Time Management – Dutch Uncles

Explained: Transaction Date And Settlement Date

Aakash Sharma — Fri, 17 Sep 2021 03:30:09 +0000

It is essential to know that you, as an investor, cannot directly buy, sell or trade shares in the stock market. You have to have an account opened via brokers to engage in a stock market transaction, whether online or traditional.

When you initiate a sell or buy order on shares, your brokerage firm transfers the order to the stock exchange. The stock exchange then uses the Automatic Order Matching System to execute different orders.

But when you buy shares, they do not come to your Demat account immediately. Similarly, when you sell shares, the money earned from them does not immediately come into your trading account.

Let’s delve deeper to understand what happens in a stock market transaction and how the securities reach your account.

Clearing corporations

A clearing corporation is an organisation associated with an exchange to handle transactions’ confirmation, settlement, and delivery. Clearing corporations fulfil the primary obligation to ensure that transactions are made promptly and efficiently.

Examples of clearing corporations include India International Clearing Corporation (IFSC) Limited, Metropolitan Clearing Corporation of India Ltd., Indian Clearing Corporation Limited. Clearing corporations do not communicate with buyers and sellers on a stock market; they communicate with clearing members.

Clearing member

A Clearing member refers to a member of the clearing corporation. The clearing member clears and settles deals for a segment and is subject to predetermined terms, conditions and procedures.

All stock exchange firms are stock exchange members and are called trading members (trading corporations). Each trading corporation has to become a member of a clearing corporation compulsorily. As mentioned above, members of the clearing corporations are clearing members.

Journey of your stock investment: Transaction date and Settlement date

Whenever you buy a stock, bond or mutual fund, there are two critical dates in the process: a transaction date and a settlement date.

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As its name shows, the transaction date represents the date on which the transaction occurs.

For example, if you acquire 500 shares of a company’s stocks today, then today is the transaction date. However, the settlement date is a bit trickier to understand. Settlement date represents the time at which the ownership is transferred. The transfer of ownership does not always occur on the transaction date. It varies upon the type of securities you are trading in.

For example, treasury bills and bonds issued by the central government and the RBI are the only securities that can be transacted and settled on the same day.

What is the reason behind the delay in the actual settlement?

In the past, investors did security transactions manually rather than electronically. They had to wait for days to deliver the particular security they had invested in, which was in actual certificate form and would not pay until the reception.

Since delivery time could vary and the price could fluctuate, market regulators set a period in which parties must deliver securities and cash. Today, the settlement period is set at T+3, i.e. settlement must occur within three business days of the transaction.

Transaction date: What do T+1, T+2, T+3 mean?

If you buy or sell a security with a T+3 settlement on, say, Monday, assuming that there are no holidays during the week, the settlement date will be Thursday (not Wednesday). The “T”, or transaction date, is counted as a separate day.

The settlement date is the set ‘last’ date when the buyer must finish the cash transfer process to the seller of any financial entity (and vice versa). During the settlement period, the seller has the securities or assets of the buyer. On the settlement date, the seller releases the securities or investments to the buyer.

Generally, for bonds and stocks, the settlement date is two working days from the date of execution (T+2). It is (T+1) in the case of government securities and options. In the case of spotting foreign exchange, the settlement date is two business days after the transaction date.

Differences in settlement date

In life insurance policies, the date on which the policy gains are settled is the settlement date. The financial market determines the number of business days after completing a transaction for which the asset or securities must be delivered and paid for. The difference between the settlement date and transaction results from the time needed for the seller to provide.

As the delivery time differs and prices are susceptible to several factors, they may fluctuate. For this reason, the regulatory authorities have stipulated a guarantee period within which the interested parties must pay guaranteed money. Today’s trades are, thus, completed in less time using the latest technology.

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Being Busy and Successful are Not the Same Thing

Tripti Nath — Sat, 17 Apr 2021 02:35:03 +0000

Some years ago, I worked in an organisation where a bespectacled man nearing retirement feigned efficiency by sitting for hours on end before the desktop or television. His productivity was negligible but he had mastered the art of projecting himself as the most dedicated and loyal employee in the company.

