People who are highly productive and resourceful have developed the habit of good time management. You can fast-track your success, achieve more in a short time, reduce stress, become more efficient at what you do, climb the ladder of achievements in your career and enjoy a balanced life, if you master effective time management.
By the way, what is time management? Time management can be simply defined as activities management. The crux of the matter is you cannot manage time, what you can manage is what you do with your time. The Creator of life is the only one who has the power to control or direct time. What you and I can do is to effectively use our time. Before we discuss on how to effective manage your time, let me share some fantastic information with you, about time and life.
Time management is life management
Your time is your life. Your life is your time. Guess wha
t? You have a limited time here because your days are numbered. Using your time effectively is the key to maximising your one shot at life. Every second that ticks on the clock is one precious moment of your life. Therefore, you should have a fast tempo for action, and a bias for doing what matters at every moment of your life.
You can transform your life, if you transform how you use your time. I believe you can now understand better why incredibly successful people don’t like others wasting their time. It is because they understand consciously that their time is their life and their life is their time.
Time is fair
Life is not fair, but time is. Life places each one of us in different backgrounds, environments and circumstances. Life gives each one of us different gifts, talents and abilities. However, time is fair. Whether you are Barack Obama, Aliko Dangote, Ifeanyi Atueyi or yours truly Sesan Kareem, we all have the same 24 hours every day. What now shapes our results is how effectively we utilise our time.
Now, this is interesting. Because time is fair, we can also say life is fair. You see, what we truly need to transform our condition or circumstance is to invest our time judiciously in whatever we want to achieve. In other words, if you want to be smart, invest your time in acquiring relevant knowledge, and take action on your knowledge. If you want to be fit and strong, invest your time in exercise, and good diet. If you want to be financially successful, invest your time in becoming the best at what you do. Therefore, you have no excuse that life is not fair to you, because time is fair.
Time should be invested
You can lose money or valuables and gain them back. We have all lost something valuable before and we were able to get some of them back. Donald Trump lost all his wealth twice, filed for bankruptcy, and started all over again; yet he still became a billionaire and the President of the United States.
However, when you waste your time, you waste an integral part of your life that you can never get back. In this light, your time is a precious gift you must invest, use and enjoy to the fullest. I can predict where you will be in the next five years by looking at how you spend your time right now.
Think about it. If someone spends his precious time right now drinking alcohol on a daily basis; in the next five years he would have become be an alcoholic, perhaps suffering from one health challenge or the other, isn’t it? On the flip side, If someone spends his limited time right know creating value for his company or customers on a daily basis, then, in the next five years he would have become more successful and better recognised.
(To be continued…)
ACTION PLAN: Identify what activities contribute to your results and create quality time to do them. Identify activities that waste your time and commit to stop doing them. Guide your time as you protect your life.
AFFIRMATION: I am an effective time manager. I am blessed and highly favoured.
Sesan Kareem, a management consultant helps organisations and their workforce to build a culture of excellence, performance, productivity and profitability.
