Understand what it means, when we say “You cannot do different things at the same time.” You can't plant a seed and harvest immediately. There is a season which is appropriate to plant a seed and a season to harvest. Two different things cannot happen at the same time.
If you look at what you are doing with that time, you can set your current priorities. Suppose you want to fit in other tasks that are important to you, you will have to prioritize the important tasks and thereby saying no to tasks of lesser priority and that go along with them. It would be unfair when people often take excuses to complete the tasks on time stating lack of time as the reason. You have the same amount of time as Presidents and Kings. If we are more honest, we would say, “It is not an important one at this instance.”
Tracking your time will obviously make you more aware of where your minutes go throughout the day. By tracking where I spent every moment for a few days I found more time to read, talk with others, and get my priorities met. This isn’t my own idea, but it was brilliant, however, strategically speaking, I always try to maximize my control over time by being employed because I have to follow office timings strictly. I eliminate travelling time almost entirely by staying near to the workplace.
Tactically speaking, I make it a point to say no to low-value activities. By doing just the three things above, a lot of time has been freed up daily. On this subject of 'Time', I came across a beautiful poem on the internet, which I would love to share with you.
"To everything there is a season,
and a time for every purpose under the heaven:
A time to be born and a time to die;
a time to plant and a time to uproot,
A time to kill and a time to heal;
a time to tear down and a time to build up;
A time to weep and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn and a time to dance;
A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
A time to get, and a time to lose;
a time to keep and a time to cast away;
A time to rend, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time for war, and a time of peace" [1]
Sometimes, I used to feel that I do not have time to read. But I found time by just using 10–15 minute intervals, when I’m travelling, waiting etc. There will be some small intervals that you are not doing anything useful. Use those small intervals to do what you want.
If it is too big for that set aside an hour or so before you go to sleep, or when you wake up. There will be lot of time during the day when you are engaged in watching TV or phone etc. Those are the activities you can trade out for what you wanted to do. How many times a day, a week, a month do you tell yourself: “I don’t have time for this because I have to do this?” This is just an excuse we tell ourselves to justify the fact that we don’t want to do something. As a student, I had often heard people at my campus say things about how they didn’t have time to hang out with friends, go to the gym or engage in other activities, just because they had too much revision to do. These are just excuses because it takes effort.
It takes effort to manage your time correctly, it takes effort to schedule your day, it takes effort to wake up early, and it takes effort to stay up late to do work rather than watching TV. Although out of 24 hours doesn’t seem like much sometimes, it is, in reality, a lot of time. How you spend that time and manage it is all in your control.
Reference:
[1] https://poets.org/poem/ecclesiastes-31-8
About the Author
Pushpa Preeya is an Indian scribe, IT professional, social activist and volunteer. She has been felicitated by the Honorable President of India in 2019 for social and developmental work for children and women welfare on the International Women's Day.