One who masters his time, masters his life!

I read this quote somewhere during my college but never realized its importance until now. During my college days, things were pretty well-structured and I started believing that time manages itself. With that belief when I started my first job, reality hit hard and made me realize that I was wrong! Soon the overwhelm of tasks engulfed me. From a free-spirited college grad, I was now expected to handle things as an adult - smartly and accurately. Time seemed so short and there were so many things to manage - work, fitness, relationships, hobbies, recreation, self-study and the list goes on. All this lead to rise of one evil within me - ANXIETY!

But I think this is how life teaches you. I started studying and practising about time-management rigourously. I read many articles and books, observed the habits of my time-efficient colleagues, tried many things to smoothen my life, failed a lot but finally now I am confident enough to say that I have cracked the code of time-management.

In this blog post, my aim is not to share time-management tips. There are experts talking about it a lot and sharing very-well articulated material. But what I am going to share is my learning about the notion of time in this transformational journey. What were some of my beliefs that were mis-leading and what are the hard-truths that actually work in real-life. So without further adieu, let’s get started.

1. Motivation does not work, make routines and habits

I grew up believing that motivation is the key to achieve your goals. It worked pretty well in my student life where the goals were well-defined and short-lived, and there were people to cheer me up. But in reality, motivation fades. I can not be highly motivated about every single task on every single day. So relying on mere motivation to achieve a goal does not work for me now. What really works are daily habits and routines that match my goal. I develop routines that divide my big goal into tiny daily goals, and follow that routine religiously. This makes me feel accomplished each day and motivated enough to work on the next day.

2. Everything can not be done, seek importance

I was a maximiser and used to fit everything in my daily routine. But maximisation is impractical and creates mental distress. So what I have learnt is - to minimize. Now before I try to allocate time to any activity, I ask myself a question - ‘Is this really important in my life?’ If the answer is no, I simply discard it without a second thought. If the answer is yes, I know that this activity adds value to my life and I put in my 100% to achieve maximum results. This has reduced shit loads of burden which I unnecessary took upon me.

3. Balance is a myth, priortize

Even after minimizing and making routines, I still had many things to do in a day. I tried to balance all of them and strive to put my 100% in all. But the evil anxiety still creeped in. Another realization happened that balance is a myth. Each task/goal/activity has a time relevance. What is important today may not be as-important next month. So now what to do? The answer is to priortize. I learnt that prioritisation is extremely important to get things done at the right time. Putting more time in one activity at one point of time will definitely cut time from another, but it is okay. This is time-management, identifying urgencies of the hour and investing more time in what is urgent.

4. Relaxing in not a wastage of time, take breaks

Honestly speaking, I could not relax easily. I constantly need to do something to feel productive and valuable. And this workaholic habit of mine made me feel so exhaustive that I used to reach my threshold-point soon. Eventually, I started becoming counter-productive and inefficient. That is when I realized the importance of taking breaks. Now, I have a more relaxed sense of time. I often take breaks, do random things I love (like creating jingles!), spend more time with others and do not look at my watch every damn hour! I am seriously relieved now and have learnt to relax well, and more happy with my life. Always remember that the most creative ideas emerge from a calm and composed mind, not a restless one.

5. Distraction is a nagging neighbour, befriend focus

If there is one thing which is the problem of the entire millennial generation, it is distraction. I used to easily get distracted with my environment and cellphone. Even after clarifying and planning my goals, I was unable to accomplish them because I was too distracted. I used to check my phone every 30 minutes, randomly switch between tasks and scroll through social-media mindlessly. Distraction kills time very smartly. So, I decided to consiously put efforts to improve my FOCUS. If there is one skill that we must devolop in this hustling 21st century, it is the ability to focus. To regain my focus, yoga and single-tasking is helping a lot.

6. Time is never less, change your mindset

Finally, sharing my last learning - time is never less for anything. I do not know how others think about time but I used to imagine it like sand in a timer glass. I was afraid that I had to do all things as quickly as possible before all the sand slips away. This mindset is may be a result of the environment we live in today where everything is instant and nobody has patience. But whatever it is, it is not the right way to deal with time. It degrades the quality of your life and your work. It makes you feel like a victim rather than a master. This realization about time had the most impact in my life. I have now changed my belief that the sand is finitely infinite because the timer-glass that can always be turned upside down to restart the process. I enjoy conquering deadlines even more because I no longer fear the deadlines.

Last but not the least, ALWAYS KEEP A JOURNAL AND A CALENDAR for time-management.

So folks, that is all I wanted to share about time management in this blog post. I hope some of you could resonate with me and learnt some ways to deal with time in a better way. I will keep on sharing my learnings with you all as and when I get time :D

Till then, sharing some resources that will help you learn about time-management.

Resources to learn about time-management:

Happy Learning!