Manage your time well

live forthy - eight hours in every twenty four hours

SUCCESSFUL people never say the words: “I have no time” or “I am exhausted” when it comes to doing worthwhile work or inculcating good ideas. They somehow make time for everything they want to do or have to do. Watch how women who have achieved their career and family-life goals, set examples in managing time, Great musicians, scholars and researchers wake up before dawn to get to their work of mastering knowledge and remain as fresh as dew through out the day despite their punishing schedule of activity. Learn the art of getting things done without feeling tired. Overcome your impatience and inclination to lose your temper when things don’t work your way. Tiredness and fatigue comes from negative feelings of disappointment, frustration and anger rather than physical exertion. It is not working long hours that take the toll of your health, but the attitude with which you work. Try to include variety in the activities you engage in every day. Whenever you find your attention wandering from the tasks you are doing, get away and try to do something else for a while. Then come back to your earlier activity with a fresh mind. Drink lots of water to keep cool while you work and crate a cool environment around yourself-with plants, flowers and other attractive accessories which you like – to inspire you to work with joy. Remove all clutter of thoughts and thing around your work area. As a preference, and increasingly when you are able, choose the work you love or at lease like doing, so that nothing seems ‘drudgery’ in your work. Thinking that work is ‘monotonous’, ‘boring’ or ‘full of drudgery’ creates mental exhaustion and physical pain.

A beautiful ‘manta’ given to me by a friend said this: Look at one step at a time. Negotiate work step by step to accomplish it well. Do not look at or worry about the vast amount of activity stretching in front of you. That very thought will tire you even before you start your work. Think how you will tire you even before you start your work. Think how you will relax and enjoy yourself when your work is done. Better still, acquire the habit of thinking of your work as your relaxation and you will accomplish more in a shorter time. Make a list of all that you would like to do in a day and systematically tick off each item as you finish it. The very action of ticking off each item rejuvenates your mind and body. Take short relaxing breaks to reduce the monotony or stress of work. Lie down for a few minutes, listen to music or talk to a friend briefly to rejuvenate yourself.

Medical science says that small children have limitless energy because they do not think of any activity as boring. They neither think of yesterday not of tomorrow. They are eternally curious, playful and innocent in their approach to life. They are constantly on a voyage of discovery. Emulate them to conserve your energy and do not let negative words like ‘tiredness’ have you in their clutches. Remember that energy is a very stretchable concept. The more you use it, the more it recreates itself. Of course, to work with focus and a relaxed frame of mine, to use time as priceless gift of time is possible only when you have taken every precaution to ensure that you are in good health. Health of the body and the spirit is what you have to achieve to make your twenty-four-hour day stretch into a forty-eight hour journey of success and happiness.

Make time for everything you want to do. Save segments or nuggets of time by paying bills on time, doing routine or mundane work ahead of time, keeping records in an organized manner, meeting deadlines most of the time, investing in goodwill and encouragement for assistants to earn their support so that your time is saved and by deleting un-necessary, meaningless activities from your workaday. Add systems to your work and leisure wherever possible. Build spare time brick by brick till you have enough to introduce a new activity you like into your life. Treat time as a precious gift – just like money. And as you save money by small amounts at a time, save time and bank it to create a wealth, which you can use as you need. Develop the art of doing several tasks simultaneously by compartmentalizing you mind and energies for each one. Do not let tension become a block in your path to multi-tasking.

Most of all, be patient with yourself and do not look at back-breaking work as punishment. Remember, you’re human and entirely fallible!