Media and Society in Relation to Newspapers as a Form of News Media

STUDENT I. D: 383155 NAME: EFETURI EMAKPORE MODULE: MEDIA AND SOCIETY TOPIC: MEDIA AND SOCIETY WITH RELATION TO NEWSPAPERS AS A FORM OF NEWS MEDIA DATE: 10 DECEMBER 2009 INTRODUCTION In this research paper, I am going to talk broadly on my understanding, after doing all research, of media and its effect in the society with relation to newspapers as an important and integral form of news media in the society. I will give a brief but concise introduction of newspapers in general. I will talk about the importance of newspapers to the society and how over the years, it has enforced itself on the society and how it has achieved that. I will see whether theories such as the ‘Hypodermic Needle Model’ and ‘Public Sphere’ theories can be applied when focusing on newspapers. In addition, I will talk about Bignell, J (1997) and his views on ‘Media Semiotics’ concerning newspapers. In addition, to conclude this research paper, I will give a detailed explanation on what I believe should be the role of newspapers as a form of news media to the society. Whether they have achieved all that society expects from them, or, they are yet to attain that maximum point of satisfaction from the society. Lastly, I will talk about the depth in which newspapers are actually influencing the society and how they can help in changing the views of the masses thereby helping to shape up the society to becoming a more positive one. INTRODUCTION TO NEWSPAPERS A newspaper, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is said to be a ‘’printed publication, now usually issued daily or weekly, consisting of folded unstapled sheets and containing news, frequently with the addition of advertisements, photographs, articles, and correspondence; the organization or office issuing such a publication. ’ A wide variety of material has been published in newspapers, including editorial opinions, criticism, persuasion and op-eds; obituaries; entertainment features such as crosswords, Sudoku and horoscopes; weather news and forecasts; advice, gossip, food and other columns; critical reviews of movies, plays and restaurants; classified ads; display ads, editorial cartoons and comic strips. Newspapers are very essential to the society, over the past centuries; have been relayed to the society in different ways, and have been evolving ever since. In the beginning, the first newspapers were more like government announcement bulletins and authorised by Julius Caesar. This means they were probably fully controlled by the government. This was in Ancient Rome and were called ‘’_Acta Diuma’’, they were carved in metal or stone and posted in public areas. Moveable type newspapers came during the modern era, at the beginning of the 17th century. However, the first officially recognised newspaper is that of Lohan Carolus’ ‘’Relation aller Furnemmen und gedenckwurdigen Historien__’’_, published in 1605 in Strasbourg. By the early 19th century, many cities in Europe, as well as North and South America, published newspaper type publications and the contents were vastly shaped by different views such as regional and cultural preferences. In addition, advances in printing technology related to the Industrial Revolution, enabled newspapers to become an even more widely circulated means of communication. For example, in 1814, ‘The Times’ (London) acquired a printing press capable of making a thousand impressions per minute. In newspaper production, there are different categories of newspaper printed and published for reading. We have daily newspapers, which are issued every day sometimes with the exceptions of Sundays and national holidays. There are weekly newspapers and these tend to be smaller than daily papers and in some cases, there are some papers published twice or three times a week. Then we have national newspapers, which circulate nationwide. There is also a group of newspapers, which can be categorised as international newspapers. Some, such as The International Herald Tribune, have always had that focus, while others are repackaged national newspapers or â€Å"international editions† of national-scale or large metropolitan newspapers. Often these international editions are scaled down to remove articles that might not interest the wider range of readers. Lastly, with the introduction of the Internet, Web-based â€Å"newspapers† have started to be produced as online-only publications. Virtually all printed newspapers have online editions, which depending on the country may be regulated by journalism organizations such as the Press Complaints Commission in the UK. THEORIES INVOLVED IN NEWSPAPERS AS A FORM OF NEWS MEDIA THE HYPODERMIC NEEDLE MODEL This theory, also known as the hypodermic-syringe model, is a model of communication also usually referred to as the ‘’magic bullet’’ perspective or the ‘’transmission-belt’’ model. The essence of this model hols the fact that an intended message is directly received and wholly accepted by the receiver. However, this model is rooted in the 1930’s ‘_Behaviourism’_ created by the Frankfurt School in German and is now considered by many to be obsolete. The Hypodermic Needle theory implied that mass media had a direct, immediate, and powerful effect on their audiences. The mass media in the 1940s and 1950s were perceived as a powerful influence on behaviour change. Several factors contributed to this â€Å"strong effects† theory of communication, including: the fast rise and popularization of radio and television, the emergence of the persuasion industries, such as advertising and propaganda, the Payne Fund studies of the 1930s, which focused on the impact of motion pictures on children, and Hitler's monopolization of the mass media during WWII to unify the German public behind the Nazi party. This view of propaganda took root after World War I and was championed by theorists such as Harold Lasswell in his pioneering work Propaganda Technique in the World War (1927). He argued that the people had been duped and degraded by propaganda during the war. Lasswell based his work on a stimulus-response model rooted in learning theory. Focusing on mass effects, this approach viewed human responses to the media as uniform and immediate. E. D. Martin expressed this approach thus: â€Å"Propaganda offers ready-made opinions for the unthinking herd† (cited in Choukas, 1965, p. 5). The â€Å"Magic Bullet† or â€Å"Hypodermic Needle Theory† of direct influence effects was not as widely accepted by scholars as many books on mass communication indicate. The magic bullet theory was not based on empirical findings from research but rather on assumptions of the time about human nature. People were assumed to be â€Å"uniformly controlled by their biologically based â₠¬Ëœinstincts' and that they react more or less uniformly to whatever ‘stimuli' came along† (Lowery & DefFleur, 1995, p. 00). The phrasing â€Å"hypodermic