Int. Journal of Business Science and Applied Management / Business-and-Management.org
BOOK REVIEW
Time is an invaluable and non-renewable resource in human life. Each one of us has 1440 minutes
on one’s disposal each day. Since we cannot create more time; we must make the best use of the time
we are bestowed upon. Globalization, emphasis on quality, cut-throat competition, multiple roles,
unlimited expectations, changed demographics and demands of the ever-dynamic environment have put
the pressure on the individual. The survival, success and happiness of the individual thus are a function
of his use of time management strategies and his ability. In this tough race, fast and steady is going to
win the race to have a peaceful nap in the end and then to again get going.
This book, “Temporal Structures in Individual Time Management: Practices to Enhance Calendar
Tool Design” discusses time in terms of concepts, methodologies, techniques, tools and perspectives
which are essential for understanding individual time management strategies, with a strong focus on
personal temporal structure usage involving calendar tools. The book provides evidence and insights
for researchers and practitioners to enhance the current electronic calendar system design and
implementation. The book deals with personal temporal structure usage involving calendar tools in
great details so that a person can make the best use of time.
The author discusses the temporal designs of work (8.00 a.m. to 5.00p.m. with an hour-long lunch
break in between, for example) as one type of temporal structure created by our society based on
human social practices and temporal cycle of our bodies. She talks about the complexity of temporality
in our society and throws light on the social aspects of time (socially constructed time).The artifacts,
for example clocks and calendar, record the activities and events through a variety of schedules, which
represent both socially constructed and objective time. The temporality is also affected by social
structures and society temporal regularity. The explicit temporal structures (for example holidays) and
implicit temporal structures (for example an anniversary) also decide the pattern of time management.
The research reported in this book extends temporal structure theories and evidence for investigating
new user requirements to enhance the current electronic calendar systems. This research also offers
insights on capturing and utilizing surrounding temporal structures for successful personal time
management practices.
The book introduces the concept of time based on prior time research and its related concepts.
Quantitative and qualitative time, clock-based and event-based time and linear and cyclical time are
discussed in the book. The complexity of temporal phenomena is dealt with in the book in great detail.
The purpose is to introduce important time concepts to the readers to make learning flow naturally
through out the book. To understand how individuals perceive time, psychological aspects of time are
also explored, particularly focusing on individual’s time urgency and time perspective. The book
reviews and synthesizes time management and temporal personality literatures in organization
behaviour, experimental psychology and educational psychology fields as well as some practical time
management handbooks.
The author identifies how individuals process temporal structure information to develop insights
into quality time management. The book presents the study results of two in-depth interviews with
twenty professionals for identifying what types of temporal structures are being used in their personal
time management practices and possible design implications to further design the current electronic
calendar tools. It seeks to find out whether temporal structure is an important component of individual
time management practices.
To study time management statistically the book reports descriptive data analyses, construct
independence and univariate analyses for a large survey study. The book also describes the process of
normality tests, skewness and kurtosis analyses.
The book tries to identify who are effective time managers? The chapter presents the bivariate
analysis results, and compares the differences between effective time managers and ineffective time
managers based upon their temporal structure knowledge, usage and relationship understanding.
The book enumerates useful and practical time management hints from users that were surveyed
and it identifies user difficulties with the current electronic time management or calendar tools that
users’ desired calendar features. It describes additional stories and evidence from individual users
regarding their time management practices and their expectations about what ideal calendars or time
management tools are needed. The author supports the argument for the need to design and implement
calendar tools that incorporate more temporal structures than the limited ones that are now being used.
A longitudinal study, presented in chapter 12, summarizes and extrapolates the results presented and
combines this data with salient results from the interviews presented in the book .Explicit suggestions
are made for design opportunities that would capture currently unavailable or difficult to capture
temporal structures.