Entrusted with the task of monitoring news, he was actually playing games on his computer and even checking his luck in the fluctuating stock market. Obviously, the screen was not visible to the bosses and he got away with professional dishonesty. He had been on the payrolls for more than three decades. To impress bosses, he would not step out for lunch and was even hesitant going to the washroom when they were around. Like an elementary level schoolboy, he would cup his mouth by ducking under his desk to secretly catch a bite from his home packed tiffin. In between monitoring news, he would also offer to do odd jobs such as getting Wi-Fi connections fixed, calling photocopy machine engineers to service the machine, calling lift maintenance companies and what not. Strangely, this was not his work. It was clear that he was presenting himself as an indispensable multi-purpose worker, doing the work of everybody else but missing stories in his own domain. Unfortunately, he succeeded in tricking some gullible bosses with his misleading dedication to work. Support staff made fun of him as he encroached on their work territories as well. But if you were to ask me, “Was he successful?” I would say, “No.” Here lies the fine difference between being busy but not being productive or useful to an organisation.

Thankfully, some smart bosses could see through his armchair journalism. The fact is that he was bluffing himself. Since he would not go to the field for gathering news, he had no real sources. So, when big news break happened, he would struggle to get information and contact sources that mattered. All he could manage was information from secondary sources such as news agencies, live updates on digital platforms, television news. These were his lifelines. When asked to get a quoteworthy opinion on a critical issue, he would fabricate quotes by stealing opinions of experts from opinion pieces on think tank websites and pass these off as his own. The smarter and the more discerning bosses dismissed him as manipulative and hired a professional staffer to teach him real journalism.

The idea of giving this example is to drive home the fact that such staffers don’t do any good either to themselves or to the organisation. They cling to the job only for a stable pay cheque but are not really rated successful or professional by the organisation

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Know the difference between being a workaholic vs. a high performer. The former wants to look more important, but the latter seeks out important work. Knowing the difference can help you do more in each moment of your day.

- Jullien Gordon, High performance coach

Workaholic and High Performer: What’s the Difference?

In contrast, the highly productive people are real go-getters. They know how to master the day by setting small term accomplishable goals and logging their activities. Just as some people maintain a record of their expenditure to know where they are spending the money, the successful people track the time.

Jullien Gordon, High Performance Coach says, “Know the difference between being a workaholic vs. a high performer. The former wants to look more important, but the latter seeks out important work. Knowing the difference can help you do more in each moment of your day.’’

To be successful, one must have a clear conscience. My argument about this is plain and simple. How can somebody who feigns to be super busy at his workplace without any substantial meaningful contribution have a good night’s sleep? Honesty is a prerequisite for real success, not success that is achieved by shortcuts like lies, deceit, credit stealing and manipulation.

The reason is simple. Nothing can be achieved by a person who only feigns that he is busy. As the late U.S. President Abraham Lincoln said, “You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all of the time.”

Understanding Types of Work

It is equally important to understand that distractions do not contribute to productivity and it is therefore essential to eliminate them. We are taught early in life by our parents, teachers and guardians to do everything in our power to give our fullest attention to the task at hand. In reality, the highly productive people are real go-getters. They know how to master the day by setting small term goals and logging their activities. Most of us also get bogged down by the regular flow of workplace mails. It makes sense to unsubscribe from unwanted mails as much as it is to exit avoidable WhatsApp groups where random posts from members can actually interrupt your work.

In his book ‘Deep Work: Rules for Focused Success in a Distracted World’, Cal Newport introduces two types of work: Deep work and Shallow work.

Deep Work

According to him, deep work involves discharging Professional activities in distraction-free concentration that push your cognitive capabilities to their limit. It creates new value, improves skills, and is hard to replicate. Researching, exploring ideas, writing thoughtful content, analysing data, and developing a strategy are all examples of deep work.

Shallow Work

His definition of Shallow work involves logistical tasks that don’t require much brainpower and are often done while distracted. This work does not usually create new value and is easy to replicate. Dealing with email and chat messages, checking social and platform notifications, pulling reports, and data entry are examples of shallow work.
To my mind, a bird that flies far to collect twigs and material to make a nest is an exception. She is both busy and successful. But in real life, overstressed executives who are forever complaining of paucity of time are not really successful.

Are we fearing inactivity?

Some of us take great pride in our ability to do several tasks at the same time.. Experts say that multi-tasking actually slows us down and busyness actually makes us less productive. Neuroscience studies on the functioning of the brain suggest that every time we switch tasks (what we call multi-tasking), it’s “expensive” for us in terms of lost time and productivity. A study published in The Journal of Experimental Psychology showed that those who multitask are less effective than those who focus on one project at a time.

Researchers from the University of Chicago found that the belief that busyness is a sign of success and hard work is so prevalent that we actually fear inactivity. The researchers also found that people use busyness to hide from their laziness and fear of failure. They burn valuable time doing things that are not necessary or important because this busyness makes them feel productive.

