You were born with a limited about of time, whether you leave this earth at 65 or 105. That makes your time your most valuable possession and yet most people fritter it away by calling themselves bored or staring at an electronic device to while away the hours they don’t know what to do with. The problem is, most people are never told how important their time is, nor do they learn the skill of time management. In other words, people never learn that life management is all about time management. Here are a few thoughts about your time.
Know How You Spend Your Time
You have 24 hours a day. Do you even know how you spend 18 hours of that time? It is important to understand how you are valuing your time now so you can make changes if you need to. Improving your time management means improving your life management. Jot down what you do in a six-hour period, then change it up to a 12-hour period, and finally moving on to 18 hours. Use general categories so you won’t bog yourself down – driving time, emails, sleep, conference, etc.
Understand Distractions and Wandering Mind
Your mind can be your worst enemy when it wants to control a situation, and you don’t listen. You may find it constantly wanders or sends disruptive thoughts into your awareness. Listen to what your mind has to say when it becomes persistent and verbally tell it you will take care of the issue. It sounds crazy, but your ego can be overbearing, so acknowledge the problem and move on.
Identify Technology and Let it Help
Eyal Gutentag uses technology to solve hard problems, and you can too. If you need breaks, set the alarm. If you need reminders or schedules, create a planner with alarms an hour ahead of important meetings. Technology can be your friend if you don’t let it draw you down the black hole of browsing.
Guard your time and manage your life. You are the only one that can.
