Time Management Acts

8/3/2019 Time Management Acts

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/time-management-acts 1/28

ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY 1

Time Management and Productivity: Breaking a Task into Smaller Parts

Often it feels like there aren’t enough hours in the day to get everything

done. Work is demanding, and personal lives outside the workplace seem rushed,

too. People say, “I just don’t have enough time to do it all.” Sometimes the

complaint is justified because people have taken on more responsibilities thanthey can manage. Other times, people cannot get everything done because they

aren’t managing their time well. Time management is the skill of organizing

tasks to get them done efficiently within the time available. There are many

techniques to time management.

Have you ever had a large project to complete and felt so overwhelmed by it

that you didn’t even know where to begin? Maybe you had a project or term

paper due at school, or a project at home, or a new project at work. Regardless of

whether a project is related to school, home, or work, one technique for making it

less overwhelming is to break it into smaller parts. Breaking a project into

smaller parts has several advantages:

• You plan the project before you start it.

• You force yourself to get organized.

• You can see a sequence in which parts need to be completed before another part can be started.

• You can spread the project out, integrating the parts of it into the routine work and tasks you need to do.

• You can create a schedule of when different parts need to be completed before the project can be finished

• You get a sense of accomplishment as you complete each part.

EXAMPLE

Your project is to paint your bedroom.

Step 1 Define the project. For example, will you paint just the walls or the

ceiling and moldings, too?

Conclusion: Yes, paint walls, ceiling, and moldings, but not the floor.

Step 2 Begin to break the project into smaller parts.

Select colors and types of paint

Determine types of brushes and rollers needed to apply paint

Determine quantities needed

Compare prices of paints and materials

Buy paints and materials

Remove items attached to walls

Move or cover furniture and carpeting

Paint

Clean tools and store paint

Replace furniture

Step 3 As the project begins, you may discover that additional parts are needed.

These should be added to the project:

Patch holes and irregular surfaces

Sand moldings

Prime surfaces

1



ENRICHMENT ACTIVITY 1 PRACTICE

Time Management and Productivity: Breaking a Task into Smaller Parts

1. Your term project for your history class is to write a report about a historic

site in your town. One of the requirements is to include at least one interview

in the project. Suggest how this project could be broken into smaller parts.

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

2. You are the mail clerk at a large corporation. The corporation has a policy of

promoting from within. An opening for a data entry clerk in the human

resources department has been posted, and you are interested in applying for

the position. Suggest how the task of applying for this new position could be

broken into smaller parts.

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

2



______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

3. You are the supplies clerk for a large department. You are responsible for

maintaining an adequate stock of supplies, ordering supplies, distributing

supplies, and taking an inventory of supplies periodically. The department is

about to double in size because the company has acquired a new division.

Your supervisor has asked you to write a report recommending using the

computer and inventory software to manage the supplies in the future. Three

software packages are being considered. How would you break writing this

report into smaller parts?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

3




Time Management and Productivity: Scheduling Work with a Calendar

Marking events and activities on a calendar helps ensure that they won’t be

forgotten. The further in the future an activity is to occur, the more likely it will

be forgotten if it is not recorded somewhere as a reminder. Even events in the

near future can be forgotten if not written down. A calendar is a useful way tomake sure events are not forgotten.

A calendar can also be useful in scheduling work and personal activities. For

example, if you forget that you have a 2-hour meeting at the end of the week, you

might schedule another activity at the same time. Using a calendar to schedule

your work has the following advantages:

• Helps you spread larger projects out over the course of several days, weeks,

or months

• Helps you pay attention to deadlines and get work finished when it is due

• Forces you to estimate how long tasks will take, thus motivating you to set

the right pace to get the work done

• Alerts you to when your schedule is too full to take on another activity

• Helps you set priorities each day

Calendars can take many different forms. Some are pocket-sized, some book-

sized, some desktop-sized, and some poster-sized for mounting on a wall. Some

people use a computerized calendar. A calendar page may show a single day, a

week, a month, or even several months. Some people may keep a monthly

calendar to record special events such as birthdays, regular meetings and events

such as the weekly staff meeting, team meetings, or lunch, and deadlines for

completion of larger projects such as budget submissions. To some extent the

type of calendar used depends on individual preference and type of work;

however, everyone can benefit from using a calendar to schedule events andwork activities. Students also use calendars to schedule meetings, social events,

school activities, and school assignments. Families may use calendars to schedule

meetings, parties, and events such as doctor appointments, car maintenance

appointments, and birthdays and anniversaries.

