Time Management - Some Philosophical and Practical
Considerations
In the postmodern and connected life we "manage" our time. While
world religions can't agree whether time is linear, circular or
stops altogether at one point, it seems to be a rather
pretentious endeavor to establish rules for time management.
Also for the faithless time remains an enigma and sometimes
difficult to bear. The German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche
once said that intelligence is the capability to be alone, and
we might as well say - the capability to be alone when time
passes by.
We can foster our philosophical understanding of time by using
it efficiently in our daily lives dedicated to making money and
thus gaining freedom from financial pressures. The single most
reason for not realizing our longings in life lies in financial
restrictions, hence money is an enabler for independence. When
we assume independence from the usual walks of the life of the
white collar worker's 9-6-day in the office, we experience
enhanced ease of time. We will grow more silent in our minds,
and in silence there are truth and power for an eventually
happier life.
Let's have a look at daily practices for time management and
more financial success:
If you organize your working time with reference to the
Eisenhower method, you learn to distinguish the important from
the urgent and to act accordingly. Ask yourself about every
issue how it fits into the below mental diagram:
Important and urgent - get done with it right away. Important
but not urgent - make an entry into your calendar. Not important
but urgent - try to delegate as much as possible and reduce
involvement. Not important and not urgent - trash it.
The Eisenhower method makes sense if we work receiving from and
reacting to the environment, i.e. if we are working dependently.
This method helps to prioritize work tasks. In order to become
financially free we have to go one step further and look at how
we should plan and spend effectively.
Let's have a look at the "time quadrant". So, once more we have
the dimensions urgent and important, but this time we do not
look at how they help us prioritize work tasks, but at how to
spend our time in first place so we can plan our lives.
Steven Covey also describes this time management matrix in the
"the 7 habits of highly effective people" in habit 3 "Put First
Things First".
Urgent and important - fighting daily fires. This is where most
people spend much of their time, doing so is a guarantee to
remain in the rat race. Try to minimize your time in this
quadrant and if possible, delegate. Not urgent and important -
strategic thinking, big picture mode. This is where you see the
forest and not only the tree. This is where you want to spend
quality time, maximize! Urgent and not important - urgent to
someone else, not important to you. This is the daily situation
of unhappily employed people. Minimize! Not urgent and not
important - this is where you waste your time. Like e.g.
gossiping on the phone, watching television, surfing the
Internet without purpose. Try to minimize!
Even if we plan our time and spend most of our time in strategic
thinking mode, we are sometimes overwhelmed by our daily lives.
To gain clarity again and physical strength we should retreat
once in a while. Eventually peace of mind and happiness will
come along with developing your own inherent time making you a
fully intrinsically motivated person.
Augustine of Hippo once said "The is only one word written on
the eternal watch - now!" - this tells us not to procrastinate.
This is also where intuitions come into play to make wise
decision, as in the complex world we live in we do not - and in
fact should not - always have the time to gather all the
information we feel is required to take an informed decision. If
we learn to use our intuitions we learn to be close to ourselves.
Finally, we actively need to give our friends, families, leisure
and pleasure the same priority as we give to our work.
Applying the simple methods describe above will not only help us
become more effective professionals, but also bring us closer to
time. Development, it was once said, is the increase of
consciousness.