Time Management (I)

If only there were another hour in the day! Time management is a very important an useful skill to have. With our modern lives spinning at an ever quickening pace, the only way to get everything we need done, leaving some time to sleep and eat, is through time management. I know what you must be thinking, “Do I need to get an expensive PDA (personal digital assistant), or some other type of expensive computer software to organize my entire life?”.

The short answer is ‘no’. In fact the leading trend in many circles is towards these so called “hipster pda” which is a low-tech and cheap solution to getting organized. It is essentially a stack of index cards held together with a binder clip or rubber bands. Yes I know that it might sound a little bit crazy, but thousands, if not more, swear by it.

But lets first take a step back. What is time management? Well to put it the most briefly, I would point to the 2nd Habit of Highly Successful People, putting first things first. Now stop, and think about that for a second. How much of your day is spent just “doing stuff”, but that doesn’t really have any value for you? How many times have we stopped at the end of an exhausting day and realized we hadn’t really accomplished much of anything?

Well that’s just the point. Too often we let ourselves get bogged down by life minutia and become frustrated. However, by first doing first things first, that is setting aside time to do the most important things instead of things that seem important but are merely urgent, e.g., phone calls, emails, busy work, and etc… Now I’m not advocating not picking up the phone when your mother calls you, but in order to get the most out of your days, you need to start asking some questions.

Is this activity important? Does this need to be done right now? How does this activity fit into my overall goals and plans? Is there anything else that I should be doing right now because it is more important?

True it does take a minute to think about these questions and their answers. But it is time well spent as they will pay dividends in giving you more control over your time.

Time management is such a huge topic, be sure to tune in for more updates and tools that you can use to manage your time. Until then, think making the first step to managing your time and putting the “first things first”.

-Jason