Can you really manage time?

You want to learn time management? I have a formula guaranteed for hundred percent success. It is so simple to apply that you would wonder how could you miss it, when you hear about it.

I am sure you would have found it on the web or would have been inundated with numerous invitations to attend workshops/seminars where thousands are selling you the magic pill on how to master managing time and be super effective. When I, out of sheer curiosity (actually FOMO) explored what was being offered, I found it was more often than not the wrong pill as panacea to one’s time management problems.

So here is my magic pill – get rid of the myth that you are short of time ever in your life. The truth is that you have all the time in the world to do things that you really want to do. Including things like procrastination…..!

Before you begin to rake me over the coals for saying this, pause for a moment, park your defenses aside, and dispassionately reflect on what I said. Here is a suggestion. Take any day of your life as a reference and check the veracity of this argument. You might realize that perhaps you didn’t have the time to finish the presentation which your boss had asked you to do, because you had all the time you wanted (most likely, unconsciously) to scroll through WhatsApp forwards or Instagram messages. Or even to attend to a call from a dear friend who was going through a bad divorce (after all, isn’t that what friends are for, no…?). To validate further, go to your mobile and check out the time spent on various apps in a day, which, when added might knock the living daylights out of you.

Going back to my theory, the issue is not about lack of time; it is about its fixed availability. It is rationed to just 24 hours per day. For everyone, to include the most efficient human being ever born on this earth, as also to you and me. So how do you manage something which is so strictly defined in its scope and span? You can’t. What you can manage is YOU and your relationship with this very fixed, yet precious resource.

Am I suggesting that you uninstall all social media apps or stop taking calls, put your head down and create ppts that your boss demands? No! What I am suggesting is, stop barking up the wrong tree, or refrain from projecting your own inefficient or poor choices on hapless, poor ‘time’ (something coy and hard-to-get thing, always eluding us!).

I know there would be many wanting to ask me to shove my logic somewhere, claiming that they are submerged in work from morning till late in the night and are still struggling to keep their heads afloat. Well, your state is no different from those in case above. For two reasons.

Reason 1. Who took it upon oneself to load one’s platter with what can’t be tackled in 8 hours of work (OK stretch it to 10. I know 8 hours in today’s world is being utopian!)? So who should you blame for bringing this upon you – you or time?

Reason 2. What if your colleagues/others in the team are able to pack their bags by 7 pm and you are the one perpetually burning the midnight oil till 12? Every day? In every role? And also in all of your previous organizations too? Well, if you feel your boss doesn’t like your face and is overloading you on purpose; change your boss… (you know what I mean, silly…!). But before you do that, if you see the pattern above, it’s time to smell some coffee and ask oneself some hard questions on one’s skills and competencies or one’s fit for the job. Tough, right?

So, you see, as it emerges from the two scenarios above, while there may be a compelling temptation to externalize the reasons for one’s inability to manage one’s time, it is more a matter of the choices we make with respect to its use. The least one can do is stand by how you choose to spend your time and take ownership for it.

I don’t think it should be too hard to acknowledge what Marthe Troly said, “Time you enjoyed wasting is not wasted time”!

Well, if you still insist and wish to learn how to manage your time, I am just a call away…!