Make Time Management a Lifestyle
Most of us would like to accomplish more than what we are able to in a day. How many times have you felt that it would be so much easier if you only had a few more extra hours in a day to complete the various tasks that you have on your plate? And how many times have you wished that you could do with a lesser amount of stress and strain that your workload is causing you?
The thing you need to know to overcome this feeling of being over laden with work all the time is to be able to manage your time better. And the most important thing to understand is that time management is not something that you can do as and when you feel that work is getting difficult to handle. It is a lifestyle that you need to adopt and practice each and every day of your life! It is a habit that will lead you to a life where you have peace of mind, better and more efficient work churn out and more time on your hands to do the things you enjoy.
The other thing to appreciate when you start off on your journey to be able to manage your time better is to be prepared that this change that you are going to adopt in your lifestyle will take some time to internalize. It is not something that you can switch on at will. But also be aware of the fact that once this change has been made, life will be much smoother.
There are many techniques that you can adopt to help you in managing your time better and get a kick-start in this process. And the best technique to start with is to learn how to focus on the job at hand. This can be done once you have prepared a list and prioritized the tasks that you have on hand. But once you have decided to take up a particular job, don’t let yourself get distracted on the way. Don’t allow thoughts on other projects to mingle and disturb your thought process. Ensure that you are determined to complete the job at hand before you allow your mind to take detours into other arenas awaiting attention. Avoid taking any kind of breaks while you are at that task and ensure that you complete it before you consider a cup of coffee or a call that you need to make.
Learning the tricks of determination, concentration and discipline shall ensure that after a while you will get so used to focusing on the task that you are doing that you will not need to consciously drive out errant thoughts from entering. At this level, you can safely assume that you have learnt one of the tricks of time management that will ensure that your work gets finished on time and is far better in quality that it used to be earlier.
Vishal P. Rao runs the Work at Home Forum, an online community of those who work from home.
Tags: 
Loading ...
Comments
Gray Miller says on January 4th, 2007 at 9:00 am
Vishal,
I think this relates to a…well, I’ll use the word “challenge” to put a positive spin on it…that I’ve encountered.
It came about after a discussion about “morning rituals.” I came up with what I thought would be a good “morning ritual”–1/2 hour exercise, 15 minute meditation, 15 minute “daily page” journaling, some time with my wife, coffee and email. It seemed to me that was what I’d need to have a good start to the day.
I’ve been working at that now for about a month…and I’ve found that it’s not a daily ritual as much as a daily discipline. Rather than being something I look forward to when I get up, it is something I have to force myself to do every morning. I do reap the benefits–it does give a more balanced start to the day–but it’s not a joy, not a relaxing-into-it kind of experience.
I have confidence that it will eventually reach that point–where instead of effort to do the “ritual”, I am actually doing it automatically–but this process of acquiring the habit, of conditioning myself, of (well, let’s just say it) hacking my life wasn’t what I expected when I started out.
I suspect that time management as a lifestyle choice would have the same type of transition. You can’t just slip into it; you need to condition yourself to look at the world that way, and keep that focus until it does become internalized.
Wish me luck.
Glenn says on January 4th, 2007 at 5:04 pm
Let me respectfully suggest that we stop talking about managing our time. We can no more manage the flow of time than we can manage the path of the Earth around the Sun. But what we can manage is our actions. It’s easier to be more effective when you stop blaming your lack of effectiveness on an external factor such as time and take responsibility for your actions.
I agree with the comments about discipline and habit. They’re right on target.
I recommend David Allen’s “Getting Things Done” and Peter Drucker’s “The Effective Executive” for specifics.
I’ll be reading…
Regards,
Glenn
Crawdaddy says on January 4th, 2007 at 7:57 pm
I must echo Glenn’s comment. His book recommendations are, remarkably, the exact ones I would recommend too. In fact, one day in 2001 when I was feeling overwhelmed I wandered into a bookstore and picked those two…. and they are two of the most important books I have ever read (Getting Things Done, and The Effective Executive). “Managing time” is a myth. What people really need to focus on to feel better at the end of the day is eliminating commitments that you don’t enjoy or that give you little return, to make room for commitments you do enjoy or that bring you a big return. That, plus do a weekly review every week (see Getting Things Done…)
Leon says on January 5th, 2007 at 2:31 am
“Time management” in many books actually refer to “how do we manage ourselves to use time”, but not “how do we manage time”.
And now we are just get used to the term.
Anyway, the term usage IMO does not matter - we all know what Vishal refers to, by reading his article.
Vishal says on January 5th, 2007 at 5:24 am
I suspect that time management as a lifestyle choice would have the same type of transition. You can’t just slip into it; you need to condition yourself to look at the world that way, and keep that focus until it does become internalized.
Wish me luck.
Very true Gray. Any sort of conditioning or change of habit requires good deal of perseverance. Wish you all the “will power” to go on. I believe you need that more than luck
Glenn: I’ll check out your recommendations.
Dedicated Hosting says on January 5th, 2007 at 5:26 am
Well, a true fact is that time is never going to be sufficient in order to complete the multi-tasks. Even if it increases by 5 hours, our work will certainly increase by 10 hours.It is definitely a double ratio especially in a proffesional business.
Alex Shalman says on January 5th, 2007 at 4:25 pm
This article states the simple truth, well done!