why" questions such as "Why is this task important?" or "Why should this task be done before that task?" Purpose should form the basis for goal setting.

Underlying purpose is value. Value, the moral compass and spark of integrity that illuminates every soul, ensures that your goals do not conflict with conscience and pragmatism.

In his book The 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life...

Research tells us that fewer than 3 percent of Americans have written goals, and less than 1 percent periodically review and restate their goals in response to changing conditions in their lives. What this means is that most people do not have clear directions or destinations in their lives. They go where the winds blow them with no say in the matter. They have no control over their destiny. Swami Vivekananda, the Indian mystic and philosopher, stated, "Take the whole responsibility on your own shoulders and know that you are the creator of your own destiny."

About 10 years ago, there was an article in the Fast Company magazine about the "1953 Yale Study of Goals." This study found that people who write down specific goals for their future are far more likely to be successful than those who have either unwritten goals or no specific goals at all.

Mark McCormack, author of What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School, wrote, "All successful people have goals, and outstanding high...

Peter Drucker, the great management guru of the 20th century, declared, "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." While the mere fact that we have created a plan does not automatically guarantee success, the absence of a plan makes success even more unlikely.

Imagine this: you decide to build an extension to your house. You rush to the lumberyard and hardware store, get a load of beams, sheets, and nails, and start assembling them together. Plans? Blueprints? Who needs them, right? Or would you begin with a plan, create a blueprint, get the necessary permits and approvals, determine the sequence of actions, procure the hardware needed for each stage, and proceed in a logical manner? The results will speak for the efficacy of either method.

Visions, goals, and objectives are intangible. Only results are tangible. Therefore, when we look retrospectively at something we have achieved, visions, goals, and objectives do not matter: only results matter.

How do we convert visions, goals...

As time management has been defined as activity management, that is, your time is managed when you have control over the activities and events in your life, the first step towards successful time management is to control the mix of events in your life. What this means is that you must evaluate each activity that comes your way and decide whether or not you allow it to occupy your time. In order to be objective and consistent in filtering activities, you must have a basis for your decision.

If you have a set of clearly stated goals for each facet of your life, you have the ability to test every activity that comes your way and see whether it leads you towards or away from the appropriate goal. Reject the activities that will not help you accomplish your goals.

A value system is a set of beliefs, behavior traits, and virtues that govern your thoughts, decisions, and actions. Create an internally consistent set of values and live by them.

When you create a set of goals, anchor each goal...