Time Management - LESSON - 4

In the previous Lesson, I mentioned about  the  “ 3%” group.    I’ll be repeating this often in various lessons.  If you want to move to this group,  learn to manage your time. However, Time management and goal setting go together.  You cannot choose just one of these and expect to win in the long run.  If you try to do so, it’s like exercising only for one arm:  after a couple of months,  that  arm which you exercise will grow to the size of your thigh while the other remains normal.   

If you have not yet done your goal setting exercise,  go back to Module I and complete it.  It is not necessary that you need to follow only the method described in Module I.  There are any number of books which explain the method of goal setting.  But what I am trying to stress here is that unless you have established your goals there is no point in managing your time.

The time span of 24 hours in a day can be divided into 3 blocks of 8 hours each.  Eight hours for sleep and bath, 8 hours for office work/business  and 8 hours of personal time. While the first two  blocks have a continuous stretch,  the third one is fragmented. Obviously, these blocks are not water tight.  You may have to’ draw’ extra time from one block to another.  Observe that the first two blocks are fixed in a way and you do not have much choice to reduce their time span.  If you reduce your sleep time, it may result in upsetting your health permanently in the long run.   If you try to reduce your office hours, your  boss may say “don’t come from tomorrow” and then you may have to look for another job!  If it’s your own business, you can’t even think of reducing time in this block.  Necessarily, you’ll be forced to draw from your personal time.

However, if you are planning for career advancement, it is your personal time which matters most.  Because, you’ll be utilizing this time span for enhancing your knowledge.

Read the next Lesson to learn how to make use of your personal time.