We live in an age in which many people feel overwhelmed by their busy lives. The problem is that people are not extremely busy, they are actually extremely disorganised. How we spend our time determines the quality of our life: it is very important to consider what we do with our time, bearing in mind that we all have exactly the same amount of it available to us. Even some of history’s greatest achievers, from Abraham Lincoln to Steve Jobs, didn’t have more than 24 hours in a day, so the classic excuse of not having enough time is really nothing more than an excuse.
Time management is probably the most important skill of all to master in order to lead a happy and successful life. “Management” is the act of keeping something under control. “Time” is the culmination of events that take place every day. For some of these events, we make time in our agenda, and others are well-established habits that we no longer need to plan, such as brushing our teeth in the morning. Some are unpredictable, and therefore unplannable. Finally, there are other things that we know we have to do but don’t want to, like exercise: it is good to include them in your agenda until they become consolidated habits.
So, we can surmise that time management is the act of controlling the events that happen in our lives. Managing time means managing our whole life, and this is essential because we don’t want issues with professional or personal management to let things get out of hand.
It is not easy to learn to manage time successfully because doing so involves changing habits that are deeply ingrained. If you want to be successful, however, you have to take responsibility for doing what needs to be done, when and how it needs to be done, whether you like it or not. This requires a strong sense of self-discipline, which is a force that can help us achieve almost anything in life.
