Time — The Most Precious Resource That You Have
Time is by far the most important resource that you have, and there is no doubt that most of us fail to make good use of it. We all take it for granted that we will be having a tomorrow, and hence we keep procrastinating daily and not making progress. In this article, I will try to explain why time management is important and how you can effectively make the best use of your time.
Without any further delay, let’s get started.
Why Is It Important To Effectively Manage your Time?
Time is something that you can never get back. A second lost today is not going to come back, a year lost today won’t come back either. We tend to take it for granted that time is seamless and infinite, but this is completely wrong. If you think that there will always be a tomorrow, for your assignment submission, or for completing that freelance work, then you are not correct. Time is infinite, but not for you. You have come here, and you have a finite amount of time at hand. How you make use of this time totally depends on you, but the better you manage it, the more you will be able to accomplish and the more you will be able to establish. Think about every single day that passes by to be a page of your life book.
Do you want even a single page of your life to be boring?
I personally would not want to do that. That is why I strive to make every single day of my life to be fun, adventurous, and fascinating. I am sure that you would want to do that.
By now, I am sure that you have understood the reason why time management and making the best use of your time is important, so let us get into the nitty-gritty of it.
How To Effectively Manage Your Time?
There are a few key techniques for managing your time. Let’s have a closer look at them.
1. The 2-Minute Rule
Have you ever noticed that you never actually make progress while doing something? Has it ever happened to you that you are just working on something for the same period of time every single day, but you want to devote more time to it? Then this rule is for you.
What the two-minute rule says is that you perform a certain action every single day, only by adding 2 minutes to it every single day. So, say that you start to practice soccer today. Maybe you practiced soccer for 30 minutes. Tomorrow, try to add just 2 more minutes to it. So, tomorrow, you will be practicing for 2 more minutes. Soon, what you will realize is that in just a month’s time, you have effortlessly added an hour’s worth of time to practice soccer every day. Because you were just adding a very small amount of extra practice every day, you hardly even realized it.
This rule is effective and has proven results. You should surely try to give this a shot, and experience the noticeable differences yourself.
2. The Deep Work Schedule
The deep work schedule says that you will be focusing on a task for a long period of time at a given frequency. This means that you will be working for 2–3 hours every single day at something that is cognitively demanding, without any distractions. This is also referred to as the “flow state” by many. By far, this is the schedule that helped me get better at my programming skills in a very short period of time. If you practice deep work consistently for a year, you will see some significant improvements in your life, which would have otherwise seemed impossible to accomplish in even 5 years.
If you wish to, maintain a schedule where you wake up early, say at 5 am, and you practice a skill, let’s take programming as an example. Your job starts at 9, so, you have 4 spare hours. What you can do in those 4 hours is practice a ton of problems, or work on a project. Let’s say that you only have 3 hours spare even if you wake up early as you need time to prepare your lunch, have breakfast, freshen up, etc-. In my opinion, even if you can code for an hour a day, that is more than enough as a beginner.
After a year of doing this, you have essentially worked for 365 hours at something that is cognitively demanding. You now have some level of expertise in the skill you were working on, and you can take it up full-time or part-time, however you want to.
As you see, with just a healthy schedule and consistent deep work practice, you have made so much progress.
3. Scheduling An Effective Time Table.
We all know about time tables. We create them and think that we will be following them when in reality, we end up doing nothing from them. Sounds relatable?
Most people design their time tables in a way that it is inevitable that they will not be able to follow it. You do not let yourself take rest, and even if you do, you end up creating a table that works on the basis of time blocks. Something like: 5:30–7:00. You restrict that time block to a particular action, and even though it seems intuitive, it really is not the best way to create a time table.
The reason why this is not the best way to create a time table is that you are not thinking about the odds.
What if some relatives plan to surprise you by coming over? What if you are forced to take your kid out because your wife cannot? What if you have to take a night shift for a day?
What happens then is that your set goals are not achieved. Hence, you end up feeling bad about yourself.
The better way to make a time table is by writing down how many hours will you dedicate to a task.
Something like:
Today, I will:
Do my job for 8 hours.
Practice art for 2 hours.
Have fun with my friends for an hour.
Just by doing this, what happens is that there is not a restriction of time anymore. Rather, you are telling that you will do a given task in a given period of time. Because of this, now you will be able to find the time sometime in between the day to practice art or make that project, or that Instagram post.
4. Learn To Prioritize
Prioritizing is a skill that we all think that we know how to do when we really don’t. We vaguely say that a task is not important, and maybe that other thing is important. There is a way better and efficient way to prioritize your workflow. It is known as the ADCD rule.
A -> Avoid
D -> Delay
C -> Curve
D -> Do
Let’s say that you need to get groceries, play video games with your friends, you have to revise for a test tomorrow, go out to the movies with some old pals.
Break this down by asking yourself:
Can this task be avoided? Can it be delayed? Can it be done by someone else? Should I do it right now?
With our example of actions to be done, we can say that:
Playing games with friends can be Avoided
Going to the movies with your old pals can be delayed.
Someone else can get your groceries if you live with a roommate or you can simply get it home delivered.
Revising for the test needs to be done right now.
With this simple formula, you can effectively prioritize your to-dos for the day, and do what is important before anything else.
Final Words
I believe that it is time for you to start taking action. Make change happen. Let your dreams come to life. Work towards them.
Without managing time, it is nearly impossible to get all this done. Learning time management is by far the most valuable thing to learn.
I hope you found value in this article. If you try any of the techniques above and wish to share your journey with me, comment down below or DM me on Instagram here. I would love to hear your thoughts.
Thank you.
Priyanshu Saraf.
