“Time is a vital capital and investable resource that needs to be managed mindfully and effectively to achieve success and happiness.”
Dr Kumaran Rajaram is a Senior Lecturer and Course Director where he lectures, leads a team of senior instructors and is responsible for the curriculum & learning design of management and leadership courses in Nanyang Business School, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. He is also a Fellow with the Centre for Research and Development in Learning (CRADLE) and Founder & Executive Director of Research Lab for Learning Innovations and Culture of Learning - InnosolvLearn, Creative Solutions (http://www.innosolvlearn.com/). He has a Ph.D. with Distinction in Business and Management (majoring in Learning Science). As an acknowledgement for his quality performance, he was nominated for the 2012, 2013, 2014 Emerald Outstanding Doctoral Research Awards. He has received multiple competitive school, university and national level research grants and awards on topics related to pedagogical innovation and leadership competencies. He has published in management education, learning culture in multi-disciplinary context, learning analytics and internationalization of business education. He was instrumental in transforming and implementing the flipped-classroom pedagogy, adopting problem-based and team-based learning in the course that he chairs. Dr Rajaram is also the inventor of many innovative learning interventions (http://blogs.ntu.edu.sg/learning-innovations). He was nominated for the Outstanding USQ Academic & Research Alumnus 2014, 2015 and 2016. He was awarded the John Cheung Social Media Award 2016, NTU EdeX Grants 2016 & 2017 and MOE TRF National Level Grant 2017.
Dr Rajaram has over 18 years of leadership and senior management corporate experience in organizational change, strategic management and learning & training development. He is an expert in management education, internationalization, learning culture & culture of learning, learning development, innovation management, leadership, competency and soft skills development and change management. He started his career as an Engineer, thereafter transited to the corporate world where during his last stints served as the Director of Academic Affairs and Business Development where he championed evolving issues of corporate governance, internationalization and had implemented change strategies and then as the CEO and Executive Chairman of a global change management and leadership consulting firm where he has travelled widely to execute business consultations which has diversified his experiential horizons, especially in the cross-cultural context before he made a transition as an educationalist. Organizations that he has offered his consulting services includes Microsoft, General Electric, Energizer, Siemens, NCS, Sim Global Education, Ferrero Rocher, SINDA and many more. During his entrepreneurial stint, he was interviewed and featured in SPANs magazine in 2008 for being an exemplary and outstanding young entrepreneur, USQ Alumni Newsletter in 2009 – ‘Alumnus achieves professional training success’, Inspire magazine in 2010 for being an exemplary role model as a business practitioner.
Despite his busy schedule and heavy commitments, he is a staunch believer of work-life balance where he disciplines himself to exercise regularly, spend quality time with his family, write and read widely. He is an active jogger, plays street soccer, swims regularly and occasionally involve in adventure sports. He enjoys good music and plays the flute. He is passionate and has a keen interest in personal development, an advocator on the art of time mastery as he strongly believes that effective time management is a vital skill for anyone who aspires to achieve greater success and happiness in life.
How I Governed The Clock In My Pursuit of Time Mastery
During my younger days, my situational circumstances made me realize and embrace the importance of managing time effectively as I had to self-learn and rise to competently deal with the varying priorities concurrently. Rising to the highest pinnacle by achieving an academic qualification of PhD with Distinction (outstanding achievement) and now being a professor in a globally reputed university was an achievement that was possible only through a high level of commitment, being crystal focused, determined to overcome compelling challenges and highly disciplined on effective time management. I have had an opportunity to experience the life of an adult learner and later in my career have taught adult learners. This is to say I had to literally work, manage my personal, family commitments and study at the same time, i.e. cope up with my academic studies by catering time to prepare for my lessons, do my assignments, project works, final exams and so on. This is on top of ensuring I spent some quality time with my family, in many other commitments and responsibilities. A typical day will be spending time at work from morning till around 6 p.m. On those class days, I had to go straight from work to attend lessons till late evenings. As I arrive home on those days, I had very minimal time to decide how I would like to spend it effectively before I go to bed preparing for the next day’s work. This happens 3 days a week, setting aside the weekends. At times, there will also be weekend classes that I needed to attend.
As such, reality has taught me to literally plan my time effectively to ensure I balance my time well so that I could cope with my highly demanding studies, have adequate rest so that I could perform competently at work, spend quality time with my family, building social relationships with my then girlfriend, now wife and close friends and relatives. Moreover, I was an active soccer player, avid marathon runner, active social volunteer, who enjoyed reading, listening to music and appreciating nature. Despite my busy schedule, I have never failed to be actively involved in what I love to do outside my work and studies that makes me an all-rounder.
Currently, being a professor at the University makes effective time management even more crucial as to balance and perform in my varying roles and responsibilities within work plus concurrently as a practicing consultant with the industry, being an active sport enthusiast, involved in voluntary, community-related works as well as maintaining a quality family life. The mantra is to be highly disciplined and committed to the day-to-day activities, not procrastinating on tasks that need to be done, able to clearly prioritize by differentiating the tasks that are important versus urgent, hence acting on those diligently in accordance. Through my years of experience, I have learned that personal mastery of time management is not an option but rather a fundamental requirement for happiness and career success.
My secret to this is to mindfully plan and allocate time carefully but staying highly disciplined to follow them as a serious commitment, which I strongly hold with the highest regard as a personal value and principle of mine. I am glad to share this well-tested and proven formula with years of evidence that have made me achieve various accolades and achievements in my academic qualifications, work and personal life.