needle† is meant to give a mental image of the direct, strategic, and planned infusion of a message into an individual. However, as research methodology became more highly developed, it became apparent that the media had selective influences on people. The most famous incident often cited as an example for the hypodermic needle model was the 1938 broadcast of The War of the Worlds and the subsequent reaction of widespread panic among its American mass audience. However, this incident actually sparked the research movement, led by Paul Lazarsfeld and Herta Herzog, which would disprove the magic bullet or hypodermic needle theory, as Hadley Cantril managed to show that reactions to the broadcast were, in fact, diverse, and were largely determined by situational and attitudinal attributes of the listeners. PUBLIC SPHERE THEORY The notion of the ‘public sphere' evolved during the Renaissance in Western Europe and the United States. This was brought on partially by merchants' need for accurate information about distant markets as well as by the growth of democracy and individual liberty and popular sovereignty. The public sphere was a place between private individuals and government authorities in which people could meet and have rational-critical debates about public matters. Discussions served as a counterweight to political authority and happened physically in face-to-face meetings in coffee houses and cafes and public squares as well as in the media in letters, books, drama, and art. Habermas saw a vibrant public sphere as a positive force keeping authorities within bounds lest their rulings be ridiculed. In Habermasian theory, the bourgeois public sphere was preceded by a literary public sphere whose favoured genres revealed the interiority of the self and emphasized an audience-oriented subjectivity. Today, in contrast, there is scant public debate, few public forums, and political discussion has degenerated from a fact-based rational-critical examination of public matters into a consumer commodity. There is the illusion of a public sphere, according to Habermas. Citizens have become consumers, investors, workers. Real news (information that helps free people stay free) is being elbowed out by advice, soft porn, catchy garbage, celebrity antics, and has become infotainment, that is, a commodity competing in a mass entertainment market. It matters less whether news is right or wrong, and matters more whether it is gripping. Habermas' sociological and philosophical work tries to explain how this transformation happened by examining a wide range of disciplines, including political theory, cultural criticism, ethics, gender studies, philosophy, sociology, istory, and media studies. The basic belief in public sphere theory is that political action is steered by the public sphere, and that the only legitimate governments are those that listen to the public sphere. Democratic governance rests on the capacity of and opportunity for citizens to engage in enlightened debate. Much of the debate over the public sphere involves what is the basic theoretic al structure of the public sphere, how information is deliberated in the public sphere, and what influence the public sphere has over society. ANALYSIS OF THE HYPODERMIC NEEDLE MODEL AND PUBLIC SPHERE THEORIES IN RELATION TO NEWSPAPERS Firstly, I would like to speak about the ‘Hypodermic Needle Model’’ before I go on to talk about the ‘Public Sphere’ theory. This theory can be linked with newspapers in concerning how it focuses on how news media influences the public in certain ways or directions and how it also has a direct, immediate, and powerful effect on the society. From what I have researched on the theory, it is clear to me that in earlier years, (the 1940’s to the 1950’s), newspapers were a huge influence on the society. This is emphasised in many different ways, which have been cited above. What was printed by newspapers in those times, whether positive or negative, was greatly accepted by the society. In fact, some theorists even claimed that people were being duped by the information being given in newspapers. Nowadays however, the society’s (though not everyone) views on information in newspapers are not wholly believed and in recent times, people have begun to question whether all written in the papers is a concentrated or a diluted version of the truth. Newspapers now have selective influences on people in the society as individuals have developed minds of their own especially since nowadays, newspapers are not so much controlled by the government as they used to be and some independent newspapers give their own opinions of certain events while others are still a little vague about passing judgment on same events. Now, I will move on to the public sphere theory. This theory can also be directly applied to newspapers. From my research, I have been able to see that once again, public sphere was taken more seriously in past decades than it is nowadays. In those periods, the public sphere was seen as an integral part of news media and controlled the excesses of the government as a good government was seen to be one that paid attention to what the public sphere had to contribute to society. Then, the public sphere had a great influence on the society. Articles were printed regularly in newspapers concerning public matters and were written with a rational and critical fashion. Nowadays however, the society has lost touch with what the public sphere was truly about and now give in to whatever ‘latest rumour’ is given out to them. The public sphere has been disregarded and has become a sort of illusion. (Habermas). There are hardly any honest public debates now, public forums have declined over the years, and sadly, political discussions have degenerated from a fact-based rational-critical examination of public matters into a consumer commodity. Now newspapers are competing against each other and now print only what they believe will sell and increase their customer range, rather than the important and crucial things that are going on in the society. THE SEMIOTIC ANALYSIS OF NEWSPAPERS In his book, ‘’_ Media Semiotics: An Introduction’,’_ Bignell (1997), discusses the ways in which semiotic analysis approaches newspaper as a medium. He considered the linguistic signs used in newspapers, the ionic and other visual signs in newspapers, and the relationship between linguistic signs and visual signs in newspapers. The medium of the newspaper is particularly interesting as signifiers are presented simultaneously thus offering a concrete display of signs which the reader can consume at his/her own pace and can also be re-read, as opposed to television or radio news which can only be watched or listened to at particular. A newspaper is not something that is just filled with facts, but it portrays news as representations produced in language and other signs like photographs. ‘’A semiotic analysis