When I was a child I had a book of Aesop's Fables. I don't know how popular these tales are these days, but I remember being struck by the cleverness of them. For example, in The Crow and the Pitcher, a thirsty crow cannot reach the water in the bottom of a pitcher to drink. However, this crow had clearly brushed up on his problem-solving skills and he dropped stones into the pitcher until the water level had risen enough so that he could drink. Clever.

Old Aesop died over two thousand years ago and yet some phrases and sayings from his fables are still in common use. In the tale of The Fox and the Grapes, a thirsty fox tries to snatch some juicy grapes that hang temptingly from the vine. Yet, no matter how high he jumps, the grapes remain beyond his reach. Finally he gives up and goes on his way, comforting himself with the thought that the grapes are probably sour anyway. And to this day we still use the term sour grapes when someone is disparaging towards something that is beyond their reach.

But, to finally steer this article around to the business skill that is to be the subject of it, one of Aesop's best-known fables (Aesop didn't actually write the fables, rather he collected them), The Hare and the Tortoise, serves as a good illustration of time management.

I'm sure you are all familiar with this tale, where the hare races off while the tortoise plods on. However, as in time management, speed is not always the prime factor, as the hare found to his cost. So it is with the daily workload - tearing at it like a hare is not always the best approach for, as we all know, more haste means less speed.

Mr T (no, not that one, this is an imaginary office worker) and Mr H are rivals in the same office, vying for a promotion that is coming up. One of the main factors that will decide which of the two will get the promotion, and the hefty salary rise that comes with it, is productivity.

"It's in the bag," says Mr H, "I can type like the wind while old Mr T plods on with his tongue out." And with this Mr H started typing away very quickly

But while Mr H sped away, Mr T brought into play all of his time management skills and his progress was steady, if slower than that of Mr H. He studied his to do list and prioritised his workload. In doing this he took into consideration the fact that workers are generally more productive in the morning when they are fresher, so he put the more strenuous jobs at the top of the list so that he would have the energy to tackle them.

Mr H on the other hand, just sped through one job after another, sometimes showing off his multitasking skills by doing two at once and not bothering to prioritise his workload. He believed himself to be so far ahead of Mr T that when he answered his phone to Jenny from admin, he spent time chatting her up. His rival, however, had set up an automated email reply and answer phone message to tell callers that he would be unavailable for the whole of that day.

Mr T continued to plod on methodically and carefully, sticking to each task until it was completed before moving on to the next one, well aware that switching between jobs is counter-productive in the long run.

Finally Mr H hung up the phone and he was startled to see that he was now actually behind Mr T. Not only that, he also had several unfinished tasks because he didn't stick to doing one at a time. Just as Mr T finished the last of his tasks the boss entered and Mr H was still frantically typing away. After checking their respective efforts, the boss awarded Mr T the promotion, while Mr H took a few weeks' sick leave, suffering from burnout. "I didn't want the job anyway, there's a much nicer view from this window," he said as he left the office, demonstrating that sour grapes still have a place in the modern world.

Not quite in the class of the original fable, but it does show that a methodical, planned approach to getting through the daily workload can be more productive than going at it flat out, and time management skills are an essential part of planning and prioritising. Good time management can result in increased productivity, which is beneficial to all involved and so it is definitely a skill worth developing.