How to Manage Time for Success

I happened to recently read in an article that time management is actually just an 18 minute task. I liked the point that the article sought to drive home. Though I just read a summary of this article it gave a broad break-up of the 18 minutes to be spent on each activity. A morning 5 minute review of the tasks to be accomplished, then a 2 minute review of each activity during the day as it happens and at night another 5 minutes of review.

Though I am not sure how well someone could carry out these tasks within the stipulated time I am sure the author seems to suggest that we do not need to spend more time than that one these tasks.

I have not read the complete article and don't exactly know the logic that the author seeks to use. But what I admired about the article was that I felt that the author had tried to demystify the concept of time management.

After reading that short summary, I realize how we mess up the concept of time management. When someone tells us that we must manage our time better we visualize it as a mammoth task - a task that requires a lot of psychologically demonstrable preparation. We keep stifling the idea until tomorrow as today is a busy day. We plan as if someone was asking us to go to war.

There is something about time that makes us feel overburdened. We are always short of it. Petty Human Beings we are always overwhelmed by our demands on time that we never seem to have enough. It is this mysticism about time that I felt the article broke - at least in my mind. I have always wanted to manage time better. I was always short of it. I never found the time to complete my work. Getting a work-life balance was out of question.

But drawing inspiration from the article summary, I have decided that the first and most important aspect of time management lies in our ability to demystify the concept of time. I realize that once we do it, it generates a sense of relief in our mind. It makes us feel back in control. It sought of takes the burden of time shortage off our mind relaxing our nerves in the process. We stop looking at time as a Goliathic concept devouring our soul; we begin to look at it as a friendly ally guiding us in life.

The point that I am trying to make here is that time is actually not our enemy. Whoever says that he or she is fighting against time is conceptually wrong. You cannot win against time. Time is dynamic and independent in its motion. We are not. Our work very much depends on others. It is linked to a whole process unlike the motion of time. Therefore, the whole idea of fighting against time is flawed.

Successful management of time lies in our ability to demystify it and make it our ally rather than be in a psychological conflict with it. I will be working on this principle further and updating my blog as I go through. I look forward to your comments and observations of what you feel are the best ways to manage time. Tell me how well you have managed it or even how badly you have failed.