Imagine what if...?

The world awakes to the rays of sun in the morning, the newspaper comes to your doorstep daily in the early hours, the office and school goers have a reporting time at their respective places, your favorite TV shows have a time of telecast…every activity in this universe runs on the time of wheels. Can you imagine what would happen if one day the sun changes its time of setting and shows up all during the night? Our lives would be completely thrown out of gears.

“Time and tide wait for none”

This famous adage forms the fundamental or more appropriately the essence of our lives. One of the most powerful resources that every man has at its disposal is time. But this resource comes with its terms and conditions of use. If managed well it can favor you with the best achievements in your life. Benjamin Franklin decades ago was right in giving the maxim “Time is Money”. Though almost everyone today understands the importance of money in today’s world but very few are able to understand the value of time and use it effectively for their benefits. Those who understand are well ahead of those who don’t! Time and money are related to each other. Like money if spent carefully and in a planned manner will carve a better future for you. The same is true in case of time, if invested in a managed way on productive activities will bring desired success in your life. But the biggest difference that comes in is that money of lost can me earned again but the time lost is lost forever. Time can be used to make money but no amount of big bucks can ever buy you time.

Education systems have realized the importance of time management

Realizing the importance of time management at every stage of life the modern education system has incorporated time management as one of the important areas of study for the young generation. Be it any grand or small event, any organization of National or International level or educational institutions time forms the basis of working of all. History agrees too History is full of chapters of all those great men who understood the value of time and made the best of it. Napoleon Bonaparte had stated that “space we can recover, time never”. He valued time in his life and used it with full commitment and effective management to achieve success in a very short span of time.

Why is it important?

With the highly competitive world around a person has to deal with different environments and play sundry roles. A school going kid daily has to manage time for studies, playing and also for watching his favorite cartoon show on television. At this stage the parents might help the child in dividing the time efficiently for each activity to strike a balance between studies and extracurricular. As a child grows up into an adult he/she has to learn to manage the time effectively in order to achieve their goals. One can attain success in one’s endeavors if time management is implemented in one’s life for time management instills discipline and dynamism in a person. These properties are required in a person to enable one to balance one’s life in different spheres.

One who respects time is respected by all. Imagine a person who turns up late for every meeting or almost every event. People will consider him as a non concerned individual; consequently his commitment towards his work won’t be taken seriously by his colleagues or even his boss. On the other hand those who value time and have the trait of punctuality in their behavior shows the degree of one’s commitment towards the task or organization. Such a person will be considered more reliable. The ability to finish one’s work within the deadline requires time management skills and this is an important trait organizations today are on a look out for in their employees.

While it is very true that hard work is the key to success but it has to be coupled with effective time management for the best outcome. Take any competitive exams like the tough CSAT or CAT or XAT the toppers are always the candidates who followed a well laid time table which had time divided adequately for each subject in their routine. Considering the importance of time management I would like to share some Time Management tips with you-

• Maintain a time table for your activities. Be organized in your approach. Divide your time for different activities adequately. Make it a point to follow the time table so that you don’t end up with a pile of work by the time of realization. Prioritize your tasks and divide your time accordingly.
• Never put of your work for a later time. Never postpone your tasks instead do them today itself. As the great Sufi Saint Kabirdas aptly said “kal kare so aaj kar, aaj kare so ab, pal mein parlaye hoyegi bahuhi karega kab”. This means whatever work that has to be done should be done today itself or now at the moment in hand, because who knows by the time of realization you might not have lost the opportunity.
• Break big or long tasks into smaller parts so that it doesn’t become tiring for you.
• Flexibility is important. The future is unseen so one is unsure if the time one has planned to spend on a particular task will be at one’s disposal, so one must learn to manage the time lost due to unexpected events.
• Do include relaxing activities. One must avoid overload to stay away from stress. While one must include leisure activities in one’s schedule but one should not get wildly distracted from one’s goals. A little enjoyment is necessary to relax and freshen up the mind.
• Inculcate the habit in your children. Teach your children the importance of time and how to use it effectively. Teach them to be punctual and finish their tasks on time.
• Be positive. Do not waste time lamenting. Though it is good to analyze your mistakes and identify loop holes in your path to goal achievement but one must not yearn for the moments that have been lost instead use the time in hand intellectually.

Remember the past has gone and the future is yet to come. The only gift we have is the ‘present’. The moment we are living in is going to shape the events good or bad in our coming life. So we must not repent on what has gone or worry about that is yet to come. We need to use the time in hand effectively to achieve success in our lives because "Time Machine" is still an invention yet to be made by man.