Time Management
Copyright © February 2, 2021 by Robert Wayne Atkins, P.E.
All Rights Reserved.
Introduction
Most people normally engage in some or all of the following activities each day:
- Work Time: This may include a full-time job and/or a part-time job. It includes any activity that generates some type of income. It also includes the time required to get ready to go to work and the time required to travel to and from work.
- Chore Time: This includes tasks that need to be accomplished in order to continue a normal life, such as doing laundry, buying groceries, and cleaning the house.
- Meal Time: This includes eating activities. It also includes meal related activities such as opening a bag of chips, or cooking a complete meal, or traveling to and from a restaurant.
- Sleep Time: This includes preparing to sleep, sleeping, and attempting to sleep.
- Free Time or Optional Time: This includes social time (friends and family), personal time (personal hygiene, disconnecting from other people, exercising), entertainment (playing games, watching movies, listening to music, having fun), and relaxation (standing, sitting, or reclining and doing absolutely nothing).
- Intellectual Time: This includes all mental activities that are not performed during one of the above activities. Examples would be planning, reflecting, studying, and discretionary reading.
Two or more of the above activities can be done at the same exact time, such as listening to music and cooking a meal, or drinking coffee while driving to work, or reflecting on the events that happened yesterday while cleaning the house today.
One of the "facts-of-life" is that we all have exactly 24 hours each day to invest in the above activities. The activities that we chose to participate in can have a significant impact on the quality of our lives and on what we accomplish with our lives.
Discussion
The basic principles of efficient time management are:
- Each day should begin with a plan of what we wish to accomplish that day.
- Critical activities should be done at the first opportunity to avoid significant problems and disruptions to our lives.
- Non-critical activities may be done as time permits.
- Some form of entertainment should be scheduled for each day unless it is not practical or possible to find the time to do something entertaining.
The above principles are based on the efficient use of a persons's day. Efficient means getting the most done in the least amount of time with the least amount of effort. Being efficient is a desirable goal.
However, it is also important to be effective. Effective means that the right things are being accomplished. For most people being effective is much more challenging than being efficient.
To be effective a person should carefully consider what they would like to accomplish while they are alive here on this earth. Most people will pursue goals that they have been told are very desirable goals. However, if a person desires to be effective then the person should carefully consider whether or not a specific goal is something they wish to pursue.
For example, in the second half of the 20th century a college education had the potential to significantly improve the quality of a person's life. In the first half of the 21st century a college education can still be very beneficial to some people who sincerely desire to pursue a specific career that requires a college degree. However, even though I am a university professor I do not believe that a college education is the best choice for most people today for the following two reasons:
- A college education is very expensive and it usually requires at least four years of study.
- Many excellent jobs in the 21st century do not require a college education. For example, the average plumber earns more money each year than the average college graduate. Therefore a technical education or learning a trade may be the best choice for many people in the 21st century.
If you are at a point in your life where you desire to know a little more about whether or not you are being effective then you may wish to consider the following questions:
- How many people can you name who were born in the first half of the 20th century?
- What did these people do that has made you remember them? Was it a good thing or a bad thing that they did?
- If you have children then do you think that your children know the names of the people that you remember?
- In your opinion how many of these people that you remember will still be remembered by the people who are alive in the year 2050?
The purpose of the above questions was not to discourage you. The purpose was not to inspire you to change your life. The purpose of the above questions was to help you put things in perspective. Most of us will live and then we will die and we will not be remembered for very long after our funerals. This is normal and this is what has been happening to people for thousands of years.
However, if we carefully choose our optional daily activities then we may be able to enhance the impact that our lives have on the happiness and comfort of other people. Even if the positive impact of one of our daily activities is trivial then this is still a very desirable goal because a lifetime of lots and lots of positive trivial impacts is a very good measure of a life that was well lived.
Conclusion
In my opinion a person is effective if they try to do some good things that have a positive impact on their family, their friends, and on people they do not know and that they will never meet. The reason I believe this is because I believe in God and I believe the Holy Bible. The Bible says that God remembers every person who ever lived regardless of how long they lived or what they accomplished while they were alive. And I believe that God will give us eternal rewards based on our good deeds that had a positive impact on other people.
Respectfully,
Grandpappy.
Grandpappy's e-mail address is: RobertWayneAtkins@hotmail.com