I've said it before....time and I don't always get along. I don't 'do' time well...when I don't have outside prompts, I sort of drift along in this timeless world. And yet, time is important. Time not only allows us to coordinate with each other, but to be able to accomplish all the things we want to do. Time is a factor that is outside ourselves, and it is absolute, in the sense that there is no amount of money or power that will give you (personally) more time. In many ways, it is the ultimate equalizer.
But, we can use our time wisely, we can leverage our time...or we can waste our time. Time management has become big business, because so many of us are not great at optimizing our time. Things that we think will cost us time may actually be huge factors in saving us time (by making us more productive or organized). Taking precautions with our time (like the old adage that we should measure twice and cut once) may end up saving us a lot of time in the long run, even though in any given instance it may cost us.
One of the places that I think many people sell themselves short, when it comes to time, is in taking time for themselves. We often get busy, and we feel like we just don't have enough time to get everything done, and so we look for things that aren't 'essential', things that we can just not do so that we can use that time to do other things. And often it's our down time that gets scrapped, because we figure it's something that is extra, it doesn't put food on our table or make sure the house is clean or anything else that often feels more vital.
But here's the thing about downtime...when we skip it, every other part of our lives suffer. When we don't recharge ourselves (and downtime is more than just the physical necessities of sleep, it is actual relaxation and rest and refilling our reserves), everything else takes more energy. Let's consider meditation for a minute. Countless studies have shown that regular meditation is immensely helpful to keep our mind sharp and focused, to keep us calm when things start getting crazy and to keep us at peace on the inside.
Many people feel they don't have time to meditate, and I'm not talking about crazy marathon meditation sessions, but rather taking 10-30 minutes a day to practice. In some ways, it's like taking a nap (which the recommended time is also about 10-30 minutes...hmmm)...when we feel we don't have time to do it is probably when we need it the most! What people fail to consider, when deciding if they 'have time' for things like meditation (or naps) is that a 30 minute meditation session will actually save you time in the rest of your day, because you won't need to spend as much time to do your other tasks.
The benefits are even more subtle than just being more effective on our time. Think about tossing a pebble into a pond, and all the ripples that are created by the pebble. When we have reaped the benefits of meditation, we respond differently to people we interact with...and those people respond to our energy. So, if I am dealing with a cranky child, but because I took the time to meditate, I am able to keep my cool and think clearly, they will not only feel this and be more likely to also settle down, but I will be able to not get flustered and react poorly (which normally creates a chain reaction of the child responding with an even bigger tantrum). And what works on children...works on adults!
Valuing our time isn't just restricted to self-care and downtime either. By taking time to plan and prepare properly, we can set ourselves up for success. I'm a big planner, and I know that planning my day, even though it takes time, helps me be more efficient. Not only do I not have to stop throughout the day and try to remember what all I need to get done, it allows me to keep myself on task whenever I might get distracted.
When your day is highly structured, you already have your plan laid out for you. There are specific times you need to be specific places doing specific things. Your time management may be more focused on making sure that you use those already set times effectively so that the remaining time can be spent as you choose. This may mean planning out tasks that can be done at the same time (like answering emails while waiting on the water to boil for dinner), or figuring out the best time to do errands (as much as you may want to just come home and relax after a long day of work, if you stop by the store on the way home and do your shopping, you don't have to do it on your day off...and you might save time by not having to drive as much).
As someone who doesn't have a lot of external time commitments, it is even more important that I manage my time wisely. If I have one or two important things to do on a given day, and I don't plan when I am going to do them, it's very easy to get distracted doing random things, and then realize that it's past dinner time and I haven't gotten my main things done! Though I don't tend to schedule things by the hour, I do think of my day in time chunks (typically the time between meals), and try to fit things into the chunk they fit best at (and preferably the earlier chunks, as I know that often after dinner I no longer have the brain clarity to do some things).
By treating time as important, you start to use your time more wisely. You begin to notice the things you do that waste time or use it ineffectually. And the more you value your time, the more you will start to weed those wasteful moments out of your life. After all, that is the point of keeping track of our time...to be able to spend it on the things we want to, instead of having it slip through our fingertips.
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