True productivity is the ability to create high impact results in a short amount of time.

Management Consultant Peter Drucker said, “Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else. To be productive, you need to keep your motivation high.”

How often have we come across salesmen in groceries who play deaf when a customer inquiries about a product? They come to the shop at 9 a.m. and some of them even work beyond the eight hour shift but what is their contribution? It is not uncommon to find salesmen complaining of unrealistic monthly sales targets to sell white goods such as air conditioners, television sets, washing machines, coolers, heaters and laptops.

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Many organisations fail after they succeed because they think they own success and forget the rent is due every day

- Pat Sullivan, A coach, teacher and administrator

Customer satisfaction is the Prerequisite for Productivity

Kory Kogon, author of The 5 Choices: The Path to Extraordinary Productivity, points out, “We do feel that busy equals productivity and it is not.”

In the super competitive world of journalism, a reporter is as good as his last story. The hours he spends chasing news and sources and digging out information must yield a regular steady flow of news stories and exclusive news reports. Way back in 1993, my first Chief Reporter in the New Delhi bureau of The Statesman, one of India’s most respected news dailies, told me that in journalism, a reporter’s by line or credit line is a measure of his/her productivity. Abid said that journalism is an open show where readers and peers judge you on the basis of your actual output that is instantly visible. Of course, this theory may not hold well in case prejudiced desk person tosses out a reporter’s by line.

Pat Sullivan, a successful coach, teacher and administrator in the Chicago area for 44 years, says, “Many organisations fail after they succeed because they think they own success and forget the rent is due every day.”

So, what is important is to keep challenging oneself to do better every day.

Look at a watchmaker. He spends a good part of the day straining his eyes to repair watches. But his success at the end of the day can be measured only by his satisfaction with his output. The same is true of a daily wage worker like a cobbler sitting by the roadside. It is not about how many hours he sits on the pavement with his head bent down to fix footwear and leather goods but what he actually repaired. If his clients come back to him or refer him to their friends, surely his work has yielded results. Satisfaction of the customer is a prerequisite for good productivity.

Don’t be Busy, Be Productive

Noted author Robin S Sharma has said “Don’t confuse activity with productivity.” Some people are simply busy being busy.

Let us look at the number of civil service aspirants in India who change their routine and spend hours on end everyday preparing for the examination. Some of them join well known coaching academies and others join online classes. Those who cannot afford either of these seek solitude in libraries and sit in the reading room from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Once they are back home, they resume studies after a two hour break, stay up all night and sleep barely five hours. The question is how many of them succeed in the preliminary examination. What is crucial is not the number of hours that one needs to invest to succeed but a focused approach where even five hours can guarantee success.

In my view, productivity can be guaranteed if people begin to prioritize tasks after making a things-to-do list, eliminate distractions, focus on completing one thing at a time and try to delegate tasks that can be done by someone else. So, how can one eliminate distractions in an era where most of us are addicted to checking our mobile phones? The best way to get rid of distractions is to put the phone on silent mode, turn off email notifications, put a do-not-disturb sign on your door and have a clutter free workplace.

In his book Being Busy is Not Always Productive, Delhi based author Deepak Gupta writes, “You know why people fail because they use their right energy in the wrong place. They use their energy at the place where they can’t even judge how much capability they have to accomplish the right tasks. People fail at the wrong tasks and get afraid to do the right tasks in life. Time has nothing to do with productivity.’’

Being busy and being successful are surely two very different things. So next time, you don’t answer a call and text declaring, “I am busy”, give it a rethink. It makes manifold sense to be productive and say. “I am productively preoccupied.” This affirmation will push your limits to justify your affirmation.

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Learn How to Manage Your Most Precious Resource Effectively

Tripti Nath — Sat, 27 Mar 2021 00:30:08 +0000

“Time is money”, said Benjamin Franklin in an essay ‘Advice to a young tradesman. This oft-quoted aphorism by none other than one of the Founding fathers of the United States, holds eternal value as it forcefully underlines a sure recipe for success.

The aphorism actually means that time is a valuable resource. Therefore, it’s better to do things as quickly as possible. Losing time means losing money. And anybody in a job or enterprise must remember that lost time is as expensive as lost money. Successful entrepreneurs will tell you that they are as careful with their time as with their money.

Franklin who lived till the age of 84, created time blocks to manage his time effectively and protect his day from unexpected interruptions. He created a plan of action each morning and dedicated time for a subject separate from work. His daily schedule was aimed at doubling productivity and his life accomplishments speak volumes of the success of his schedule. Franklin invented the lightning rod, made significant discoveries in Physics, composed music and founded many civic organisations.