will therefore include discussions of the connotations of linguistic and visual signs used in news stories. ’ Bignell (1997:79) The process of selection is central to the production of all newspapers. This involves selecting events which are considered to be worthy of being printed as news, and excluding news which is considered to be irrelevant, insignificant or unworthy of news coverage. Thus news is a social construct dependent on what is deemed important by those who work in the â €˜news industry_’_ based on certain codes of behaviour, which have been learned by news workers in order to do their job. The codes of behaviour undoubtedly depend on the particular newspaper for which they are working. The reader comes to the newspaper with a set of codes with which to decode the text, and these codes may differ from individual to individual. This leads to the point that the text is open to a variety of interpretations depending on the ideological standpoint of the reader, and whether the reader is familiar with the newspaper and the codes which it employs to communicate the ‘news_’_ which it has selected. Connotations of the linguistic and visual signs that are presented by newspapers are central to the meaning of the news item to the reader. The connotations of the news item are perceived within a coded framework and there are recognisable codes within different newspapers. It is clear that different newspapers use particular narrative codes when representing the same item of news. The headlines are linguistic syntagms, which aim to attract the attention of the reader to the topic of the news story, and the linguistic signs that are employed in the headline suggest to the reader the appropriate codes that are needed to understand or decode the news item. It is clear that the newspapers use different linguistic codes as a means of representing the news item. For example, and in further discussion and differentiation, we are going to be focusing on three major newspapers in the UK- ‘_The Times’, ‘The Telegraph,’ _and ‘The Sun’. ‘_The Times__’_ and ‘_The Telegraph__’ are similar in their use of language. However, both differ dramatically with ‘The Sun__’_. It is clear that The Sun uses orally based vocabulary, and dramatic and sensational language. Another drastic difference between the newspapers representations of news items are the typographic devices used to break up the text. Again, ‘_The Sun__’_ differs dramatically to ‘_The Telegraph__’_ and ‘_The Times__’_ using bold text to start the article, serving to extend the role of the headline in attracting the attention of the reader to the topic of the news story. The use of bold and one word sub-headings which are employed throughout the text serve to direct the reader in making meaning of the text and make blatantly obvious the points which the newspaper deem to be of particular significance to the understanding of the news item. _The Telegraph__’_ and ‘_The Time’s_ do not employ the same typographic codes as ‘_The Sun__’_, apart from bold type which is used for the headline, and the bold type used to name the journalist/s of the article. The narrative of the news story uses the same type and size of font throughout the item. Arguably, this connotes authority and formality to the reader, which is also demonstrated by the fairly long se ntences, the correct spellings, and the lack of colloquial language that is used in ‘_The Sun__’_. This perhaps implies that the ‘quality_’_ press such as ‘_The Times__’ and ‘The Telegraph__’_ provide better news than tabloids such as ‘_The Sun__’_. However, this kind of value judgement is inappropriate as both types of newspaper are constructions of the news with the ‘quality’ newspapers aiming to connote authority and formality and the ‘popular_’_ tabloids aiming to connote an attitude of ‘telling it how it is. _’_ Thus, both types of representation of the news items present mythic meanings. Linguistic and typographic codes are not the only codes employed in newspapers. Graphic codes must also be considered. The photographs used in the newspapers have also undergone a process of selection. One image will be chosen over another as it connotes a message that the selectors of the photograph want to communicate. Barthes (cited in Bignell, 1977:98) suggests that the newspaper photograph is ‘an object that has been worked on, chosen, composed, constructed, treated according to professional, aesthetic or ideological norms which are so many factors of connotation. ’_ The ‘treatment_’_ of photographs, which is referred to by Barthes can be seen in the different newspapers that I have chosen. Interestingly, each version of the news item has used the same photographs, but treated them differently according to the required connotation. Again, The Times and The Telegraph use similar codes and The Sun employs a drastically different strategy despite using the same original photographs. The most drastic difference is that The Sun presents the photographs in colour, connoting realism and the dangerousness of the offender. This is also connoted by the size of the photographs, with the graphic representation dominating a large proportion of the overall available space on the page, which is another drastic difference between The Sun's representation of the news item and the other two newspapers. Despite these major differences, it is significant that the newspapers have all used the same photographs, and it is interesting to look at why these particular photographs might have been chosen. Paradigmatically, photographs involve connotations, and thus the significance of the particular photographs, which have been chosen, can be seen more clearly when considering what other paradigmatic connotations might have appeared in their place. As Bignell (1997:99) suggests, the caption underneath the picture enables the reader to ‘load down the image with particular cultural meanings and the photograph functions as the proof that the text's message is true. _’_ The pictures are also shown in different contexts in the three newspapers with ‘_The Sun__’ using a different strategy to ‘The Telegraph__’_ and ‘_The Times__’_. _The Telegraph__’_ and ‘_The Times__’_ use similar sized pictures of the individuals involved. In ‘_The Sun__',_ the size of the photographs of the individuals differs considerably. This discussion of several newspapers' representations of the same news item show how semiotic analysis ca n determine the meanings of such news items, as a result of the linguistic and visual signs used within the texts. However, semiotic analysis cannot determine how an individual reader might interpret the representations of the news items in a real social context. Semiotic analysis does offer an insight into the factors at work in the production of a news item and distinguishes the various codes, which are employed by different types of newspaper when representing a particular news