EXAMPLE

The calendar shown on the next page is a daily page marked with a full day’s

work, including lunch in the cafeteria. The calendar is marked in increments of

an hour with two lines for each hour. In some cases additional activities could be

added on the second line because those on the first line won’t take a full hour. In

other cases they do take a full hour, and so nothing else can be scheduled for that

hour.

4



9:00 Reply to e-mail

10:00 Staff meeting

11:00 Meet with Horvath project team

12:00 Lunch: cafeteria

1:00 Schedule appointments

Review memos

2:00 Plan proposal for Weichert project

3:00 Performance appraisal for K. Borland

4:00 Return phone call to Judge Kerr

Review catalog design5:00 Call Betsy to schedule brainstorming; review guidelines

Find focus group candidates in database

5




Time Management and Productivity: Scheduling Work with a Calendar

1. Schedule the following activities on a daily calendar page for a workday that

begins at 9:00 a.m. and ends at 6:00 p.m. For activities that don’t show a time

length, make your own decisions on how much time to allow. However, allactivities must be accomplished on this day.

• Staff meeting, 1 hour

• Interview job candidate

• Write memo about delay in

Adams project

• Lunch

• Answer e-mail

• Research shipping costs to

Italy

• Strategy meeting with Mark

• Write an outline for

presentation to management

• Review graphic designs for

new package

• Fill out weekly expense report

• File weekly sales and budget

reports

• Do Internet search for flight

schedules to Houston

9:00

10:00

11:00

12:00

1:00

2:00

3:00

4:00

5:00

2. Use a daily calendar page similar to the one shown in this activity, but showing hours from 6:00 a.m.

through midnight. Make a schedule of your personal activities for the next school day.

6



6:00

7:00

8:00

9:00

10:00

11:00

12:00

1:00

2:00

3:00

4:00

5:00

6:00

7:00

8:00

9:00

10:00

11:00

7




Time Management and Productivity: Creating a To-Do List and Prioritizing Work and Personal Activities

Most people remember most of the things they need to do. However,

depending on your memory alone may make you forget to do somethingimportant at the proper time. In the workplace, this can lead to poor job

performance. You might lose promotions or raises and may even be fired. A to-

do list is a written list of the tasks that need to be done. It is a plan of action.

Some people make one to-do list of both work and personal tasks that must be

done. Other people make separate to-do lists. Some people also create categories

within their lists or make separate lists for different categories. For example,

there might be separate lists for telephone calls to make, e-mails to answer, and

projects to work on. A to-do list is the first step in being able to plan and

schedule your activities efficiently.

Each task should be a separate item on a to-do list. For example, an item on

your to-do list might be “complete Accounting Mastery Problem for Chapter 6.”

This task demonstrates two important characteristics of a to-do list item:

1. It is specific—there is no doubt about which problem is to be completed.

2. It is manageable—the task is not so huge that you don’t know where to begin. When a larger

project is involved, it is usually better to break the task into smaller parts so that it is not

overwhelming.

As soon as you determine that there is a new task, it should be added to the

to-do list immediately. Otherwise, you may forget to add it at all.

