By Gerard M. Blair*
Personal time management is about controlling the use of your most valuable (and undervalued) resource. Consider these two questions: what would happen if you spent company money in the same way as you spend company time? When was the last time you reviewed the way you use your time?
Without personal time management there are last minute rushes to meet deadlines, meetings which achieve nothing, days which seem somehow to go by unproductively, crises which come unexpectedly from nowhere. This sort of environment leads to stress and poor performance: it must be stopped.
Poor time management is often a sign of over-confidence: techniques which used to work with small projects are simply reused with large ones. Working inefficiently was perhaps unimportant in the small role, but it becomes unacceptable in the large one. You cannot drive a motorbike like a bicycle, nor can you manage a supermarket chain like a market stall.
* The writer was a Senior Lecturer at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and is now a design engineer with Agere Systems in Allentown, Pennsylvania.
VIII. Number the paragraph summaries in the correct order. Two of the summaries are not used
a) Bad time management can be the result of too much confidence in your own abilities.
b) Time can be wasted in supermarkets.
c) Bad time management leads to a number of problems.
d) Check your own time management.
e) Use a motorbike to drive to work and save time.
IX. Use the correct form of words from the article to complete the definitions
a) If something is not given enough importance, it is under................
b) If days go by when no work is done, they pass un................
c) When you feel too certain of your ability to do some thing, you are over -................
d) If you do something in a way that wastes time, you do it in................
e) If a situation cannot be accepted, it is un................
X. How would you answer the two questions in the first paragraph?
XI. Render the following text into English
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UNIT 9. MANAGING PEOPLE
I. Lead-in
What do managers have to manage apart from people? Complete the chart, use initial letters as clues.
| Managing | people s_______ r_______ b_______ c_______ |
What is the difference between a manager and a leader?
II. Study the vocabulary
Theory X , ,
Theory Y , , ; , ,
enlightened ,
to whiplash -
coercion ,
subordinate
supervision , ,
to impose without consultation
to make for ,
authoritarian
consensus ,
consensual ;
empowermen t ;
front-line managers
delegation
off-site / virtual management ;
firm (adj) , ,
to take up a position
assignment
to set goals
to apply rules
to check up on staff
deputy sales manager