item. CONCLUSION To conclude this essay, from all that I have researched, I now know that newspapers have indeed come a long way I am going to give my opinion of what I believe should be the role of newspapers as an integral form of news media to the society. Newspapers are expected to keep the people informed about the political activities of their government. They should give in detail, the statements of speeches made by the rulers at public meetings or on the radio or television. They should also report the activities of political parties and leaders. Standard newspapers should be able to criticize the policies and statements of the government or of the political parties in a fair and just method. Newspapers should also describe the economic policies of the government. For example, they should describe its import and export policies, its plans for future economic development, and the prices of different things fixed by it, and so on. In addition, newspapers should always report in detail, the economic policies of the government in the fields of agriculture, industry, and commerce, should be more detailed about matters concerning the problems of labors, farmers and other working people, and suggested their solutions. Newspapers should give a true and correct picture of society. They should describe the activities of the people in different fields like education business industry, law, medicine, science, and so on and also tell us about the activities of students and teachers, businessmen, industrialists, lawyers, doctors, scientists and all categories of working people. They should convey information regarding the different crimes taking place every day. Newspapers ought to tell about the political, economic, and social changes in different countries and give descriptions of changes in government and revolutions in different parts of the world. Lastly, they should give descriptions of changes taking place in other societies in education, science, and medicine industry agriculture and defence preparation. These are a few suggestions I believe that are suitable ideas and courses that newspapers should begin to focus on instead of the media frenzy seeking status they seem to be attaining nowadays. I do not believe that newspapers have reached the point of maximum satisfaction in the views of the society. Centuries ago, it was understandable that newspaper agencies could only print certain facts as some of them or most of them were government owned and operated. However, with freedom of journalism, one would expect that they would become more transparent in the way they convey out news to the society. However, news relaying has been turned into infotainment. It matters less whether news is right or wrong, and matters more whether it is gripping and this is not the ways newspapers should be going nowadays. Newspapers are probably the main source of handy information that provides up-to-date information on a daily basis that everyone can afford to buy. It gives the sophisticated approach towards life in social, political, economical and entertainment framework. Provide knowledgeable information available to all ages and societal status. Newspapers influence the society greatly because it is not necessary that everyone have TV, or internet resources, radio, as these are the technological resources, but everyone gets to read the newspaper every now and then. Newspapers are the global need of every culture, and should therefore promote freedom of journalism to project the truth in the society. BIBLIOGRAPHY Bignell, J (1997). Media Semiotics: An Introduction. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 79-98. Carlos Hurworth. (2009). How the News Media Controls Society. Available: http://www. helium. com/items/1534166-how-the-news-media-controls-society. Last accessed 13 Dec 2009. Farlex. (2006). Role of News Media.

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Various studies by various scientists’ states that time always remain but it is the people who pass by it as time is considered to be unconquered, unvanquished and immortal. So to manage such a big factor along with managing our own self is quite a big task. Time management is an ongoing process because every person from any corner of the world, having any amount of money or a pauper or any one for that matter manages itself and the time he has in some or the other way. So no one has created the only and perfect methodology for time management but still people has practiced time management in the past. The present study seeks to analyse the managing habits among the people of Mumbai as it is a big and busy city as it is commercial city and also financial capital of India. People here are always on the run and need to manage their time well to achieve success in their work. The urban life in Mumbai is nothing but a fast life, this study tries to learn how well people in Mumbai manage their time, what are their time stealer, how to get rid of them, how the given grid has benefited them and also to know the miscellaneous benefits that one can get by managing its time. INDEX INTRODUCTION: â€Å"Yesterday is a cancelled cheque. Tomorrow is a promissory note. Today is ready cash, use it. † This is a perfect quote to begin an introduction of time. Time is now, time was yesterday and time is also tomorrow. It’s all in our hands as to how we make the best of it. Time is unique and unrenewable. It favors no one. No one is immune to the relentless, unforgiving passage of time. â€Å"Main Samay hu, Main Akshay, Ajay aur Anant hu. † This is one filmy dialogue but when looked into closely we realize that it has a deep meaning. It means that time is Unvanquished, Unconquerable and Immortal. We say that we are running out of time. So the question arises that does time pass by or do we pass through time? The solution to this question is TIME MANAGEMENT. If you ask any one what do they mean by time management very common response is managing time successfully. This is the simplest definition of Time Management. But the skills of managing time are not easy as its definition is. Planning can be done by anyone who has some knowledge of it but when it comes to executing it people fail miserably. Managing time successfully or in fact executing it effectively is what this project is all about. TIME: Time has historically been closely related with space, the two together comprising space-time in Einsteins special relativity and general relativity. According to these theories, the concept of time depends on the spatial reference frame of the observer, and the human perception as well as the measurement by instruments such as clocks is different for observers in relative motion. The past is the set of events that can send light signals to the observer; the future is the set of events to which the observer can send light signals. Time catches up with the present and overtakes it, so Time is Unvanquished. No