Since childhood, the most famous line that wanders in my brain is, “Time waits for none”. I remember writing essays, poems and giving out talks at school about time and how it waits for none. Nothing in the world can make you go back in the past or travel to the future and change things the way you want. (Exception if the time travel mechanism built-in avengers become accessible in reality!)
Today I discuss TIME! I like to follow three rules when it comes to time management.
RULE 1
Honour time.
RULE 2
Prioritise tasks
RULE 3
Time Boxing
Well, the first two rules are pretty straightforward. Honour time as you honour yourself or even sometimes more. Prioritise the tasks set in your to-do list. Divide them into three categories, Green, Blue and Orange. I chose this format, you can event your own style too. Green stands for the urgent ones that are my highest priority for the day, then comes blue where things need to be done by the end of a specific time and no delay can happen. Finally orange consists of tasks that are the ones that can be done later as well, but if done today would count as the best. I particularly gave the colours a little off the track, most people like to have the important tasks in red but I prefer green and for a reason since when I see it gives me a signal to go instead of the danger sign. Orange because if I finish the tasks which are in orange, I tend to reward myself with an orange! Get it? I hope so. Blue since I like the colour, no other deep reason out here! Haha
So I hope the first two rules are pretty clear. I believe one of the most important things to achieve your goals or tasks is by respecting time. We need to honour the time and that should be followed religiously. Respect it and see it with utmost care and ultimately we start to see things going inflow.
Rule 3 is something I learnt recently. Timeboxing and indeed is effective when it comes to time management.
What’s time boxing?
Timeboxing is a simple time management technique that involves allotting a fixed, maximum unit of time for an activity in advance, and then complete the activity within that time frame.
The concept was first introduced by James Martin, the author of the book Rapid Application Development, as a part of agile software development.
In gist, timeboxing is a time management technique where you allocate a fixed time period to a planned activity. You work on the activity during the fixed time period and stop working on it once the time is up - then, you assess whether you've reached your planned goals.
You can use this approach to handle your project management tasks or manage your personal errands.
One of the modifications I have done to this theory is, when I allot a particular time to a specific task, I ensure that in the allotted time period I only do the assigned task else I do nothing. No watching Netflix or writing the next edition newsletter! This can turn out to be fruitful in the initial days to compel your mind to sink with your schedules. I don’t recommend it for months because that may kill your time. Try it when sometimes you wish to accomplish the task but get deviated with something. So then you don’t do either of the two neither the task nor the distraction and hence you will train your mind to follow your commands to boost your productivity. I hope this makes sense!
This edition is short to save your time! I allotted fifteen minutes for today’s edition because of my tight schedules and this is what is in the store I could fetch! I hope these rules help you manage your time! If you got some more tips and tricks for time management share them in the comments.
Time is precious and waits for none, it’s important we honour it accordingly
Bye for now! Let’s meet next week.
PS: Horizon of Possibilities is now featuring stories from around the world. Every story is remarkable and we can learn wonderful things from a lot of people. Be it an engineer or a billionre! If you have thoughts, ideas or stories that can inspire people or motivate them to take action for a cause, write to me at gkhop1729@gmail.com and let’s sit for a coffee chat! This is open for all (from kids to adults) and if this excites you don’t forget to reach out to me!
Disclaimer: All the thoughts and ideas discussed are exclusively the author’s individual thoughts and do not represent any association/foundation/individuals the author is related to. Anything that may have hurt the sentiments of any group or groups of individuals is inadvertent and without malice. The author at no point means to demonize or insult any religion, practice, gathering, or individuals.