Time Management - LESSON - 6

As soon as you get up in the morning, take out the sheet of paper which is now ready with appropriate columns.  (See Lesson 5).  Write down how you spent the first slot of 20 minutes. Include everything.  For example, if you read the morning newspaper for  say, 6 minutes, note it down.  If you stood near the gate observing what’s going on there, mention it.  If you drank your cup of coffee, write it down. If you were simply daydreaming looking at the sky, well, put it down.  Continue filling in the slots until you leave home for work.  As soon as you come back, resume jotting down till you go to bed.

Use one chart for each day.

Do this for a few days until you can see a pattern of how you spent your time.  However,   do not club weekends with week days because the way you spend time     on  weekends differs greatly from how you spend on weekdays.

If you do this exercise for 8 to 10 days, you’ll begin to see a pattern of how you’re wasting your time.  If you feel that you are not wasting your time, re-visit your definition of  waste.  Reading newspaper is a classic example of wasting time.  Do not rationalize by saying to yourself that newspaper  is important.  Differentiate between news and newspaper.  What you get in your newspaper is about how many were killed in yesterday’s accident; which politician criticized the Chief Minister; which shop or house was burgled; which ZP member was “insulted” by not inviting him  and  so on.  Surely, this type of news is not at all important either from the point of view of your career or personal life.   One part of your mind will say  “I’ll read it just this once”  for umpteenth time.  You know how it works.  Come tomorrow,  and it’ll say very convincingly  “just this once” again.  You’ll oblige, of course.  Days grow into weeks; weeks grow into months; months grow into years.  And then, a time will come when you start regretting  how time flew.