Time Management: An early lesson in life

Time discipline begins at home from kindergarten days and children get used to stepping out of homes at a certain time to go to school and know that they get a tiffin break and finally a break to pick up their bags and go home. Once children move from elementary level to junior school, they follow a daily schedule in school where a seven hour school day is divided into classes of 45 minutes each. It is in these classes that children are introduced to different subjects- English, Hindi, Mathematics, History, Geography and Science.

So, it is rather early in our lives that we learn to process information on a variety of subjects. The annual academic calendar in school, college or university which is interrupted by summer and winter vacations teaches us how to manage time well and use these breaks to find time for study and leisure. The examination system is also governed by a date sheet that spells out the time, date and venue for examination.

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An individual who embarks upon his own enterprise must master multi-tasking and learn how to manage his/her time well.

Time Management Tactics from British and Japanese

The British and the Japanese are known the world over for their punctuality. Not many people know that in Japan, a train conductor will usually apologise to the passengers even if there is a one minute delay in service. The trains depart at the exact departure time printed on the train time table for all railway and metro services and halt normally for less than a minute at the designated stations. This reflects the huge significance that the Japanese give to time and efficiency. For the Japanese, it is important to stick to schedules as per the appointed time. In Japan, anybody who fails to turn up at the appointed time is not considered dependable and cannot be trusted.

Likewise, the British too are known to keep the time.

In the Japanese work system, being late at work is completely unacceptable and they are known to abide by their time schedule with clockwork precision. It is often said that in the Japanese work culture, there is 90 per cent planning and ten per cent execution. A Japanese company employee said that the Japanese try to do their best to meet the deadline. He explained that the importance of time is taught to children at a very young age in Japanese families. Since most parents are working and have very demanding work schedules, their children cannot afford to miss the school bus and therefore, the parents teach the children to prepare their school bags the previous night to be well in time to reach the bus stop.

How to manage time in the Work-From-Home Model?

Every job around the world has fixed hours for reporting at work. Although work from home has become the new normal in Corona times, that too calls for work discipline from home which is not easy with distractions in a home setting.

An individual who embarks upon his own enterprise must therefore master multi-tasking and learn how to manage his/her time well. He must have clarity about his goals and learn to be efficient and quick and know how to make the best out of a workday. I know a journalist in Greater Noida who helps his wife in her export business. Apart from monitoring news, he finds time to talk to prospective buyers overseas and plan the proper packing of goods. If anybody happens to call him when he is busy, he does not hesitate to remind the caller that the 15-minute conversation has cost him a loss of money. His logic is that he could have spent his precious time responding to business queries from prospective clients. It may sound offensive but the fact of the matter is that a businessman knows how to calculate the worth of an hour. Saving those 15 minutes helps him earn extra income.

Women Entrepreneurs: Masters of Time Management

A peep into the lives of three women entrepreneurs convinced me that all of them have common qualities that keep them going. Apart from being clear-sighted, they have a passion for work and have mastered the art of efficient time management. Take the case of Puja Sahu, a 44-year-old businesswoman who runs a Potbelly chain of restaurants in Bengaluru, Delhi, Gurugram and Patna.

Born in Muzaffarpur in Bihar and educated in Nainital in Uttarakhand and Delhi, Puja decided to start her own restaurant from Shahpur Jat in Delhi. It has been ten years now from the time she set up her first restaurant. Encouraged by the overwhelming response to Bihari cuisine, Puja started Potbelly restaurant in Bihar Niwas near Delhi’s Diplomatic enclave in Chanakyapuri relying on her mother’s recipes. She then moved on to setting up another restaurant in 32nd Milestone in NH 8 in Gurugram. The fourth restaurant came up in Bihar Museum in Patna and the fifth one in Bengaluru. While Puja agrees that running a restaurant is a hell of a task alongside raising her five and a half year old daughter, she has learnt to manage things with her core team. “ You have to set Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) at regular intervals and ensure that they are being followed. When you are running a large enterprise, you have to learn to delegate work. You cannot micro manage everything. In business, a like-minded core team is very important.’’

So, how does Puja handle her roles as a daughter, mother and wife alongside her business. “Days are really short. No matter how hard I try or plan ahead, my day is dictated by my daughter’s schedule. Of course, I set goals for the day. Short term goals help me achieve long term goals. At the end of the day before I go to bed, that is the only time I get to reflect on what I have achieved that day and to set goals for the next day. I was a backbencher in school but I learnt the hard way that lax attitude and no goals can get you nowhere. One has to strip yourself of all the wealth one has and see what you have accomplished on your own,” says Puja who holds a degree in Commerce from Bhagat Singh College of Delhi University.”

