I wonder if it is in a similar category to another usage, which seems to be an exclusively US one, to my ears at least: ‘I’ll likely be there around six’ ‘Mitt Romney will likely win this round. In any case, this use of timely seems clumsy and awkward to me, and until today I would have corrected it is an obvious error, substituting it with ‘in a timely manner’, at the very least.Īpparently in accounting it is an accepted usage to mean ‘before the appropriate deadline’: It is not clear if it can also mean ‘in time’. In both cases, timely as an adverb means something like ‘opportunely’ or ‘at the right time’. Merriam Webster gives this example: ‘the question was not timely raised in the state court’ whilst the OED offers this: ‘they seemed to move the Socialists slightly, but timely, to the Right’. Effective time management means getting more of the important work done in. There is another factor here, which is that timely can, in theory, be used as an adverb: ‘The report was filed timely’ ‘The Trustee will vote as instructed…if the Trustee timely receives such participant’s voting instructions’ (two real life examples). Effective time management doesnt mean doing more things or doing them more quickly. Perhaps the difference reflected in the varying OED/Webster’s definition of timely reflects a difference in UK/US usage?

The above quotation was taken from an American website.

But Webster makes ‘sufficiently early’ explicit. The OED’s ‘at a favourable time’ seems to rule out the possibility of ‘by a good time’ (i.e. Merriam-Webster is a bit less supportive of my cause, however: ‘Being or occurring in good time sufficiently early seasonable.’ Nothing about ‘done within the deadline’. The OED supports me in this, I think: ‘done or occurring at a favourable or useful time opportune’. I guess what I dislike about this sentence is the use of timely to mean ‘prompt’ or ‘on-time’. Efficiency refers to the ability to produce maximum output from the given input with the least waste of time, effort, money, energy.

You can also reduce your incoming mail by asking people to send you less, and by. Organize mail using folders like 'Action,' 'Waiting,' and 'Archives,' And when you do check mail, use the two minute rule immediately handle any email that you can read and responded to in two minutes or less. I would equally be happy with someone’s work being timely, if they were some sort of philosopher or critic, or if the work in question offered a relevant and balanced commentary on a contemporary issue – in particular if said issue had gone under-analysed up to this point. Also, try to keep your inbox as clear as possible. Now, to me timely suggests that something is done at the right or appropriate time: a timely interjection, for example, or a timely reminder. “ Their work is timely, accurate and cost efficient.”ĭoes there seem to be something wrong with this sentence? There did to me, too, namely the use of the word timely.

Efficient and timely manner meaning