How do you manage your time
Managing time is not easy
We all have the same amount of time, 168 hours per week in fact. Around one third of that time is taken up with sleep for the average person leaving us with 112 hours for all other activities. As you can soon see that if you take off 40 hours or more for work plus any commuting time and what is left for other important things is fast diminishing.
Family time is so important and sadly that is one area that can get severely eroded by other distractions. How much time do many people these days spend with their children, friends and relatives? More often it is now reduced to very little time and people are more likely to say hello on Facebook or share photos on Instagram rather than see each other in person.
During the last few days I have been speaking to people on the subject of managing time and most have noticed how many people now are completely tied to their smart phones. You can see kids in groups who instead of talking to each other are all playing on their phones and their time is being lost to the virtual world. This loss of time to technology is not just only kids as many adults too are also glued to their smartphones. Not too long ago it was TV that was blamed as a time consumer and I suppose that it still is for many people.
Image courtesy of Stockimages at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
If you had more time how would you use it?If I ask you this question what would you answer? Would it be that you would like to spend more time with your family and friends? Perhaps you would like more time to spend on an interest that you have or learning something new such as playing a musical instrument. For most of us though we might well have enough time if we managed what we have more efficiently.
Time – plan a budget
When it comes to managing finances successfully people have a budget. A financial budget lets you see where your money is being spent and very importantly where you are wasting it. Why not create a time budget? Managing time can be achieved by using a time budget. Write down how you spend your time each week and find ways to cut out time wasting and replace those minutes with more worthwhile things. You might be able to work smarter and whilst commuting by bus or train you could do things like read, learn a language or do some work to reduce the time you need to spend in the office. If you have to drive to work don’t be tempted to do things that will distract you from driving.
It has been found that when people really see where time is being eaten up it helps them to focus on what is really important. I know many people who have changed jobs or moved closer to work to save valuable hours and help them in managing time. A 30 minute commute to work after all is 5 hours a week and for those that travel one hour each way that is 10 hours which adds an extra working day to the week. Even simple activities eat up time. If you watch the TV news for 30 minutes a day that adds up to a staggering 182.5 hours a year – that’s more than a week of time!
The saying (attributed to Benjamin Franklin) “Don’t squander time for that is the stuff life is made of” is so true. Why not take a look at where your time is going and see how you can use it more wisely? Managing time is possible with a little effort.
Recent Comments
3
I have been actively trying to figure this out a lot lately! I'm a stay-at-home mom with two kids and I've been trying to find some kind of balance between my kids, my husband, WA stuff, and Me-time...I haven't found anything that works yet. I like your idea of making a time budget. I might just sit down a do that today!
Thanks for the messages so far