Prioritizing

Different tasks have different importance. For example, an airline reservation

for a flight two months from now may be very urgent if fares are scheduled toincrease tomorrow. Tasks that affect other people’s jobs may be more important

than those that affect only you. Some tasks are tasks that you personally like to

do, but that may not be as important as tasks you don’t like to do. Assigning

importance to tasks on a to-do list is called prioritizing. One way to prioritize

tasks is to assign a letter designation to each task. For example, tasks labeled A

might be the most important and should be done first. Tasks labeled B are less

important and can be delayed until A tasks are completed. Tasks labeled C can be

delayed until the A and B tasks are completed.

Updating To-Do Lists

When an item on a to-do list is completed, it should be marked as completed.

New tasks should be added as they become known. If you keep a daily task list,tasks uncompleted one day should be transferred to the next day’s task list.

EXAMPLE

A to-do list can be simply kept on a sheet of paper. But to-do lists can be

kept in a more formal fashion by keeping them in a book or notebook. Office

supply stores sell many different kinds of pages that can be kept in a notebook.

There are different forms for to-do lists and schedules. A task list might look like

the one on the next page. A checkmark is recorded in the appropriate column to

8



show the priority for each task. The column headed by a checkmark is used to

show when a task is completed.

To-Do List

A B C Tasks

Work problems 7-1 and 7-3 for accounting

Put CD collection in alphabetical order

Shop for new shirt

Practice keyboarding for personal use

Schedule appointment with guidance counselor about college applications

Write paragraph for English assignment

Study for American history class

Meet Tom and Rick after school to talk about weekend plans

9




Time Management and Productivity: Creating a To-Do List and Prioritizing Work and Personal Activities

1. Put the following activities on a to-do list. Use your own judgment in placing

checkmarks in columns A, B, or C to show the priority for each task.

• Work problems 7-1 and 7-3 for

accounting

• Put CD collection in alphabetical

order

• Shop for new shirt

• Practice keyboarding for personal

use

• Schedule appointment with

guidance counselor about college

applications

• Write paragraph for English

assignment

• Study for American history class

• Work out at gym

• Get concert tickets for date

Saturday night

• Take sister to story hour at the

library

To-Do List

A B C Tasks

2. You are an assistant at Ultra Home Store. In addition to your regular duties

regarding petty cash and the store’s checking account, you are also

responsible for orienting new employees. You have identified the following

tasks to be accomplished today. Add each task to a to-do list and indicate the

priority for each task.

• Order new checks

• Get president’s approval of design

for new checks

• Arrange lunch for new employee

to meet other cashiers

• Give new employee tour of the

store

10



• Review first section of employee

manual with new employee

• Compare prices of bicycles on the

Internet for niece Alysha

• Volunteer to bring snacks for

birthday party next Friday

• Prepare daily deposit fromregisters

• E-mail reminder to all cashiers

about messy break room

• Place order for cash register tapes

• Schedule monthly service on

computer network

• Go out to lunch with Sherri

• Write up proposal for team

meeting

• Collect time cards to send to HR

Dept.• Call bank to stop payment on

Check #1593

• Call home to check on babysitter

To-Do List

A B C Tasks

Make a to-do list for your own activities for the beginning of the next school day. Use checkmarks to indicate

the priority of each task. As the day goes on, put a checkmark in the checkmark column for each task as it is

completed.

11



To-Do List

A B C Tasks

12




Time Management and Productivity: Using an Electronic PDA

If you have been to an airport recently, you may have noticed people holding

a small electronic device in one hand while apparently writing on the device. The

device is a personal digital assistant, often refer to as a PDA. A personal digitalassistant is a hand-held computer that can receive and process information and

communicate with other computers. A PDA is about the size of a paperback

book, but it has a full computer and software within it. A PDA can store

important data, such as phone numbers and addresses, appointments, and other

calendar information, to-do lists, product lists, and so on.

Some PDAs are truly palm-sized, and you use a stylus and touch-screens and

handwriting recognition to enter data. Other PDAs are larger and have a

miniature keyboard as well as touch screens. A PDA contains an operating

system and basic programs such as an address book, calendar, and note pad. You

can add more programs that you use frequently. When you turn on the PDA, the

programs are all immediately available. When you enter data, the data is

automatically saved.

