CONTENTS

Chapter
Chapter I :

Introduction of the topic

Chapter II:

Literature Review

Chapter III:

Objectives Of The Study

Chapter IV:

Research Methodology

Chapter V:

Data analysis And Interpretation

Chapter VI:

Summary and Conclusion

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Bibliography
Annexure

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Chapter I:
Introduction of the topic

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CHAPTER I :
INTRODUCTION OF THE TOPIC
Time Management
A study carried out by World Health Organization revealed that the time utilization by doctors
in Primary Health Centres for patient care is only 21 per cent. It is even less in case of
preventive health care as most of the time is wasted in traveling. Besides, the medical
personnel in rural areas, either absent themselves or come late and go early, thus devoting
very less time to productive work. For example:
Many studies have found that nurses devote only 33 per cent of their time on nursing
activities while rest of the time is used for non-nursing duties.
Multipurpose workers devote only 30 per cent of their time for health activities.
PHC doctors devote only 25 per cent time for patient care.
Doctors at district level waste 60 percent of their time in traveling and unwanted
meetings.
The statement that Time is money sums up the significance of time management.
Though most people in Government, Public Enterprises and Private Sector understand the
implications of time management, but in actual practice, we find that time is wasted and its
importance is undermined. Most of the executives and workers in administration complain
that they are too busy, but still they while away a lot of their time in unnecessary activities.
All other resources can be increased whenever required, but not time, as it is inelastic and
therefore, we must make the best use of time. Just to illustrate the importance of time, many
studies conducted revealed that persons in administration hardly devote 30 to 40 per cent of
their time for the activities they have been primarily engaged for. It means that if proper use
is made of time, we can provide services with the existing infrastructure two to three times
more and thus the process of development can be accelerated.
Thus, if all the employees make the best use of time, we can accelerate the process of
development and help the people of the country suffering from abject poverty, ill-health,
illiteracy, unemployment, in leading a good standard of life. In developed countries, the most
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precious resource is time and that is why they are developed, but in developing countries,
time is unconsciously and consciously wasted in useless activities, resulting in under
development or backwardness.
Nation must be committed to utilize even a fraction of second for accelerating the
tempo of development to usher in socio-economic democracy, as enshrined in the preamble
of the Indian constitution. How to go about it? How to ensure optimization of time? How to
make the best use of time? The answers to these questions are very simple, i.e., time
management at all levels.
If our country can manage time, we can achieve in a year the work of a decade and thus can
move fast towards modernization and development and can say with pride that India occupies
a prominent place, as in the past, in the community of Nations.
The aim of time management is not turn workers into machines, who work without
interruptions or breaks, nor is it to develop rigid routines. Rather, the aim is to organize and
arrange the use of time so that time pressures and overcrowded schedules and wastage are
reduced, and that staff can have adequate rest periods without lowering work output.
If forced to work under continuous pressure, people devise means of escape, such as
by taking few days off for illness or slowing down their pace and becoming inefficient. These
ways of relieving pressure can be observed among staff in an average overcrowded
department. It has been repeatedly shown in industry that regular breaks increase work
efficiency and work output.
TIME MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES
It is very difficult to enlist all the techniques of time-management as these are many and
range from simple common sense approach to sophisticated techniques of PERT/CPM, OR,
Method Study, Work measurement, etc. We discuss here some important techniques:

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1. Assessment of Time Use for Activities that are not Related to Work
In this technique, in columns across a sheet of paper, write down all the activities that are not
related to work and that might take place during the course of a working day (e.g. relaxing in
staff room or canteen, personal telephone calls, going out t shop, reading a newspaper, tea or
coffee breaks, arriving late, leaving early, interruptions by other staff).
Give copies of the papers to staff members who have volunteered to take part in this
exercise. Ask them to record the number of minutes spent on each activity not related to work
over a period of one or more days.
Collect the records and add up the minutes spent on non-working activities each day
by each staff member.
Request all staff members, who have agreed to record their non-work activities, to
meet together to discuss the results or some team of outside experts may be deputed to collect
this data.
Give the group the totals from above without revealing the identity of the staff
members who provided the data.
Discuss the following questions with the groups:
Is the amount of time spent in non-working activities reasonable, too much, or not enough?
Would it be better to have recognized time breaks (e.g., 30 minutes for tea, shopping,
reading the newspaper, or chatting) rather than having many unofficial breaks?
Would recognized or official breaks, be introduced at different times so that the work
did not stop?
2. Assessment of Time use for Activities that can be done at Lower Levels
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Most of the senior persons n the organization perform the work which can be done at lower
levels or that does not require the competence of the level where it is being done. If such
work is delegated to the lower level, the time spent by the busy people at the higher level can
be saved. This would also be economical since the salary scales are higher at upper levels. To
understand this with the help of a Case Study from Thailand, reported in Public Health
Development and Administration by Dr. K. Klinoubol (New Delhi, Deep, 1989,pp. 336-44).
This study was conducted under the guidance of the author.
Acceptance of female sterilization in Thailand has increased considerably, but because
of the shortage of doctors, especially in rural areas, long delays occurring before surgery are
common. Women are discharged from hospital within 24 to 48 hours of delivery and although
many wish to have post-partum sterilization, they often find it inconvenient to return to
hospital for tubal ligation. Besides, it is very costly.
The Thai Ministry of Public Health decided to introduce the performance of postpartum tubal ligation by trained nurse-midwives, since this could alleviate the shortage of
doctors and so reduce waiting time and free doctors for more skilled tasks. This reduces costs
as well.
3. Time Proportion Study to Give Weightage to Priority Areas
The Health executives should plan their work according to the priority, so that more attention
can be paid to such work. Here the Health executives may analyse the activities done during
the day and the time devoted on each activity: The writer has done this exercise on many
executives. The analysis of the results of such exercise suggest that the executives spend
more time on activities that are less significant and spend less time on activities that are
very important. It means that the executives never devote time in proportion to the
importance of the activity, resulting in many wrong decisions, affecting the performance of
the organization. For example, the tertiary health care institutions are created to do research,
which can help in policy-making and planning in different areas. However, it is seen that they
are engaged in routine activities of patient care. An opening of a department of a subject like
Public Administration, Sociology, etc. in a University and a College is done with different
objectives: that is why staffing at two levels is entirely different. The University Department
is supposed to engage itself in Research, Consultancy and teaching, while a college
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department is mostly meant for teaching. A careful analysis of practices would indicate that
both are engaged merely in teaching and that is why we generally hear that the Universities
have become white elephant for the State exchequer. Administrative Reforms Commission
examined the problem of administration and observed that in most cases, the top
administration only okays the proposal initiated at lower levels. This means that the high
level administration finds no time to think of real issues meant for them, like Organizational
Development, Management of Change, Conflict Management etc.
Because of the non-existence of referral system, patients rush directly to tertiary and
secondary health care institutions, resulting in high cost and making specialists attend to the
work that could be done at lower levels.
Hence, there is a need of developing time schedule so that important activities are not
missed and due weightage may be given to them.

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