There are only 24 hours in any given day. However, there are days when we want to achieve more and days when we can afford the luxury to just let go of everything, grab a beer and lay down on a beach, read a book, relax, daydream, do nothing, just be. But how can we enjoy such days more often when we have so many urgent and important things to do, most of them being needed immediately and some of then even yesterday?
Self growth has emerged into a multi-billion industry, with hundreds of stress management, anger management, time management and many other similar programs that promise individuals to become better after graduating the respective training. In reality, such courses usually have a “honeymoon effect” which makes their visible benefits to last for maximum 6 months, period after which, the students usually go back to where they were prior to attending the course. Yet, they usually feel good about participating in these programs, so they’d repeat the experience whenever they have another chance. Companies are speculating on this human behavior, and pay their employees expensive personal growth trainings as part of the remuneration package for the job. Thus, employees are happy, business owners are happy, training companies are happy, so why not going on with new programs year after year?
Time management systems are part of this madness of self improvement. We all want to be more effective, to achieve more in the same given time, so we try to find new and better ways of cutting corners and getting mountains of things done, if possible at the speed of light.
I’m asking you now: why do you strive to get all those things done today? Why is it so important for you to neglect yourself, your pleasures and your wellbeing only for fulfilling some tasks and actions you may not even care about? What if some of them will be done tomorrow? Or after tomorrow? Or never, perhaps? This brings us to the first step in putting together your customized time management program:
Prioritize
If you ask yourself what could be the worst that would happen if you don’t finish a task before its deadline, you’ll be able to see if it’s urgent or not, if it deserves a top position on your to do list, or it can even be omitted. Going through all things you want to get done for the day will lead you to putting together a prioritized to do list to help you get organized. This being done, you can take the next step which is the “doing” itself. Now it’s important to remember that one of the points of making the list was prioritizing things. Why then would you start working on several of them at once? That’s the second rule for a successful time management program:
Forget Multitasking
If you still insist you can take care of multiple things in the same time and do them all well, think a little bit of Windows, the famous multitasking computer operating system. If you’re a Windows user, you may be aware of the “blue screen or death” and of other errors which occur often enough to upset you. Besides, even if errors don’t occur, there’s a limit on how many programs can run in the same time without affecting the system performance. For a better time management, try to tackle your assignments one at a time. It’s faster. If you don’t believe this, try to monitor two days of your life: one day do things as you use to, ten at a time, and the other day do them one by one. Measure the time needed to complete all tasks then compare the results. You’ll be amazed. So, supposing you’re now convinced and you take the bullets on your to do list one by one, you may see it’s getting late and you still can’t finish everything you thought you needed to get done. Now what? Now remember:
Change Your To Do List
If your list was really long, probably the last items on it will have been done so late that it wouldn’t have mattered anymore if they were pushed for the next day. So, just push them! And remember that any item that’s being postponed for more than 5-6 days is probably not essential and it might just be skipped without consequences for you.
These are only three basic ingredients for a good time management program. However, the recipe could include more, depending on your specific situation and sometimes depending on a certain day or a certain event that might make you suddenly change your priorities. There’s nothing wrong with change, if it’s for the better, so don’t be afraid of it. Yet, if you’re afraid of change, you can always follow a change management program. That’s if you don’t want to make and pursue your own.