It is important that data in your desktop computer and data in your PDA

match. For example, if you change an address in a computer file, you would want

the same change to occur in your PDA. This is done by transferring new data

back and forth, usually through a port on the computer and PDA. Some PDAs

have a cradle to sit in to keep data consistent between computer and PDA.

Functions of a PDA

All PDAs include the following functions:

•

Store and update address book, to-do lists, and calendar • Take notes

• Write memos and other documents

• Do calculations

PDA models with more features can also do the following functions:

• Send/receive email

• Retrieve information from the Internet

• Do word processing

• Play video games

• Play music

Who Needs a PDA?

PDAs are not for everyone. It takes an investment of time and energy to learn

how to use a PDA and how to transfer data to it. In general, PDAs are most

useful to people who need constant access to records of addresses, phone

numbers, appointments, and other data and who spend a lot of time away from

their computers. People who need frequent e-mail and Internet access away from

the computer can also benefit from using a PDA. The following kinds of jobs

might benefit from the use of a PDA:

13



• sales representatives who call on customers

• site inspectors

• television cable installers

• computer network technicians

• executives who have frequent out-of-town meetings

• real estate agents and appraisers

• truck drivers

• delivery people

• government inspectors

• attorneys who spend a lot of time in courtrooms

• reporters

14




Time Management and Productivity: Using an Electronic PDA

Answer the following questions about PDAs:

1. List five functions of a PDA.

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

2. Discuss the following statement: Nearly everyone who works can benefit

from using a PDA.

______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

3. In each of the following examples, state whether the person described could

improve job productivity by using a PDA. Explain your answers.

a. Howard Chung is an inventory clerk. His job consists of entering allincoming inventory items into the computerized accounting system. He also

prepares a daily report of inventory items that need to be ordered for stock.

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

b. Linda Slavins is a registered nurse who works for a nursing service that

provides home visits for senior patients. Each visit usually takes at least half

an hour, and her clients are located throughout the county.

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

15



__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

c. Peter Abbot is a professional speaker, represented by an agent. He makes

speaking appearances all over the country. He averages three speaking

engagements a week. Peter’s engagements and travel arrangements are

handled by his agent. Peter calls on local potential customers for his

management services in each city where he speaks.

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

__________________________________________________________

4. Do an Internet search to learn more about PDAs. Make a list of possible

future enhancements to PDAs.

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________ ______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

16




Time Management and Productivity: Naming Electronic Files Efficiently

Every time you create a document using your computer, you save it as a file

and name the file. You also decide which folder to save the file in. There are

several reasons why you save the files you create:

• You may need to do more work on the file later.

• You may want to create a new file based on a file you have already created.

• You may need to refer back to the file in the future.

• You may need to transmit the file to someone else.

One aspect of productivity is doing tasks efficiently in the least amount of

time possible. Workers frequently need to open files that were created in the past

and therefore need to be able to find them as quickly as possible. Therefore, it isimportant to name files in a way that makes them easy to locate in the future. If it

takes half an hour of extensive searching to find a particular file, that is half an

hour of time that is not being used productively.

Computer Files and Folders

Computer hard disk drives and even floppy disks and compact disks (CDs)

have a structure of folders. A folder is a named location on a computer hard disk

drive, floppy disk, or CD. A folder is very similar to a cardboard folder in a file

drawer in a file cabinet. Just as the folder in a file cabinet contains documents on

paper, a folder on a disk also contains electronic documents. A folder on a disk

may also contain other folders; those folders may also contain other folders.The names you assign to your folders and files are important because they

are the “tags” you will use in the future to find a particular file or folder.

Computer files today can generally be any length and contain any characters,

even spaces. Examples of filenames are Chapter01.doc, Problem7-5.xls, ltr to

Denise.doc, resume-references-list.doc, and so on. The 3-character extension is

usually assigned by the software used to create the file, and it is better not to

change it or it may become unusable to the software. For example, .doc indicates

a Word document, .xls indicates an Excel spreadsheet document, and .jpg

indicates a graphic file, such as a drawing or photograph.