one can stop time or reverse it so Time is Unconquered. Time is constant, continuous and infinite process so Time is Immortal. TIME IN THE ORGANIZATION: Time in the organization is constant and irreversible. Nothing can be substituted for time. Worse, once wasted, it can never be regained. Leaders have numerous demands on their limited time. Time keeps getting away and they have trouble controlling it. No matter what their position, they cannot stop time, they cannot slow it down, nor can they speed it up. Thus, time needs to be effectively managed to be effective. On the other hand, you can become such a time fanatic convert by building time management spreadsheets, creating priority folders and lists, color coding tasks, and separating paperwork into priority piles that you start to waste more time by managing it to deeply. TIME MANAGEMENT: Time management is the organization of tasks or events by first estimating how much time a task will take to be completed, when it must be completed, and then adjusting events that would interfere with its completion so that completion is reached in the appropriate amount of time. Calendars and day planners are common examples of time management tools. TIME EQUITY: The one universal distribution of equity is time: Everybody on the planet has ownership of 24 hours per day. Everyone receive the same allotment, day in and day out. Each new day brings an automatic deposit of 24 hours into the time account. It is referred to as Time Equity. Although each day brings a new deposit, each day the entire amount must be withdrawn, with no balance carried over to tomorrow. Use it or lose it. The challenge everyone face is how and where to invest the time equity. These decisions determine success, career path, productivity, and family status. The truth is that where people are in life is a direct reflection of how well they have managed their time portfolio—how and where they spent their time. One often hear people refer to personal activities in terms of time equity: How did you spend your weekend? or During our trip we spent a lot of time doing Time equity is the essence of a full and complete life. People often take it for granted and succumb to its harsh, unforgiving consequences. One has to take responsibility for ourselves and consciously appreciate the positive impact time management can have on our lives. Anyone who expects to achieve sales success should expect to make a serious commitment to working hard and efficiently. Throughout the five principles of time management that follow I share various techniques and suggestions to help streamline your activities. Time cannot think for you, but it can certainly work for you. Like any other investment, time produces returns if invested wisely and treated with respect. Sales professionals constantly explore investment opportunities for their time, maximizing their time. METHODS OF TIME MANAGEMENT: 1. PRINCIPLE METHOD Principle #1: Maximize Your Time Spending your time wisely starts with paying attention to how you spend it. Only when you decide to take control of your time will you have the power to stop squandering it. The best starting point to a better use of time is to conduct your own time-efficiency study. Evaluate your current use of time by breaking down a typical day into hourly increments. Be objective. Include everything throughout your entire day, even the time you sleep. You may need to track a full week or two to get a clear picture of your time usage. The next step is to review your time log and classify the activities as time-wasters, obligations, or priorities. Time-wasters are just that, activities that distract you and contribute nothing toward your goals. Eliminate them. The danger is that time-wasters are activities performed out of habit. Usually, they create a false sense of productivity but actually produce few or no results. The cure comes in the form of personal organization, the process of incorporating structure into your day. Obligations are the dutiful responsibilities of your job. They are necessary yet unimportant activities, usually performed throughout the day. They contribute indirectly to your goals. They are the administrative aspects of your job such as call reports, expense reports, quarterly forecasts, and various other required duties. Despite the challenges of limited time coupled with increased responsibilities, you can be productive by evaluating your current usage of your 24 hours and maximizing time. Obligations cannot be overlooked but be cognizant of the negative impact they have on daily productivity. As you become better organized you can streamline your activities, minimizing the time spent fulfilling obligations. You may be in a position to delegate some of your administrative duties to support people (internal customers) within your office. There are some sales entrepreneurs who have hired a part-time assistant. Maximize your time by doing what you do best, selling. Priorities are the activities that contribute significantly to your time. They are directly responsible for your results, moving you closer to your goals. Remember, companies today pay for results, not activities. They no longer pay for attendance, they expect results. As you evaluate your current use of time, the time-wasters will become clear, allowing you to rethink your activities. Make the shift from a long day filled with unproductive busyness to a shorter day focusing on priorities. As a sales entrepreneur, challenge yourself to be more proactive by prioritizing your tasks. Take control of the activities that prey on your efficiency, compromising your time. Once you complete your time-efficiency study, you will be shocked to see the time wasted reacting to other peoples demands and requests. Most of us habitually spend our days reacting instead of being proactive, unaware of the costly consequence. I suggest that up to 75% of our day is reactive. A sobering thought. Principle #2: Know What Time It Is. If you are like most salespeople, you have too much to do and not enough time to get it all done. To get ahead in todays fast-paced world, youve got to be aware of what time it is. It does not mean talking about telling time, you learned those years ago. What is talked about here is: Its not enough that youre doing a particular job right, youve got to be sure that youre doing the right activity at the right time. By the way, if you dont have a good watch, get one. The best and simplest time management tool is on your wrist. Common sense tells us that we should spend the majority of our time working on high-priority A and B accounts. Most of us dont. We waste a lot of time in the adult day care centre reacting to the demands of C accounts or even performing C activities. The first step is to take control of your entire day by knowing what time it is. Principle #3: Manage Your Time Time management is a personal process. It takes a strong