Time Management© Charles Njue 2010 (Approx. Reading Time: 8 mins) Imagine there is a bank that credits your account each morning with 86,400/=. It carries over no balance from day to day. Every evening deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out ALL OF IT, of course! Each of us has such a bank. Its name is TIME. Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds. Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft. Each day it opens a new account for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours. There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow." There have been volumes written on time management in the personal development and self-help space, but, I would like to tackle this issue form a different angle all together. I would like to explore this art of time management from a practical perspective, which I think you will find to be surprisingly useful and beneficial. This is going to be a two part series and although the focus is on time management to promote personal evolution, I think that you will discover this approach to be very helpful to you in all areas of your life. To start with, let me recap one of the most memorable classes I had in university. One day, our business management professor was speaking about time management and to drive home a point, used an illustration that I will never forget. As he stood in front of the class he said, "Okay, time for a quiz" and he pulled out a one-gallon, wide-mouth jar and set it on the table in front of him. He also produced about a dozen fist-sized rocks and carefully placed them, one at a time, into the jar. When the jar was filled to the top and no more rocks would fit inside, he asked, "Is this jar full?" Everyone in the class yelled, "Yes." The professor replied, "Really?" He reached under the table and pulled out a bucket of gravel. He dumped some gravel in and shook the jar causing pieces of gravel to work themselves down into the spaces between the big rocks. He then asked the group once more, "Is the jar full?" By this time the class was on to him. "Probably not," one of them answered. "Good!" he replied. He reached under the table and brought out a bucket of sand. He started dumping the sand in the jar and it went into all of the spaces left between the rocks and the gravel. Once more he asked the question, "Is this jar full?" "No!" the class shouted. Once again he said, "Good." Then he grabbed a pitcher of water and began to pour it in until the jar was filled to the brim. Then he looked at the class and asked, "What is the point of this illustration?" One eager beaver raised his hand and said, "The point is, no matter how full your schedule is, if you try really hard you can always fit some more things in it!" "No," the professor replied, "that's not the point. The truth this illustration teaches us is: If you don't put the big rocks in first, you'll never get them in at all." What are the 'big rocks' in your life? Time with your loved ones, your faith, your education, your dreams, a worthy cause, teaching or mentoring others? Remember to put these big rocks in first or you'll never get them in at all. So, tonight, or in the morning, when you are reflecting on this short story, ask yourself this question: What are the 'big rocks' in my life? Then, put those in your jar first. Don't over worry about the rest; they will somehow just fit once the big rocks are in first. So that's our first important lesson about time management; PRIORITIZE! For our second lesson, let's pay a visit to our lazy yogi friend, and I think the following little escapade from his life, will illustrate well the second point I want to make regarding time management. This is the story of Lazy Yogi Ponchie & the End of the World Our little story begins on a beautiful moonlight night, where we find our lazy friend in his favorite spot… in bed. Yogi Ponchie had completed his nighttime routine, which is a big task for this laziest of yogis, and had finally curled into bed, under layers of cozy blankets, to get some delicious shut eye. Unfortunately, just as the sweetness of sleep was about to descend, Yogi Ponchie's inner voice sent him a disturbing reminder, "You had to turn on the front porch light, so Dad would not have a hard time unlocking the front door!" "Oh Damn!" thought Ponchie. "Just when I finally got comfortable and was about to fall asleep". Ponchie struggled with his conscious, then finally decided to make his way down. When he opened his eyes though, he saw the moonlight streaming into his room and smiled. "Oh dad won't need the light tonight, it's a full moon and it's like daytime out there," and so he convinced himself to get back to the most important project of the day, sleeping. By the time dad arrived though, dark clouds has covered the sky and the great beauty and light of the moon was nowhere to be seen. An angry father then went about rummaging through his bag, and then sifting through his keys, kicking the door in frustration, as he struggled to endlessly put the wrong key in the hard to find little