Management begins at home

My PGDBA lesson defines Management as “the process of designing and maintaining performance environment through relations building within and outside an organization by optimally utilizing all resources including human, available to it, and manage efficient and effective use for attaining selected purpose.” 

Management is more of an art (rather than science) which doesn’t follow strict protocols or set of rules; it rather is an open ended process consisting of all those (smallest to largest) activities and policies resulting in efficient and effective use of resources. It may not be limited to corporate organizations, but extends to every entity that can be a termed a “system”. A home, a family, an individual human life too is a system with a closer boundary.

As a human being, we all live for a purpose; have we identified the resources which we can employ effectively to achieve it? Here are a few:

1. Technology: A very important and rather under-utilized, includes mobile phones, internet, machines
2. Manpower: Members of family, friends, agents, helpers
3. Facilities offered by our vendors (be it your grocery shop, your bank, mobile company, insurance company, etc.)
4. Human brain: Most important of all, as this one makes the above 3 work efficiently

Trust your memory, but rely on technology

I believe human brain is the biggest asset offered to mankind- why not use it for a bigger purpose rather than wasting it in remembering mundane activities? Leave this job to your mobile phone. The cheapest of mobile phones available in market can be a great resource at hand, and act as your Personal Assistant. It will take and save your notes, remind you of mundane as well as important tasks (like your in-laws’ birthdays :)), wake you up every morning, securely store important documents which might help at the eleventh hour, organize your contacts, act as a calculator and what not.

Get Online

Seems ages since we are using the Internet, but do we really “juice it up”? Major banks provide the online banking facility- a great relief to the “queue” phobia. Internet as a “resource” can prove a boon when employed for all banking transactions (even automating periodic transactions), utility bill payments, travel reservations, and much more.

Google is known to all as something that fetches what you are looking for, but that’s not all. It offers a range of applications which- if implemented judiciously can make Google a great “resource”. Google documents allows you to create and maintain your online catalog, where you can manage all your content online, just the way you file documents at home. The advantage- you don’t carry your bulky documents everywhere, since its on Google, it’s everywhere. A friend of mine has a habit of scanning all his important documents and uploading them on Google docs- I’ve already stolen the idea :).

Google Calendar is another amazing application which helps managing your personal events and meetings. Load it with all the important dates (birthdays, anniversaries :)), apply an annual repeat, and whoa, Google makes sure it sends you email and messages on your mobile before each event. The advantage- reminders in mobiles get lost after purchasing a newer one, but again- Google is everywhere to remind you. Who says good things always come at a price- Google is absolutely free!

Let your wheels move in parallel

Time and money being the most expensive resources (they also classify as assets) cannot be used as liberally as other resources. Better management of other resources and time saving processes can leave you with ample time and money to invest for good. A step towards achieving this could be identifying regular tasks that can run in parallel, and run on their own. Grocery, vegetable and fruit shopping can happen while returning from office (making your wife (another important human resource) happy :)), arrangements to fix plumbing needs can happen while you are in office, thus saving your Saturday. A collaboration of resource use (technology, manpower and vendor offered facilities) and bit of planning can help automate tasks and save precious time.

Observe thy neighbours, and train thy resources

Corporates don't mind approving huge investments in training resources, as that is aptly the need of the hour. Training resources can reap major benefits as resources become self-reliant and can work independently. E.g.- training and encouraging your spouse and parents on driving your car can save loads of time and (driving) efforts and make them self-reliant- especially during emergency hours. Management bits and lessons can also come from external resources / friends / surroundings- observation and effective implementation can work wonders.

Stay Organized, stay happy

It’s like investing time initially and working on your resources to organize your life, and expect compounding returns in the form of more available time and less physical and mental intervention. Collaboration of resources can work wonders, a few steps to achieve this could be:

• Organize all important documents in physical folders, properly tagged
• Maintain a copy online (Google Docs), this acts as a part of your Risk mitigation plan (another important Management module)- in case you lose your physical papers
• Checklists for mundane activities (monthly grocery list, travel kit, taxation requirements, festival requirements, etc.)
• Monthly expense planning (Google docs offers some cool templates for this, and Google Calendar can send reminders :))
• Organize mobile contacts, make relevant folders, make sure emergency numbers (doctor, ambulance, bank & credit card call centre) remain on speed dial

Management is a process which calls for frequent review and continuous improvements. This blog is a very small attempt to identify and improve some of the very basic activities of daily life. As Henry Ford quoted- “I’m not a hard working person, rather an absolutely lazy one who keeps finding easier ways of getting his work done”; a thought worth implementation, lets strive to be lazy in this manner :)