"Some people believe that the best approach to effective time management is to make detailed daily and long-term plans and then to adhere to them. However, this highly structured approach to work is counterproductive. Time management needs to be flexible so that employees can respond to unexpected problems as they arise."
Discuss the extent to which you agree or disagree with the opinion expressed above. Support your point of view with reasons and/or examples from your own experience, observations, or reading.
Effective time management demands both discipline and flexibility. Moving ahead without a plan is like moving with a blindfold through a minefield. Detailed daily and long term plans provide a guideline to adhere to and enable successful execution of projects. If this was not true, corporate planning processes like Six-Sigma and CMM would not have been so successful. When dealing with a large workforce, a detailed plan is necessary to enforce standards across the whole company.
However there is a small pitfall. Rigid, detailed plans that do not take into account risks of change can stifle creativity and prove to be counter-productive. Nothing is certain. The only certainty is change. A detailed planning can serve as a roadmap, a guiding beacon. However on the field it may become necessary to take deviations due to changing circumstances. It is akin to having a map of an area and actually exploring the area; the difference between reading about swimming and actually swimming. A detailed planning can help a person to face problems in a better way,but he should be flexible enough to deviate from the original plan to accommodate unexpected changes if a need arises for the same.
Keeping this in mind, modern corporate planning is goal-driven and takes into account the possible risks involved. Individuals and companies are able to plan successfully by using their vast experience in dealing with similar kind of problems. They lay down concrete guidelines but do not try to micro-manage events as the nature of life and circumstances is dynamic. Elaborate planning helps in using previous experience and handling a project efficiently. Maintaining flexibility at the execution level helps in tackling unexpected changes successfully.
Concluding, I agree with the need for a detailed planning but I don't agree with being inflexible about its execution. Planning gets better with experience and ideally a company can reach a stage where it can afford to have rigid plans. Practically it is almost impossible to plan for every event; so having a flexible time management is crucial to handle unexpected changes successfully.
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