Time management is life management. In fact we cannot manage time; we can only manage ourselves to time. Time is the most precious resource available to us free of cost. Time is also the only resource which is equitably distributed, but inequitably utilized.

  Time cannot be stopped nor stored, it flows continuously. The results in our life are dependent on the ways in which we utilize the time. The great results of our life spring from the investment of time for deriving them. These great results can be referred to as the Return on Moments (ROM).
The common usages we come across with respect to time is time pass, time spent, time used, time wasted, good time, bad time etc. However, what we need to do is “invest time” in our efforts to achieve our goals, targets, objectives and priorities. In simple terms, time management begins by identifying our goals, targets and priorities in work and life and investing a very high proportion of time in achieving the same.

Here is a time management strategy

• List out the activities which can lead you to your most important goals and priorities in life and arrange them in the descending order.(ie list 1)
• Track your time from the time you get up from bed in the morning to the time you fall back to bed at night for sleep.
• On the basis of the time tracking you have done, sort and find out the activities which pulled most of your time, and arrange them in the descending order. (ie list 2)
• Search for congruence between list 1 and list 2.
• If there is a lot of incongruence, you are far behind in managing your time.
• Since list 1 is the ideal list, which contains the set of activities which leads to your goals and priorities and success, we need to manage our time to include those activities of list 1 in our daily life.
• Inclusion of activities in list 1, calls for the expulsion of certain or several activities in list 2, which could be time wasters, habits which are time killers, and other unproductive activities.
• Hence, prepare a Do not do list (referring list 2), which contains all those activities which needs to be eliminated from life and also determine the time you can save by those eliminations.
• Also, there could be some activities which is a must do in list 2 (ex. Cleaning or ironing your clothes, dropping your child at school, postage of letters, calling people for meeting etc) , even though it is not part of list 1. Here, you can reduce the time for these activities by delegation, outsourcing, automation and other smart works. This enables you to further save time.

• Now get into a new time management strategy and allot your time in the order of priority as in list 1. However, try and accommodate the urgent and must dos from list 2.
• It will take time for your new time management strategy to fall in line. However, be persistent in your attempts to install the same and walk the same in life.
• And remember, if you keep on doing the same things in life, you will get the same results in life, but if you have the true intention of reaping success through the achievement of goals in your life, then it is time to catch up with this time management strategy and start working on the same.