File Naming PrinciplesThere are no specific rules about how to name files and folders. However,

experienced computer users follow several guidelines:

1. Don’t make filenames too long. A very long filename takes up too much space on the display and

can be difficult to key correctly.

2. Don’t use unfamiliar acronyms. An acronym is a set of letters

that resembles a word that is made up of the first letters of the term it

represents (such as FBI for Federal Bureau of Investigation). If you were

creating a file about a book you are reading in English class, The Last of the

17



Mohicans, a file named TLOTM would be harder to identify in the future

than Last-of-Mohicans, or even just Mohicans.

3. Don’t use unusual codes or odd combinations of letters that might become meaningless in the

future. For example, if you named a spreadsheet file x3759$#2.xls, in six months you might not

remember what that file represents. It is also difficult to key accurately.

4. Give similar names to the same kinds of files. For example, you may create a word processing

file for each chapter in your Marketing 101 course. You might have a folder named Marketing101 and in that folder you might have a folder named Notes. If your textbook had 15 chapters,

your files in the Notes folder might be named Ch01notes, Ch02notes, and so on.

5. For files that you want to sort in some order, such as chapter number order, use the same number

of digits for all numbers. For example, 1, 2, 3, 11, 20 will sort as 1, 11, 2, 20, 3. This would

normally not be desirable. By adding a zero before the single-digit chapter numbers, a sort of 01,

02, 03, 11, 20 will give you 01, 02, 03, 11, 20—the expected order.

6. Use subfolders within your folders to group similar kinds of files. For example, your Marketing

101 folder for the marketing course might contain folders named Notes, Term Paper, and

Homework.

7. Do not name files using only the date the file was created. For example, in a Memos folder,

Vacation2002.doc is more meaningful than June16-2002.doc.8. Avoid having too many files in one folder. When you have 30-40 files in a folder, consider

reorganizing some of the files into separate folders or sub-folders.

EXAMPLE

You manage projects for a large department. You coordinate project reports

and are responsible for writing reports on each project. This week you are

beginning two new projects, the Perez Project and the Frazier Project. You might

create the following files and folders. You would also add additional folders and

files as the project continues.

Perez Project

BudgetMaterials

Labor

Equipment

Memos

Planning Meeting Agenda

Planning Meeting Summary

Engineering Survey

Letters

Research

Report

Notes

Draft01

Draft02

Draft03

Draft-final

Frazier Project

BudgetMaterials

Labor

Equipment

Memos

Planning Meeting Agenda

Planning Meeting Summary

Engineering Survey

Letters

Research

Report

Notes

Draft01

Draft02

Draft03

Draft-final

18




Time Management and Productivity: Naming Electronic Files Efficiently

Complete the following activities:

1. Lonnie Hatfield is writing a research report on computer viruses. The report will includetopics such as what viruses are current threats to computers, how viruses are caught, how

viruses can be avoided, and how viruses can be removed. The report will be based on

both library and Internet research. It is expected that a number of articles will be

downloaded from the Internet. Suggest how Lonnie might set up folders and files on his

hard drive when he begins this project.

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

2. Theresa Korb is a purchase order clerk for Munoz Office Supplies. She is responsible for

recording the details of all purchase orders in the company’s computerized inventory

system. She also uses her computer to create documents concerning her work and

employment at the company. She writes a weekly status report, sends memos requesting

vacation and personal time and other matters, and is the recorder for the purchasing

team’s weekly meetings. She has some graphics skills and is often asked to prepare signsand posters for special company events. She also keeps updated files of her

accomplishments for use in her annual performance appraisal. Suggest how Theresa

might organize the folders and files on her computer.