Learning Human resource management and surprise visits are very important to ensure quality control, says Puja. “ One has to work closely with the staff, listen to them, address their problems and work at every level. This entails tasting food in the kitchen, ensuring that the tables are clean and reminding them to wear masks in Corona times. It is important to have a penetrating eye to identify deficiencies. One thing you should never do is ask your employees to cut corners. And what is most important is that your seeking spirit should never die.”

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Aspiring entrepreneurs must remember that passion, discipline, proper planning and customer satisfaction, are crucial for success.

Another Delhi based entrepreneur Rumana Vachha Menon, is doing well baking cakes. A jovial Parsi, 38 year old Rumana began her baking business from home four years back.

Rumana pulled out her grandmother Khorshad Vachha’s cake recipes and began studying more about baking. “ Baking runs in my blood. My grand-mother was an amazing baker. I started baking and it soon developed into my passion. I did a Diploma course from Truffle Nation in Delhi and began taking orders from people in the neighbourhood in Anand Niketan. Today, Rumana’s cakes are really sought after and she manages time effectively by taking orders only on prior notice. “ I worked in Hyderabad for six years in the sales department of a leading hotel. When my daughter was born, my priorities changed. I had to give up my job because I had to give her more time but I did not want to sit idle. I am able to manage things well at home with prior orders. It is a blessing that I am able to use some of my grandmother’s recipes. Baking gives me a lot of pleasure.’’

Like Puja and Rumana, Mumbai based entrepreneur Ruchi Srivastava has also been inspired by her Lucknow based maternal grand-mother, Rajkumari to start a cosmetic range of skin and hair care cosmetics which sell under the brand name ‘Veditatva Ayurveda’. Ruchi says she is 42 years but has a wrinkle free skin as she has always used home care skin and home care products made by her grandmother. Ruchi began making her own products four years ago from her flat and has about 4000 clients in India and overseas. She accepts orders online and delivers products, on an average 10 to 12 everyday by courier. “I was lucky that my grandmother passed on the traditional knowledge that she acquired from her father, an Ayurveda Acharya. Anything is possible if you have the passion. Getting up early helps me map and manage my day better. I have domestic helps who assist me with household chores. That helps me devote about five hours to my own business. Soap-making is very relaxing. My husband and my two sons who are 14 and 21 year old respectively, use my products.”

Ruchi says that aspiring entrepreneurs must remember that passion, discipline, proper planning and customer satisfaction, are crucial for success. “ Anybody who wants to succeed in business cannot afford to be directionless. You must work consistently and plan your day in advance and be clear about what you want to accomplish.

A look at the lives of these three women entrepreneurs tells us that sky is the limit for home businesses with social media platforms like Facebook and WhatsApp.

Where your time goes: Keep a check

Aspiring entrepreneurs must remember that most of us often try to control our expenditure by logging it. What is equally important is to cultivate a habit to log time. Logging time can give us amazing results. It helps you know where your time goes. Once we have done this exercise, we must categorise our activities as essential, important, unimportant, and wasted. This way, we will stop wasting time in needless activities.

Those forever complaining of shortage of time can try to execute the ancient Indian philosopher and economist Chanakya’s prescription of maximising time by dividing the day into slots of 90 minutes each and setting targets for these slots.

While punctuality is a sought after value in work cultures globally, there are professions that place a premium on it. For instance, the aviation business would not be able to do well if pilots would not arrive in time and take off on time. The Army would not be able to defend borders well if those deployed at the border would not keep the time. Restaurants would close down if the Chef is not able to produce the ordered dish well in time for the steward to present it at the table. 24/7 news channels hinged on the world of breaking news would close down if reporters on the spot fail to relay news on time. Alongside time management, an entrepreneur should also cultivate the concept of reaction time which is the speed at which an individual reacts to situations. This can give an entrepreneur an edge over his rival.

Military academies the world instil in young cadets the importance of punctuality by rigorous punishment.

A newspaper editor I know, says that he does not like putting off tasks for the next day. He says he goes about accomplishing tasks as he lives everyday as his last day.

As Nobel laureate Guru Rabindra Nath Tagore said, “The butterfly counts not months but moments, and has time enough.’

No talent is good enough if it is not synchronised with good time management.

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