Time Abundance
by Rosangela C. Taylor 

Learning Time Management

Have you wondered what is the strategy to get by all the daily activities and accomplish them all? How to be on time, stress free, and still have time to do enjoyable things?

Yes, there is a strategy! Formerly, in the article Time Scarcity we talked about what happend with our time that seems always way to short for all what we want to do. We know "what" happens - it's all the time stealers's fault! Time stealers are procrastination, lack of interest in what we are doing (so we can never get it done, then we say we don't have time), distractions (like internet, phone, chatting... these are also ways to procrastinate, and normally we procrastinate when we don't have the interest to do something, so we invent something else to do instead. All these things steal our time, make us late, and make us tired in the end of the day, because then we realize the time passed and we didn't accomplish much. We get emotionally tired because of the frustration.

Now, what about the strategy to change these bad habits? The strategy that successful people use is "time management by planning". There is a clever saying: "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail."

Planning is the secret. And of course, we have to stick to it. We need to plan, and follow the plan, otherwise it's pointless.

A good way to plan our days, therefore our time, is to write down our goals for that day/week/month/year. And stick to it!

Unfortunately, many people don't plan at all. They just go through life, day by day, living as things present themselves. Through improvisation. Unplanned things come, people normally don't know how to say "no", they embrace more than what they can take and the mess is done. They end up with their plates full and many times lose the sense of importance and priority.

You must have realized that by doing little or nothing we cannot change our reality. It's necessary action to get somewhere. The first action is to determine what we want to accomplish (the goal). Then we must plan the steps to get it accomplished. And, of course, follow the plan. It's important to set realistic goals, and not to plan too many things at once or daily. If you know it's unrealistic for you to get up 5:00am and study, or do laundry, or read that novel that you have been trying to finish for months, so don't plan to do it! Plan only what it's possible for you, and don't add anything else in the list, otherwise you'll again be short of time. But if you REALLY want or need to study or do laundry, or whatever is that you must or want to do, then you have to make some kind of effort to get it done, don't you think? Get up earlier, or go to bed later, or substitute/eliminate things in your list.

If there are still too many things you wish you could do, but there aren't enough hours in your day to do them, eliminate something. Assess your activites and be honest to yourself: Are they really important? What really do you want to do? What really do you need to do?

It's natural to think that what is important but not urgent can wait. What happens is that the important not done today, becomes urgent tomorrow. Then you get in trouble because you have to run and you'll be stressed! What's better then? 1) Do the important first, to avoid getting into a crises later? 2) Or procrastinate, get distracted, not do what is important today, and be out of breath tomorrow? If you choose the second way, you'll be always short of time. Today and tomorrow.

After preparing your plan (a list), implement it daily. Adjust your activities by priority (importance), but also take in consideration your frame of mind. It won't help you if you try to force doing something which you are not feeling like doing. Of course if you have to go to work every day, and you don't feel like going... well.... I guess you'd better go anyway, right? And better yet, put yourself in the right frame of mind for that! But other things can be adjusted. Like: if you don't feel like studying from 7 to 8 am, don't do it! But find another time to study, if studying is important to you! Perhaps from 9 to 10pm you can be more productive. Or eliminate it from your "to do list", if you realize it's not important for your right now. And be aware of the consequences. You are the only one that can evaluate your needs, your time, and fit your activities in your day in an orderly way, so you can make the best of your plan.

If you say you don't have time to read LEP-Nuts, try to find out why. Is it because it's too much English and you are lazy to look up the words? Is it because they are too long? Is it because you are not interested in English at all? Many times we find excuses for ourselves. We blame the circumstances (the newsletters are difficult, for example), but the real reason why we don't do something it's not because it's difficult, or it's long, or we don't have time - it's ONLY BECAUSE WE DON'T HAVE THE INTEREST!

Once we have interest in doing things, because we know we need them, or want them, then we create a PLAN. When we plan, we have TIME ABUNDANCE! Everything gets in place, all done. We do what we like and what we need to succeed.

There isn't such a thing like "something for nothing". It's Nature's Law: there is always to be  some kind of exchange. So you make efforts, you plan, you discipline yourself, then you get the results: all done, more success, more time to enjoy life.

Time is abundant while we are alive! It's just a matter of management!

How does that sound?

If you would like to know more about Time Management and you think you would enjoy some more insights and my personal coaching on that, I can help you with this. I've been studying a lot about personal growth and time management, and for what I have praticed, I can tell it really works!! I have adopted the time management strategies, and amazingly I have added many more activities to my days and been able to accomplish all what I have been planning. So, if you want more tips about that, feel free to contact me anytime: 

Your comments and ideas are also welcome!

“Well, I'm not the kind to live in the past
The years run too short and the days too fast
The things you lean on
Are the things that don't last
Well, it's just now and then
my line gets cast into these
time passages”

Time Passages, Al Stewart

Al Stewart (born Alastair Ian Stewart, 5 September 1945 in Glasgow) is a British singer-songwriter and folk rock musician. He is best known for his 1976 single "Year of the Cat" and its 1978 follow-up "Time Passages" (both of which were produced by Alan Parsons).
                                                                                                          source: Wikipedia

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