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

3. Tim Kotter noticed that his computer has a folder titled My Documents. He writes

memos to various departments requesting information that affects his projects. Tim

carefully saves every memo in the My Documents folder, using the date the memo was

written as the filename. The marketing department head, Marie Besse, received a memo

from Tim several days ago and misplaced it before she could reply. She has asked Tim to

19



send it to her again. Tim’s supervisor, Tom Jackson, particularly liked the wording of

Tim’s memo requesting a database search from the MIS department. He has asked Tim to

e-mail him a copy of that memo so he can recommend that format to the rest of the

company when database searches are requested. Tim has so far been unable to find either

file. Using the Find function of his operating system has returned over one hundred

different files. How could Tim avoid this difficulty in the future?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

4. Consider the files you create for the different courses you are taking as well as any

personal files you create. Make a list of the folders and sub-folders that might best

organize the files you create and/or download.

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

_____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________ ___

20




Time Management and Productivity: Evaluating the Effects of Errorsand Accuracy on Productivity

Economists often talk about the health of a country’s economy in terms of

the productivity of labor. One way to look at productivity is to consider the

amount of work produced by one worker. Managers have expectations of how

much work an employee will get done. Sometimes it is very easy to determine

how productive a worker has been. For example, a warehouse worker may be

expected to package 100 shipments in a day. A telephone solicitor may be

expected to make 200 calls in a day. An accounts payable clerk may be expected

to journalize 120 invoices in a day. However, many workers may have jobs in

which the result of their work is not as easily measured.

Yoko Shibata is an administrative assistant for a sales manager. She is

responsible for making all travel arrangements, processing all incoming and

outgoing mail, and arranging appointments for the manager. She also prepares allthe manager’s correspondence and reports. For workers like Yoko, every day is

slightly different and the productivity is harder to evaluate. However, she is

expected to complete the work that is given her by the dates the work is due.

Many workers have jobs similar to Yoko’s.

Employees who are valuable to a company are those who find ways of

increasing their productivity and doing more than the expected volume of work.

They also show a desire to take on additional work when the assigned work is

completed, thus increasing their productivity.

Effect of Errors

However, errors decrease productivity. If a purchase order clerk prepares 50 purchase orders in one day but makes errors in 5 of them, has the clerk really

produced 50 purchase orders? Consider the effect of making errors on a purchase

order. At the very least, someone will detect the error before the purchase order is

sent to the supplier and the purchase order will be redone. That means that the

clerk will have to prepare a new purchase order. However, it also means that the

flow of work has been interrupted for everyone who handles the purchase order.

It may even mean that needed merchandise will not be ordered and received on

time. If the purchase order error is not discovered, then the wrong merchandise or

quantity will be ordered. Incorrect merchandise will be received. Merchandise

may have to be shipped back to the supplier and accounts adjusted for the credit.

Meanwhile the correct merchandise will not be received, and the company may

lose sales because of the error on the purchase order. Therefore, an error canaffect productivity in many ways and may even lead to decreased profits for a

company.

Preventing Errors

Some strategies for detecting errors are part of software packages that are

used to create documents. Other methods must be applied by the employee who

creates the document.



Error-trapping software : Some system software packages may have methods

of detecting common errors.

Spelling checkers: Word processing software usually has spelling checkers to

detect misspelled words. E-mail and spreadsheet software also frequently have

this feature.

Proofreading : All documents should be proofread before being released.

Proofreading should include reading for grammatical errors, sense, and spellingthat spelling checkers cannot catch. All numbers should be verified. Calculations

should be verified.

Verification: Whenever there is a method to verify that information has been

entered correctly, it should be used. For example, if an order is taken by

telephone, the completed order should be read back to the customer for

verification.

Bar codes: Many companies use bar code technology to minimize errors. Bar

codes are scanned much more accurately than product identification numbers can

be keyed.

Get It Right the First Time

There is an old saying that “it is easier to get it right the first time than to do

it over.” If your work is constantly being returned to you for corrections, that

certainly takes more time than if you had done it right the first time. Producing

work that has errors also affects the company’s total effort. Employees who

become known for taking shortcuts that result in errors that waste other people’s

time and negatively affect the company may risk losing employment altogether.





