Page 425 - Effective Communication Soft Skills Strategies For Success by Nitin Bhatnagar, Mamta Bhatnagar

Model Question Papers | 413

• Is your voice speed, fast or slow?
• What emphasis do you place on Words?
• Do you articulate clearly or do you mumble?
• How much energy do you speak with?
• What rhythm do you speak with- Modulated or Staccato?

Section – B

5. a. One may encounter many common problems due to ineffective management of time.

Since a lot of people waste time, there must be a lot of problems managing time. First of
all, many people have little experience organizing their lives, because parents, teachers,
bosses, and friends have done it for them. They don’t see the need for a schedule. Also,
many people resent any barrier that interferes with their doing whatever they feel like
doing at the moment. Thus, a schedule is seen as stifling by some and resisted. Planning
their time is too time-consuming for others.
Secondly, some of us are pushed by pressing needs—a need for love and attention, a
need to avoid responsibility and work, a need to believe the future will take care of itself
(So, I can do whatever I want to right now), a need to escape real life by listening to
music, watching TV, or reading a novel, and so on. In some cases, a new determination
to schedule your time will get you going. In other cases, greater self-awareness (hon-
estly looking at how you really waste your time) is needed. In still other cases, it seems
to be almost impossible to become more controlled until some of the above mentioned
basic psychological needs have been satisfied or, more likely, until we realize we are
headed for failure, i.e. that our life isn’t working out as we had hoped.
Thirdly, as Covey, Merrill and Merrill (1994) point out, many of us spend our days
handling what appears to be ‘urgent’ problems, such as answering the phone or mail,
beating deadlines for never read reports, attending meetings, impressing the boss, etc.,
which are not in a broader sense very important or useful. If your schedule is filled
with unimportant urgencies, you won’t have time to learn new things, to do long-range
planning, to be creative and original, to do research, to exchange ideas with others, to
re-think your major objectives, to invent new opportunities, to try to prevent future
problems, to help others, and so on. These latter activities result in greater productivity
and more benefits to everyone; they are the essence of a thoughtful life. It is said, ‘the
person who concentrates entirely on sawing wood, is likely to forget to sharpen the
saw’. Our goals should be selected with care as aptly stated by Covey, and Merrill and
Merrill help us do that.
Fourthly, some people make their daily schedules too rigid and overly demanding. Your
schedule should make you feel as if you’ve ‘got it together’, not like a failure or an incom-
petent. It would be foolish to plan every minute of every day. An opportunity—a chance
to talk with the boss, a chance to become involved in a project, a chance to meet some-
one—may appear at any moment. You must be ready to explore any good opportunity;

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