Samuel Smiles, a Scottish author and government
reformer, has rightly said – ‘Lost wealth may be
replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study,
lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost
time is gone forever’. Thus utilizing time wisely
brings improvement in life and wasting time
wastes life. Time does not wait for anyone. It
keeps ticking towards an unknown destination
every second, minute, hour, day, and year. There
is a saying that “spent time and spent words
cannot come back”. Therefore, it is our duty to
utilize time in the best possible manner. Time is
the essence of life.
Shakespeare wrote in one of his plays “I wasted
time, and now doth Time waste me”. It is true
that a person who wastes even a little bit of
time loses wonderful opportunities that he could
have otherwise availed of by utilizing that time.
All the great leaders have one thing in common.
They wisely utilize every single minute of their
time. When other people are busy squandering
away time in self-indulgence and laziness, great
men are busy conceptualizing plans for future.
There is no person in history who squandered
away his time and still managed to achieve
greatness.
Many people always say that they are very busy
and have no time at all to do anything more than
their daily routine jobs. It’s a bitter truth that we
are given limited time on this Earth and none of us
know our actual time or life span, we still waste
and lose our precious time in doing useless things.
It is true that we get twenty four hours in a day but
we can’t work for entire twenty four hours. We
spend about six to seven hours in sleeping, few
hours to complete our daily chores, some time
for entertainment and some for unproductive
things. At the end, we save very little time for
our important work to accomplish our goals. If
we do not manage our time efficiently, then we
may lose even those little valuable hours. So,
it is essential to understand the importance of
time given to us during our life span and utilize
it correctly, instead of always complaining for
“Lack of Time”.
If we achieve our desired goals and complete our
responsibilities in a timely manner, it indicates
that we are managing our time properly.
However, if we have a long list of incomplete
tasks, then we must change our working style,
plan and manage effectively our day-to-day life.
For this purpose, we should cultivate some good
habits, which may refresh, energize, and increase
our working efficiency. This will help in time
management as well. Relaxing for a short span
while doing our work, reading inspiring books,
listening to music, doing something new and
creative etc are such habits that make us stress-
free. In spite of our busy schedule, we should
take out some time for activities of our interest,
i.e. singing, praying, cooking or playing games
etc. Such habits will help to open up a new
horizon to our working efficiency and goals. For
example, former Prime minister of Australia, Mr.
John Howard had a very good habit of walking
for an hour every day, wherever in the world
he may be. It was his personal time and very important as well. He always said that “What is
to be done will be done” and there is no question
of lack of time. It’s not the time, which we lack;
it is the lack of proper thinking and planning to
perform the work.
Yugrishi Param Pujya Gurudev used to write
articles for Akhand Jyoti magazine; and while he
was busy with his writing work, he always had
visitors to meet with him, to receive his blessings.
But, he managed to do both at the same time very
easily, without any stress. He, even completed,
his daily walk in his private room every day, by
counting his footsteps equivalent to two miles
to save his time, during his busy schedule. He
always went to bed in time and woke up early in
the morning. He never had any trouble sleeping
or getting up at his desired time, even if too many
people stayed in his room. His daily routine
was fixed, which also included his prayer and
meditation time. He lived his entire life with full
enthusiasm and energy. Those, who visited him,
also got fully energized and felt an amazing kind
of happiness being with him.
Some people tend to be perfectionists. However,
Oliver Burkeman mentions in his book “The
Antidote”, “Perfectionism, at bottom, is a fear-
driven striving to avoid the experience of failure
at all costs. At its extremes, it is an exhausting and
permanently stressful way to live.” So one need
not worry for perfection; it will automatically
show in the work that has been planned and
executed meticulously.
Time management has a rule, which is known
as 80:20 rule. According to this rule, 80% of our
daily work has only 20% productivity and rest of
the 20% gives us 80% fruitful results to reach our
goal. Therefore, it is important to focus on just
20% of designated task in a given time to get the
benefit of 80%; however, what should be those
20% task, should be decided carefully.
In our daily life, some designated duties are very
important and some hold less importance, so we
should choose the task, based on the priority and
leave the rest to save some time for our personal
growth, in addition to our materialistic growth.
Our materialistic growth is admired by the world
but the personal growth is seen only by self;
the latter eventually becomes the source for our
overall growth. Therefore, we must take out
some time, out of our busy schedule, for prayer,
meditation and reading inspiring books or any
other hobby, which may energize and motivate us
to be enthusiastic towards life. CEO of Microsoft,
Mr. Bill Gates, always read inspiring books before
sleeping. He says that he can’t miss reading a
book before going to bed, even if it is late at night.
This helps him in learning new things.
Time has one simple rule – it flows continuously.
We should understand this truth and utilize our
years, months, days, hours, minutes, and seconds
for a good purpose. We should plan in such a
way that we don’t end up wasting even the tiniest
second of life.
Our lives are made up of various elements and
experiences. We need to play various roles
every day to make it whole. Therefore, our plans
also should be multi-dimensional and not one-
dimensional. Our plans should encompass our
career, character, society, country, and other social
aspects. An all-round approach to achieving
success is much more fruitful and praiseworthy.
It is never too late to start following the simple
principles of time management and see our lives
turned around. Let’s begin today!
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