______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

4. Test your own productivity. Select a page from one of your textbooks that has a

combination of alphabetic and numeric characters. Then key the page two times and

time yourself. The first time, key the page as fast as you can, ignoring all errors as

you key; then proofread and correct the text. The second time, key the page more

slowly, attempting to get nearly perfect results from the keying; then proofread and

correct the text. Report which method took the shortest amount of time. What doesthis suggest about the best way for you to produce documents?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________




Time Management and Productivity: Increasing Productivity Using Advanced Software Features

If you work in an office, you probably use computers and software for avariety of purposes. You may make entries in an inventory or accounts payable

system. You may receive and send e-mail messages. You may create word

processing or spreadsheet documents. You may make queries to a database.

Most workers learn to use word processing and spreadsheet software in

school, special training classes, or on the job. Most workers tend to learn the

commands and functions they use frequently and then use only those commands

and functions. However, today’s sophisticated software packages may provide

many different ways to accomplish similar tasks. Some may be more efficient

than others. Therefore, to use software efficiently and save the most time, it is

sometimes necessary to learn more about software than you learned initially. If

you can discover a method of preparing a document or spreadsheet faster than

you usually do, you increase your productivity.There are several ways you can learn to use software that you do not already

know:

1. Sharing tips with fellow employees. Most people are eager to

share what they have learned about new ways of using software.

2. Using resources at the software manufacturer’s Web site. For

example, the Web site for Microsoft has a Knowledge Base section that

describes many aspects of its software.

3. Subscribing to Internet user groups or newsgroups, which are

online forums, can provide information about how others have solved

software problems or discovered new ways of using software.

4. Software Help screens can give additional information abouthow to use the software.

Microsoft Word and Excel Help Screens

If you click the Help Menu in Microsoft Word, you get a menu with several

options. The first option is Microsoft Word Help. This option opens a window in

which you can ask a question, such as “How to repeat an action?” This question

is answered with a list of options that can be selected for an answer to the

question. If you click “Repeat an action,” you get a window that describes how to

use Edit Repeat.

You can also select “Contents and Index” from the Help menu. Contents will

provide a list of topics you can select for more information. Index shows a list of terms used in the Help windows, and you can type the first few letters of a word

you are looking for. For example, if you key “rep” you will see a list of terms

that begin with the letters “rep” and you can select “Repeat your last action.”

There is also a Find option that allows you to key a term that Word attempts to

match with an item in its Help function. The Help function in Excel works the

same way as in Word.



EXAMPLE

It is often faster to use a shortcut key than to use the mouse to click through

several menus. The keys in the top row of your keyboard can be used alone to

perform a variety of functions, such as returning to the last position in which you

made an edit or changing the capitalization of a word. Use the Word Help menuto find information about the function keys:

Click Help.

Click Contents and Index.

Click the Find tab.

Key function keys in the first text box.

Double-click Function keys to obtain a list of all the functions of the function

keys.




Time Management and Productivity: Increasing Productivity Using Advanced Software Features

Complete the following activities:

1. In Microsoft Word or Excel, use Help to find information about the Format Painter. Then

describe what Format Painter does and explain how to use it.

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

2. In Microsoft Word documents, you frequently need to move or delete a sentence or

paragraph. Use Help to discover how to select a sentence and a paragraph without

dragging the cursor over them.

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

3. In Microsoft Excel, there are two ways to change the width of a column using only the

mouse. What are they?

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

4. Use the Internet to find the Microsoft Knowledge Base site for a Microsoft software

program you are familiar with. Find information about using the software program that

you did not already know. Describe what you find in your own words.

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________



______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

5. Use the Internet and find a newsgroup or user group for a software program you are

familiar with. Search the archives or subscribe to the group and find information about

using the software program that you did not already know. Describe what you find in

your own words.

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________

______________________________________________________________