No time to check time! Is it true?
You must have used this phrase before “I no get time!” Or, the more popular one among millennials and generations after: “No time to check time!” So, is it really true that we don’t have sufficient time to do the things we want to do?
When I was growing up, a common phrase that was in vogue to make us work better was ‘time nah money’! I grew up in the barracks and our lingua Franca was what we call ‘broken English’. Once we used that phrase, we were reminded that we don’t have time to do whatever we wanted. Truly your time can be spent doing so many things other than the things that matter the most. That is why time management is critical and important.
Time management; is there a set process to it?
Good time management enables you to work smarter – not harder – so that you get more done in less time, even when time is tight and pressures are high. The answer lies in setting a process of planning, which is actually sets of conscious controls on specific activities, especially to increase effectiveness, efficiency, and productivity. So, yes, we don’t have sufficient time to do the things we want to do, but only if we don’t determine everyday WHAT IS IMPORTANT and PURPOSEFUL. Once we can determine from our log of activities, what is important and purposeful from what isn’t, we have begun on the path to time management.
Is it practically possible to consistently track and allocate time to more important things amidst so much to do?
Funny enough, you know you use the word SPEND OR SPENT when we talk about time: this is because whether you know it or not, time is been SPENT per second, per minute, per hour per day. The cumulative calculation of that time is what determines day, month and year. Well, since it’s always the same 24 hours for everyone who lives on earth, then there is an equal RESOURCE in time for everyone rich or poor to use for their benefit.
This resource is given to us to make meaningful, effective, efficient and productive use of to become whatever we want to be. At the end of the day, a man’s life is calculated in time. So, if time is spent, just like money, it can be SPENT wisely or foolishly. You know, really, any SPENDING needs some fine arts to master the process. If an ‘app’ will help wake you up on time, it’s cool!
Let me share something with you:
My personal strategy
1. Begin your day with a clear focus.
What is most important to you? What will contribute to your ultimate goal in life? Allocate more time to that thing.
2. Put down a purposeful task list.
This will require you to know who you are, what you want to be, not what people want you to be or are forcing you to be. You may need to talk to a counselor, a religious leader or coach to help you figure this out and then SPEND more to become that thing
3. Focus on high-value activities.
As we journey along in life, many things will catch your interest. Things that LOOK like where you are going, and things that will attract you because you have strength; you’ve got to know what are the high value activities for you along the path to your set destination for the day. What are the 20% things you do that give you the 100% yield? Allocate more time to those things.
4. Note and Minimize interruptions.
Once you discover your purpose and those high value activities, focus your mind. Give more time to those things and reduce distractions and interruptions. Now, in mastering anything you will need to exchange time for it. Time is actually the currency we spend on life, that’s why you exchange eight hours daily for a salary. If you are a consultant like me, you exchange 11 hours, or days, or months for an amount. The concentration required to deliver on those things that matter most to you is the TIME you give to it. I study my bible about 5 hours daily because it matters most to me. Time is what you pay to get the value that you then exchange for money, therefore you must minimize interruptions into your time, else that will hinder you in life.
5. Stop procrastinating.
Procrastination is not only a killer of time but a stealer of destiny and divine opportunities. You see, time in life is both chronological and divine. The divine time is when opportunities meet with your skill set or quality perspective, character or knowledge that you have built with sufficient TIME investment.
I see people do what they like WHEN they like it. Such people NEVER become great people in life. Doing the right thing at the wrong time will make the right thing wrong. Doing the wrong thing at the right time makes it wrong. Doing the right thing at the right time is what makes a man become great. There must be balance; when you postpone the acquisition of a skill or character or discipline, you miss an appointment or opportunity.
We must discern seasons and SPEND time when it needs to be spent. If you need to learn how to cook now that you are single, do it now. You don’t learn to cook in your husband’s house: that is crisis in the waiting. When you don’t learn a lesson WHEN you should LEARN it, the lesson will be repeated and it will become more painful and tougher for you
Do it now!
6. Limit multi-tasking
If you are just learning how to SPEND or manage TIME, don’t multi-task. Do one thing well and finish it then add another to it
7. Review your day and life constantly
Don’t just put your life on auto drive. From time to time, check to see that the brakes are still working👍🏻