The Manager and Time
“Time is of the essence”, so goes the saying. One who cannot manage his time, cannot manage anything at all. The very first thing that a manager has to learn to manage is his own time.
Time and Life
Time is actually equal to Life. In life, time is all we have. If one cannot manage his time well, then one cannot manage his life well also. Time is the stuff life is made of. If you love life then you would know that life is limited by time. You would not dare to lose a second of wasted time.
For business managers and professionals, the art and science of time management is crucial for the success of any endeavour. In fact all failures have one common denominator. This can be summed up in the statement: I DID NOT HAVE THE TIME. In fact, if you fail in business, in time you can make up for it with success. If you lose money, in time you can gain even more than what you lost. If you lost a love, in time your broken heart will be healed and maybe you find another love in the future. But if you lose time, then that time is gone forever. In fact, time is all that we have.
Setting your Priorities
In time management, those who complain most that they don’t have time, are those who make the worst use of their time. The key here is knowing how to set your priorities right. The truth is that time is never lacking. We can always find time for things that we prioritize to do. The culprit is not time itself but what we choose to do with our time. According to Michael Altshuler, “The bad news is time flies. The good news is you’re the pilot.”
H. Jackson Brown has this much to say, “Don’t say you don’t have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.”
Spending Time by Investing Time
Think of your life’s seconds, minutes, and hours as magical coins. These coins would increase or decrease their value depending on how you choose to spend them. If you spend time well, these coins will bring you wealth, happiness, and love in exchange. If you waste your time, these coins would give you less value in exchange. If you use your time well, you would eventually realize that you are not spending time but actually investing time.
If you do this, then you would realize that time is the best treasure that one can spend. Lost time means losing treasures that you can never ever recover. So let the past be past and don’t let the past eat up the present by doubts and regrets. Let the future remain in the dream house of tomorrow.
The Now is the only thing that we can grasp. There is only one everlasting now! Use it well!