commitment to change long-established habits. According to the 80/20 rule, we get 80% of our results from 20% of the things we do. This statistic supports the observation that we spend a lot of time on time-wasters and obligations. Imagine the impact on our time efficiency if we increased the 20% to 30%! What takes us from a time-starved day of routine, frustration, and stress to a productive day filled with accomplishments? Change. One definition of time management is doing fewer things in less time. Wouldnt that be great? Research suggests that effective time management strategies can free up a minimum of two hours per day. For example, time management studies show that we spend up to 70 minutes a day just looking for stuff. How many times have you said, Just a minute, I know its here somewhere. We misplace files, reports, memos, and letters, and the desks look like the movie Twister was filmed in the office. Clutter can be a huge time-waster, not to mention the embarrassment of lost or unanswered requests. Your goal isnt to have a nice neat desk, but to get organized so that you can convert wasted time into productive time. However, with a clean, orderly desk, youll improve your time working on priorities that will make you money. Your quality of work will also improve. The underlying objective of effective time management is to utilize all available resources to increase face-time; the time spent talking face-to-face with existing customers or potential customers. If youre an inside salesperson, increase talk-time. Take some time to determine how much time you actually spend with customers. Take a stop watch and clock total face-time in one entire week. On average, its only two to four hours. Shocking! This statistic serves as additional proof of the inordinate amount of time consumed by time-wasters and obligations. It is recognized that with leaner companies salespeople are often saddled with more of the administrative aspects of the job. Unfortunately they become high-priced administrators. How many times a day should you ask yourself if you are making the best use of your time. If you answered several, youre right. Only you can answer that question honestly. As the president of ME Inc. , dont compromise your time by blindly filling your day with busyness. Restructure your day to eliminate the time-wasters and minimize the time spent fulfilling obligations. Sometimes working in the office on a project or on a presentation could very well be the best use of your time. It’s doubtful that you can ever eliminate time spent in the adult day care centre, but you certainly need to minimize it. Use janitorial time to fulfil your obligations. As part of your time-efficiency study, you should determine the time of day that you are most efficient and productive. Know your peak time, the time of day you are at high energy. Not everyone has the same peak time. Some of us are morning people and others are afternoon or evening people. Pay attention to your moods and high-energy time of day to determine when youre most productive. Morning people can accomplish more simply by getting up an hour earlier each day, and night owls can carve out time for administrative activities in the evenings. Once you have identified your peak time, do your worst jobs then. They wont go away so you might as well get them done when youre feeling energized. Some authors suggest doing them first thing in the morning when youre feeling fresh. This approach works well if youre a morning person but could be disastrous if youre an afternoon person. Imagine doing your worst job at your worst time of day. Two worst dont make a right! In my case, prime time is during the late afternoon and early evening. Another suggestion in the interest of maximizing your time is to learn how to say no. Many of us are our own worst enemies. Youll never have enough time to finish your own tasks if youre always taking on more than time permits. Do not be afraid to politely refuse a request or task if your plate is already full. This includes saying no to your sales manager. When given a task, simply ask your managers, Would you like me to do this now or would you prefer I spend the time selling? Your manager may decide to delegate the task elsewhere. Its great to want to help others, but not at the expense of ME Inc. Principle #4: Use the Right Tools A professional (sales entrepreneurs included) is anyone paid to perform a task or a job at an acceptable level of proficiency while utilizing the tools of the trade to enhance efficiency and effectiveness. It is amazing to see how often salespeople conducting business with inappropriate tools. Its as though they are exempt from the requirement to be a professional. Imagine your doctor or dentist using anything but the best instruments. Your customers expect no less of you. As a sales entrepreneur, you have an obligation to invest in the best. You may have heard it before, A carpenter is only as good as his tools. The solution begins with a personal planner—a time management system that offers the convenience of portability while organizing your activities, mapping your week and, most importantly, planning your day. A good planner includes twelve months at-a-glance, 365 individual day-pages, a daily to-do list section, and an appointments section. Some planners come with a rigid set of instructions, so pick a planner that offers simplicity and the flexibility to meet your personal preferences. A planner used effectively not only buys you time, it helps you stay in balance throughout your week, including weekends. Poor time management skills result in overspending your time, running out of day before you get everything done. It is supposed to be compared it to managing a checking account. Imagine opening a checking account at your local bank then not using a check book to track the account activity. Surely you would find yourself out of balance at the end of the month, possibly overspending your available funds. Without the appropriate tool to track your time-related activities, you quickly find yourself out of balance, overdrawn on your time account. Principle #5: Be Proactive, not Reactive I would suggest that up to 75% of our day is spent reacting to the needs and requests of other people such as customers, managers, internal customers, family, and friends. We are constantly bombarded with demands on our limited time, leaving us unable to accomplish our own goals and objectives. No wonder we feel the frustration of, So much to do, so little time. We often succumb to the demands and requests of others because we think it is socially inappropriate to say no. We become victimized by others who may have a strong interest in controlling our activities or behaviour—such as a spouse or a manager. Unfortunately many people, including salespeople, are content to be regulated and manipulated rather than committing to SMART goals and living life guided by