Time Management Struggles: How Do You Keep Up with Life's Unstoppable Pace?

Time and tide wait for none.

Time, such an important aspect in our lives, is mostly mismanaged. I would request those interested in the topic to post their thoughts, please!

Thanks,
Pension

As it goes, time management is a misnomer since time cannot be managed at all. Time is the one true equalizer of all people, regardless of their class because we are all given the same amount of time in a day. It's rather our actions that must be managed in relation to the time that we have.

So the question becomes, why do people mismanage their actions? Any ideas?

Tristan
Synergy Institute
Website: [Synergy Institute Online](http://www.synergyinstituteonline.com)

Dear Pension,

Time is not variable but a constant. It cannot be stretched or compressed. We still wish to manage it. Procrastination is a human failing which is mainly responsible for the loss of time as well as a source of worry. Steven Covey has aptly divided activities based on their urgency and importance into four quadrants. Most of our lives, we commit the fatal error of functioning in quadrant I, which deals with crisis management created by procrastination. We have to overcome the crisis management syndrome and start functioning in quadrant II, which deals with urgent/important daily tasks. These tasks need to be planned in advance.

Our priorities must be in order. We cannot begin the day by giving the highest priority to emails and phones rather than tackling large chunks of urgent and important tasks early in the day.

Brigadier Ashwani Kumar

Time management or self-management, whatever it boils down to, one thing finally: what a person does in his daily life and why. Whatever we do, we do to change the way we feel at that moment. Also, we do any task for two reasons: 1) we want to feel good while doing it, and 2) we want to feel better after having done it. If we perceive beforehand that one of these is missing, we don't venture at all (including the tasks essential for a productive day).

You and I do any task either to seek pleasure or avoid pain. Perceived pleasure makes us do tasks, and perceived pain makes us avoid them. These twin forces emotionally hijack us every day. Time management or self-management will be relevant only if we understand the power of the pain/pleasure principle. Time management is not filling our life with hours and years; rather, it's about filling our hours and years full of life.

Regards,
V. Ranganathan
Trainer & NLP Coach
+919840706451

My two pence on this:

Time management/Self Management (could be used interchangeably) are directly and intensely linked with time bound goal setting and clarity of thoughts. Most of the people are not very sure of what they want to do/achieve. Most of them would be unable to answer the question, “[i]Where do you see yourself after 5, 10, 15 years.”?

Lack of purpose, lack of focus in life is a major challenge to effective time management by an individual. If our priorities are clear it is relatively easy to understand and apply the time management principles.

There is one precondition for managing time. We can only manage our time if we have enough work on hand to keep us busy. If we are at leisure with no work, it is very difficult to manage our time. Unless we have a certain time bound target to achieve, it is very difficult to tame our mind for managing time/self.

I would like to give one simple/common example but relevant to the topic. We all would have observed this at some point in our life. "Imagine that a boy comes from USA for 4 weeks. His parents have already shortlisted some of the girls for his alliance. In this short period of time, the boy goes through all the customary family procedures and is back to USA flying on cloud nine after marriage! Friends and family members bond together as a team and each person manages to complete her part of work so that marriage takes place smoothly. One thing to be noted here is that none of the rites, rituals and ceremonies are sacrificed for the dearth of time. Somehow everything falls in place and generally the ocassion finishes smoothly".

On the other hand sometimes even six months are not enough to plan and conduct an ocassion. The reasons are obvious, aren't they?

Any further comments welcome!

Regards,

Surbhi

The concept of Time Management should now move from Management to Leadership. The attitude, willingness, and resolve to do the work make a lot more impact than just using tips and techniques like how to overcome procrastination, how to prioritize, the 80/20 rule, etc.

Regards,
Mobeen Tejani

Dear Ashwani,

It was my general view about the topic "Time Management" and not in response to your mail. I didn't even read your mail. Sorry for any misconceptions.

Best Regards,
Mobeen Tejani

Dear all,

Time is the only dimension available to all living and non-living things (by human standard) in equal proportion. The greats had 24 hours per day, and the not so successful also had 24 hours. How those 24 hours are put into use makes the difference. One may like to call it time management, management of time, or life management as life, any life cycle, in itself is measured in a time dimension.

They say even God does not want to meddle with the flow of time. One can use it or leave it.

We are all provided, on average, with 2.4 crore heartbeats or seconds for an adult life. How best we use or put it to use makes all the difference for happiness, contentment, achievement, sadness, failure, and everything associated only with human emotions.

M. H. Sharieff
Corporate Trainer/Futurist
Aeronautic Management Academy