Why Time Management?

We all have limited amounts of time. There are only 24 hours in a day no matter how much we wish for more. And some of those hours we need to sleep to recharge our batteries (ideally around 8),  leaving 16 hours to play with. And everyone of those hours comes only around once. Once it’s gone, it’s gone. There is no way you can relive an hour, make up an hour or get an hour back.

With that in mind it seems logical to try and make the best out of every hour that we have, make every hour count. The term time management is a bit of a misnoma. You can’t really manage time because it’s constant and simply ticks away but you can manage what you do with it. So it’s more about self management than time management, really. It’s a bit like the old joke if “olive oil is made from olives, then what is baby oil made out of?”

So if we can’t manage time, but only ourselves, it should really be quite easy since we are in control of what we do. Or are we? There are so many demands on us these days that it can be really difficult to decide how to spend our time, so many distractions, so many wonderful ways to waste time.

But: If we’re really enjoying ourselves, are we actually wasting time? I would say that depends. If your main goal in life is simply to enjoy yourself and you spend a lot of your time doing just that, then I would say, you’re doing exactly what you should be doing.

Most of us have more aims and goals for our lives though. We want to have a career, make a nice home, achieve diplomas, give something back to society by doing charity work, spend time with our families, socialise with friends, further our education, and so on. The list is endless. But who says you can’t enjoy yourself while following your dreams.

Once you know what your goals are and you have drawn up a plan how to achieve them, and then made room in your diary for the relevant actions that will help you achieve those goals, you are on the right track. You are on target to achieving your goals and you are managing your time well. Or should that be managing yourself?