keyhole. Just then a good neighbor looking through his window saw the shadowy figure pounding the door and fiddling with the lock. "Theif!" he thought, and as any good neighbor would, he promptly called the police. Sargent Jack was on duty and upon getting the call, he, like any good cop would, hit his sirens and sped towards Ponchie's house. The siren, which he cranked up at the traffic light, unfortunately woke Dr. Crawford, who could then not fall asleep again. Ultimately, the whole misunderstanding was cleared up at Ponchie's house and a very grounded Yogi Ponchie returned sheepishly to bed, but, being an expert at sleep, was snoring away at no time… very unlike a irritated and wide awake Dr. Crawford. Now the story gets really interesting… The next day, an assassination attempt took place on the President of the country, who was rushed to the hospital, where the elite surgeon, Dr. Crawford was asked to save the President's life. A sleepy and tiered Dr. Crawford failed! The hostile neighboring country, who had launched the assassination attempt then promptly declared war. Unable to organize itself fast enough without it's commander in chief, Yogi Ponchie's nation launched nuclear missiles, and received the same is retaliation. The world came to an end. What is the moral of the story? This is our second important lesson about time management: TAKE ACTION! Do what needs to be done right away without making excuses. This is a great lesson to learn. You job is to do the very task that is right under your nose right away. That's it. Life places in front of you what needs to be done. Do it! Don't delay, don't debate, don't make excuses, don't over think, act. If you don't act, you may not cause the end of the world, but you will create blockages in your life. Your inner voice constantly reminds you of what needs to be completed. Not taking heed, and ignoring or getting out of these responsibilities, causes the following three problems. Opportunities that may have been lined up for you are lost. Often by completing some tasks, we open the door to certain opportunities. These can be lost by not acting in time or in a non prioritized manner. Return that phone call, go to the gym, email your friend, do what life has indicated you need to do, so that the doors that are meant to be opened, open. We saw what happened to Ponchie's world. A chain of events can be triggered by your actions, or inactions. So heed your inner voice and do what you know you need to get done, right away. It is very possible that not you, but others have to suffer because you did not carry your load in time. I know you don't want to be responsible for World War III :-). Along the same lines, I often notice that tasks ignored or not done in time can often create much bigger problems, if left to fester. Like that glass left on the dinning table, that then gets knocked over by the kids and creates a big mess. I see such consequences all the time. As the list of tasks accumulate, you start to get dragged down by the weight of these pending duties. You don't feel very light or energetic and it eats away at you subtly from inside. When you clear your slate, you not only feel energized, but you make room for your life to move forward and for new pathways to open up. Otherwise, you start to stagnate. One of the biggest challenges you will face when trying to prioritize and go about doing what needs to be right away, is your mind. The mind is very manipulative and a master at making excuses. You will have to be very aware, to catch when you are just making excuses, and you will have to be strong to not give in to them. The one very good thing about these two techniques is that they create their own momentum. In other words, the more you are on the ball, prioritizing and getting things done, the more energy you will find yourself having and the more confident and ready you will feel when the next set of tasks arrives. So just get started. In any moment when tasks pop up for you to do, prioritize and then remember the Nike commercial and Just Do It. You must live in the present on today's deposits. Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success- YOUR BIG ROCKS! The clock is running. Make the most of today. To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade. To realize the value of ONE MONTH, ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby. To realize the value of ONE WEEK, ask the editor of a weekly newspaper. To realize the value of ONE HOUR, ask the lovers who are waiting to meet. To realize the value of ONE MINUTE, ask a person who missed the train. To realize the value of ONE SECOND, ask a person who just avoided an accident. To realize the value of ONE-TENTH OF A SECOND, ask the person who won a silver medal in the Olympics. Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That's why it's called the present! Credits: Bank deposit analogy – author unknown The Jar story – author Unknown Lazy yogi Ponchie : author Anmol Mehta – http://anmolmehta.com |
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