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!
Akhand Jyoti Magazine 2017 Mar-Apr