their agenda, not someone elses. No one ever accomplished a personal goal by being subservient to others. Successful sales entrepreneurs refuse to be swayed by the whims of others and are quietly effective at managing their own agendas. Employers and managers sometimes do more to demotivate rather than to motivate. Demotivation can take the form of intimidation or high-performance expectations constrained by rigid management policies and limited resources to perform the job. No wonder so many people want to take this job and shove it. A proactive strategy means developing the discipline to stay focused on your agenda, your goals, and your objectives. Part of this discipline comes in the form of qualifying the severity of a problem prior to reacting to it. For example, next time a customer informs you of a problem or a concern, resist the temptation to immediately jump into react mode, drop what you are doing, and race over to console your customer. It may not be necessary. The next time you get an irate customer (or internal customer) demanding to see you right away, follow these two steps: 1. Acknowledge the problem. Allow the customer to vent by explaining the situation and then clarify your understanding of it by paraphrasing. Be sure to take notes of your discussion for future reference. By acknowledging the concern and showing empathy, the customer will begin to feel better about it and may become somewhat flexible as to how and when you resolve the concern. A sympathetic attitude to a real or imaginary product or service failure cannot be overemphasized. A 10-minute phone call to determine the facts and the seriousness of the problem may be a valuable investment, possibly saving you hours of unnecessary running around. Work smart, not hard. 2. Suggest another time. Tell the customer that your day is full with appointments and commitments and ask if first thing tomorrow morning would be okay to get together. Your business and time are just as important and legitimate as that of your customer. You are equals. In the majority of cases, your customer will appreciate your schedule and agree to meet with you the next day. Too often we assume that we must respond immediately, but by following these steps you will save yourself valuable time. Sometimes, however, the customer may be insistent that you respond immediately, in which case you must act accordingly. As a student, there are some basic Principles of Time Management that you can apply. 1. Identify Best Time for Studying: Everyone has high and low periods of attention and concentration. Are you a morning person or a night person. Use your power times to study; use the down times for routines such as laundry and errands. 2. Study Difficult Subjects First: When you are fresh, you can process information more quickly and save time as a result. 3. Use Distributed Learning and Practice: Study in shorter time blocks with short breaks between. This keeps you from getting fatigued and wasting time. This type of studying is efficient because while you are taking a break, the brain is still processing the information. 4. Make Sure the Surroundings are Conducive to Studying: This will allow you to reduce distractions which can waste time. If there are times in the residence halls or your apartment when you know there will be noise and commotion, use that time for mindless tasks. 5. Make Room for Entertainment and Relaxation: College is more than studying. You need to have a social life, yet, you need to have a balance in your life. 6. Make Sure you Have Time to Sleep and Eat Properly: Sleep is often an activity (or lack of activity) that students use as their time management bank. When they need a few extra hours for studying or socializing, they withdraw a few hours of sleep. Doing this makes the time they spend studying less effective because they will need a couple hours of clock time to get an hour of productive time. This is not a good way to manage yourself in relation to time. 7. Try to Combine Activities: Use the Twofer concept. If you are spending time at the laundromat, bring your psychology notes to study. If you are waiting in line for tickets to any concert, bring your biology flashcards to memorize. 2. FIRST THING FIRST (Method by Virginia Tech Division of student Affairs) 1. Each night write on a 35 card the 6 most important tasks you have to do tomorrow. 2. Number them in the order of importance. 3. First thing in the morning look at the task listed as most important and start working on it until it is finished. Then tackle item 2 the same way, item 3 and so forth until your work or school day are completed. 4. Don’t be worried if you only complete 2 or 3 items. You’ve completed the most important tasks and any other method wouldn’t have given you more time to work on the rest of the list. 5. Each night write a new 35 card for the next day. 3. TIME GRID URGENT IMPORTANT NOT URGENT IMPORATNT Crises Pressing problems Dead-line driven projects, meetings, preparations Preparation Prevention Planning Relationship building True recreation empowerment URGENT UNIMPORTANT interruptions, phone calls, mails, reports, meetings many proximate, pressing matters many popular activity NOT URGENT UNIMPORTANT trivia, busy work some phone calls, time wasters, time stealers excessive television. 4. REMEMBERING, SETTING PRIORITIES AND MOTIVATION METHOD: Remembering Three keys to time management are: remembering, setting priorities, and motivation. Its easy to fall into the trap of thinking I wont forget that. But the important thing is not just to remember it, but to remember it at the right time a time when you can take the first step in doing it. Your thoughts are valuable. Write them down, whether theyre ideas on how to save the world or reminders to wash the frying pan. Then figure out some way for the messages to get to you at a time when you can do the things. Use calendars and lists. I have lists of things that can be done at home, lists of things that can be done when the stores are open, lists of things to do before going to work in the morning, etc. By looking at the appropriate list, I can forget about everything else and concentrate on the work appropriate for that moment. Setting Priorities If you write a list of things to do this evening, it probably contains way more things than you can actually accomplish. Thats fine. The list is valuable. By looking over it, you can choose the most important things and do them first. The rest can be transferred to other lists. Some people say they dont need to spend time planning. That may be true. If you have a list of things to do that are all about equally important, and if youre sure that the most important things are on the list, then you dont need to spend any time comparing them. Just start doing one of them, it doesnt matter which one. But for most people most of the time, some of the things are more important than others, so its worthwhile