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Time is Platinum

kai 19 June 2007 Maturity 8 views No Comment  Print This Post

You wake up in the morning, brush your teeth, take a shower, brush your teeth again, get dressed, grab your things, and leave for work.  What a typical morning routine it is for you—if only you’re not scurrying to catch the morning bus and you’re not an hour and a half behind your scheduled meeting with a client.  Did I mention that this is the 7th time it has happened to you this month?  And it isn’t even the second half of the month yet.

Nowadays, the term “fast-paced world” has become part of a usual conversation between colleagues, families, and friends.  Everyone seems to be proud, or at least be excited about the fact that they are always on their feet or “on-the-go”.  Highly-efficient people take time management lightly, because they have proven that they are pros at it, but what about the rest of the people?

Being late is not just a one-time or once-a-month occurrence in a busybody’s life.  It is experienced by people who get F’s in their time management skills—meaning, they are poor in organization, or are always bombarded by petty things which become important enough to distract them from their supposedly top priorities.  This is viewed usually, on a day-to-day basis, and seldom discussed when we speak of long-term goals.

Ironically though, today, more than ever, should be the time when people must have reached the apex of efficiency because of the large influx of new gadgets which target to help people with their time management dilemmas.  We now have Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs), palmtops, cellphones, watches, laptops—all of which have organization programs installed in them—calendars, to-do lists, calculators, memo pads, etc.  But why do people still seem to move backwards?

Even if you have all of the technical gadgets I have mentioned, if you do not use them wisely, then you will arrive at nothing but the depths of lateness. 

Just what am I pointing at? 

Simple.  Use only gadgets which work best for you.  Let us say that you and your laptop are inseparable entities.  Do you think that you still need to buy a PDA?  Not anymore.  Since you check your laptop more than any other object in your ever-busy life, why not install a program which reminds you of your scheduled tasks, holidays, birthdays, meetings, and other events? 

One more example is if your thumb nearly gets numb from pressing too much of your cellphone keypads.  Do you think writing down your activities in a planner, which you know you would only check once a week would help at all?  I don’t think so.  You see, it’s a matter of maximizing the use of technology around you and being able to use it to your advantage.

One more reason why people always fail to be on time—whether during project submission, conferences, lunch outs or dates with their partners—is laziness—laziness to stop and analyze the whole picture, that is.  If you know that your lateness has become repetitive, don’t you think it is about time to stop everything first, sit down, and plot out a personal system on the way you deal with things?  When you do this, remember that there is only one thing which matters—that you see results.

Next is the problem of over-estimating your abilities.  You are no Superman nor Wonder Woman.  Do not keep on saying “yes” to all schedules thrown at you.  You can only do so much in a day.  And if you want good work quality, you must not do everything in a hurry.  The reason why you become late in other things is because you do so many things. 

Time management does not only concern efficiency, it also includes good estimation skills.  Under or over-estimation of things can have a domino effect on your schedule, so learn to gauge yourself and how fast you can do your tasks without sacrificing quality.

Lastly, know the time of the day when you perform at your best.  This is the wisest thing to do because this means that your energy is maximized, and everything is pumped up—your mind is active, your system if functioning well, and your body is at its highest level.  Through this, tasks are done smoothly, and so the possibility of running up late for something is mitigated, if not gone at all.

You see, nobody can be too early for something.  Remember that it’s always good to be on time and not always be in a hurry.  Life is too precious to spend it running from one thing to another.  Ditching your inefficient system will give you a whole new outlook in life because it will give you more time appreciating the things that you usually do without the terror of thinking that you’ll be late once again.

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