If We Don't Manage Our Time, It Will Manage Us

Too many things to do, and not enough time to do them in, is the statement that summarizes the time of privilege we live in. Raising families, working and a plethora of leisure activities compete for our attention.

Until the advent of the refrigerator, homemakers would spend several hours each day gathering items for the family evening meal. This ritual has all but vanished in the United States, is vanishing in Eastern Europe, but is still common in many parts of the world.

The freedom that women realized has enabled them to spend more time involved with their children’s schools, extra-curricular activities, work, civic involvement, and other activities.

Men have benefited from reduced and more flexible work schedules than their ancestors, and likewise have many activities to choose from to fill their time. It would have been unheard of just a few years ago that so many people would invest so much time involved in fantasy sports leagues.

Cell phones, the Internet and e-mail have created a world that moves faster and functions 24 hours a day. All of these tools were designed to help us accomplish our tasks more efficiently, but we often end up spending more time using them than we spent using less effective previous technologies.

I heard a statement in 1996 by Dr. Haddon Robinson that grabbed my attention and illustrated our dilemma. He said, “Time is your enemy, disguised as your friend.” It’s so true. If we’re not careful, we mistakenly feel that we can wait to take steps to accomplish our dreams.

We live day by day and sometimes feel time moves at the pace of a snail. We wish days would pass so that the day of a certain event will arrive. As we get older we perceive every year that time is passing faster and faster. As we mature, we see how large segments of time seem to have passed by in seems like an instant.

One of the principles that I speak about being critical to one’s success is, “The most important decision we make everyday is where not to spend our time.” This forces us to examine where we are spending time that is not contributing to our success and long-term goals. It motivates us to prioritize our activities and focus our energy.

Another challenge we face daily is that laziness is rewarded immediately, whereas hard work is only rewarded in the future. While pop culture emphasizes the enjoying the moment, if we desire anything above what government assistance provides, we are compelled to put leisure aside and work to earn that which we desire.

Some of us fall prey to Parkinson’s Law. That is the principle that a task will take as much time to complete as there is time allowed to complete it. Have you ever been to a meeting that dragged on because someone felt it had to last as long as scheduled in spite of accomplishing all of its objectives? Speakers often take all of the time allocated to them, and in some instances even longer. Projects aren’t completed until their deadline in spite of them being essentially complete long before the deadline. Why don’t we complete the task at hand and use the additional time for other priorities?

In addition, most of us find ourselves given more worthy opportunities than we have the time, talent or pocketbook to support. It is imperative that we choose to participate in those programs that support our annual or long-term goals. If a worthwhile project doesn’t fit into our current goals it is ok to decline. If we don’t learn to say “no” to some requests, we will be diverted from our goals, lose focus and ultimately be less effective.

Finally, sometimes our dreams and goals are so large that we have a difficult time imagining making the journey to accomplish them. The old question comes to mind, “How does a mouse eat an elephant?” “One bite at a time”, is the answer.

In summary, we must resist distractions that can divert us from our goals. To effectively use our time, we have to prioritize our over demanding list of opportunities, focus our activities on those priorities and persist through every challenge until we have achieved success.

© 2006 Richard V. Battle