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Time Management is life management – talking about creating time for things that are most important to us. The article details areas such as managing priorities and deadlines and stress management. In addition, we also talk about life management – identifying the most important things to us, carving out time for these and measuring success.

Ultimately our life is about the actions we take to make justice to our internal thoughts. These actions require time and effort. Knowing that we only have 24Hrs in a day, time is indeed the most important resource we will ever have. Instead of wasting on what manifests as urgent or important, this article is about developing a conscious effort about things that matter the most to us.

Why is time management important?

It is almost a no-brainer to answer why time management is important. Perhaps Time is one of the most common short resources. Given that we all have only 24Hrs a day and an innumerable number of things to do – the most important question to ask is – How can I best use my time?

The best route to time management is in controlling how it is divided into various things that demand your attention. Here is a brief presentation on managing time effectively.

Manage priorities and deadlines

I think this is the most important part of time management – to identify what’s most important to you. Time and again the urgent demands of our life take over the important ones resulting in unfortunate stress.

This comes back to taking control of your time and defining what’s really most important to you. Using simple prioritization mechanisms such as the Eisenhower Matrix or 4D’s of Time Management can give you a framework to define your time.

Our deadlines will always be chasing us if we let them free. But some of these frameworks can go a long way in helping you take control of time.

Improved Efficiency and Effectiveness

Efficiency is doing things right and effectiveness is doing the right things. But the most important thing to note is that it takes a lot of time. Instead of mindlessly focusing on all things that come our way, we ought to drive this time to give us the best shot at success. A rushed job rarely gives a good outcome. We may be lucky at times to be successful. But we all know that in order to do a great job at something, it deserves the type of time it needs.

Managing Stress

Although a straightforward point – stress kills our ability to do a good job. This is because we keep thinking about all the wrong things instead of letting our minds focus on the problem at hand. I’m sure health-wise- stress is an awful influence. I’d have liked to highlight stress as the firstmost point in this discussion on why time management is important. Maybe stress forces us to do things quicker, it creates an awful feeling to finish so many things and sucks the joy out of doing things.

What is life management?

Life Management is the ability to manage various things in life to live a happy, fulfilled life. It is deeply ingrained with time management because all areas of your life demand time. Sometimes, these areas compete for your time, leaving you little opportunity to work on everything. For a great life, we ought to manage a delicate balance between time and life management to create the best results.

Some important aspects of life management are:

Identifying key areas of importance in your life

Life management just like everything else starts with awareness. This means – you know what are the most important areas of your life and how your time is apportioned towards these things. A lot of people talk about work-life balance. But it all starts with awareness of what’s really most important to you. (Related: Work-Life balance – wikiHow)

Weightage of these sectors for your happiness

Once you know the areas of importance, identify the importance of these. In other words, the priorities of these areas impact your quality of life. Not everything will be of the same value. For instance, your career and relationship are not always of the same importance. Depending on the stage of your life, you need to associate what’s most important to you. And this keeps changing. We loosely alluded to time management is life management – unless you allocate time for these things specifically, they never get done.

Measuring milestones regularly

Finally, in life management- most people don’t stop to recognise how well they’re doing in these areas. There is always a new challenge but we ought to stop and celebrate our successes. This is where measuring success is so important in life. If you don’t measure, how do you even know whether you’re succeeding or not?

Time Management is Life Management Meaning

In summary, the bottom line of this article is – We ought to take control of the most important areas of our life. If we don’t make a conscious effort in defining and developing these areas – they go astray. Apart from identifying the areas of importance in our life, the next step is to consciously create time for it. That’s precisely the point of this quote – time management is life management.

We ought to carve out time for the things that are important to us. If not, these things never get done and only the urgent things get the attention. It is almost like saying – crying baby gets the most attention! The question to ask is – how are we defining and deciding our life management?