taking a few minutes to read over the list and choose the most important to do first. Its good to have a pen handy all the time to write down ideas. That way you can catch thoughts about important things that you might have forgotten to add to your lists. Motivation Youve set goals, written lists, chosen priorities, and identified whats important to do right now, but you dont feel like doing it. Here are some ideas to help with motivation. In the book Feeling Good, David Burns points out that its not necessary to feel like doing something in order to do it. You can just start. Usually, once youve started, you begin feeling more motivated to continue doing it. I started feeling more in control when I started giving myself permission to cross things off lists. Deciding not to do something and putting an X next to it gives a feeling of relief, almost as satisfying as checking it off as done. Sometimes I graph the total number of check marks per day. This feels good and gives me motivation to finish lots of things on my to-do lists. Plan rewards and celebrations for yourself, such as special snacks after getting certain things done. Just taking a few seconds to admire the finished work such as a tidy table or pile of clean laundry, is an excellent reward. Smile and tell yourself what a good job you did. Even if youre in a hurry, you can plan rewards that take a few seconds, like standing up and stretching, looking out the window for 10 seconds, or tossing a pen in the air and catching it. If you plan them as rewards, they feel like rewards, and give you time to congratulate yourself on getting something done. MYTHS OF TIME MANAGEMENT Myth #1: Theres too much to do; I cant handle it all. This cant be the real reason why I have a messy house. After all, other people manage. Its encouraging to hear that there are others who also have trouble with the little things in life. That means that it isnt just that there are too many things for one person to handle: rather, its possible, theoretically at least, for me to organize my time in a way that gets it all done. Myth #2: Theres plenty of time; I can do that later. This is the exact opposite of myth #1. Yet both myths contribute to procrastinating. Rather than switch from one myth to the other, I need a consistent, realistic view of how much my time is worth and how much of it there is. Myth #3: Im busier than usual right now, so it makes sense to shift some tasks off to another time. Occasionally its really true, of course. But usually, Im about equally busy all the time, really. My time is worth the same all the time, with a few exceptions like if Im trying to be on time for a job interview or something. It SEEMS that Im unusually busy at any given moment, because at that moment, Im AWARE of the things impinging one my time right then. A person can only be aware of so many things at once. The detail of the moment seems complex; the future seems simple, free and clear. But really life is always that complex. I may think, This is an unusually busy day because I have library books due. It seems reasonable; I know I only have books due on a small percentage of all days. But really, there are so many other aspects to life: dentist appointments, parties, holiday celebrations, bike repairs, etc that taking all into consideration, the other days are really just as busy. I also tend to think Ill have plenty of time later the same day, too. And of course I dont. Myth #4: Re-scheduling something to a later time is procrastinating. No, re-scheduling is taking control and responding to new information about priorities and time available. Its only procrastinating if you dont schedule it at all, or if you re-schedule for the wrong reasons which will become apparent when you find yourself re-scheduling the same thing more than about 3 times. In that case, stop and think about whether you really want to do the thing. If its important, go ahead and start. Myth #5: This little task is not important. Example: I cut open a package of food and leave the little bit of plastic I cut off on the kitchen counter. Question: Shall I put the bit of plastic in the garbage right now? It seems that doing so is not important. The plastic isnt doing any harm where it is. It wont hurt me if I leave it there. I can always put it in the garbage later. But actually it is important to put it in the garbage. I ask myself, Is it important not to have it sitting there on the counter all year? Yes. I dont want it there that long. OK, then I have to put it in the garbage now or some time in the next few days. Next question: Is my time more valuable now than it will be, say, tomorrow? I seem in a hurry now, but I will tomorrow, too. (See myth #3. ) Really its best to put it in the garbage right now. Its important enough to be worth the few seconds of my time. The myth really means, Its not important to do it RIGHT NOW. However, it is important. Either its important or it isnt. When its done doesnt affect that. Its important to wash the dishes before eating on them again; therefore its important to wash the dishes. If its important, its probably worth doing now. BEATING PROCRASTINATION Manage Your Time. Get It All Done. If you’ve found yourself putting off important tasks over and over again, you’re not alone. In fact, many people procrastinate to some degree – but some are so chronically affected by procrastination that it stops them achieving things theyre capable of and disrupts their careers. The key to controlling and ultimately combating this destructive habit is to recognize when you start procrastinating, understand why it happens (even to the best of us), and take active steps to better manage your time and outcomes. Why do we Procrastinate? In a nutshell, you procrastinate when you put off things that you should be focusing on right now, usually in favour of doing something that is more enjoyable or that you’re more comfortable doing. Procrastinators work as many hours in the day as other people (and often work longer hours) but they invest their time in the wrong tasks. Sometimes this is simply because they dont understand the difference between urgent tasks and important tasks, and jump straight into getting on with urgent tasks that arent actually important. They may feel that theyre doing the right thing by reacting fast. Or they may not even think about their approach and simply be driven by the person whose demands are loudest. Either way, by doing this, they have little or no time left for the important tasks, despite the unpleasant outcomes this may bring about. Another common cause of procrastination is feeling overwhelmed by the task. You may not know where to begin. Or you may doubt that you have the skills or resources you think you need. So you seek comfort in doing tasks you know youre capable of completing. Unfortunately, the big task isnt going to go away – truly important tasks rarely do. Other causes of procrastin.