Is 24 hours really enough?

The answer to this question depends on what you do with your own 24 hours. Yes, it is yours. Every one of us is given 24 hours (86400 seconds) every day to carry out different activities and make something tangible out of our lives. Time is, in fact, one of the things we are all freely given irrespective of our age, gender or status. We all have 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour, 24 hours in a day and 365 days in a year

What do you do with yours?

Do you watch the latest television show all day? Chat with your friends? Sleep? Play Games or do something useful?

A lot of people are struggling with the effective use of their daily 86,400 seconds and that’s simply because they lack time management skills.  This is why we set goals and they remain like that for a long time. They never become reality. We compare ourselves with others around us that seem to be achieving great things and we wonder what is wrong with us.

As typical of Africans, we may even blame our non-attainment of goals on spiritual or family problems in our lineage. The truth is there is nothing wrong with you and most of all no spirit is chasing you.  All you need to do is learn how to manage your time, discipline yourself and work at achieving your goals. If you do this, you will see your life take a new turn which could even chase away the so-called ‘spirits’ you claim are chasing you from your lineage.

Time management can be described as the process of planning your time effectively and exercising control on the amount of time you spend on specific activities. Time management is aimed at ensuring effectiveness and productivity. It is not just limited to work or business activities; it also includes personal activities.

There are numerous benefits of effectively managing your time. Effective time management, in fact, affects every area of your life in ways that you cannot even imagine. Some benefits of effective time management include: Less Stress, get more done, more opportunities, better reputation, and so much.

Effective time management is, in fact, one of the best skills you can have as a person as it ensures your success in business, work and life in general. The successful life you want so badly actually depends a lot on what you do with your time and how you manage your personal 86,400 seconds (24 hours).

The wonderful thing about time management is that everyone can actually learn it. We can all become extremely good at managing our time. This is however dependent on our level of discipline as we need a lot of discipline to differentiate between what’s important and what is not important.

Let’s take a look at a few ways we can become effective managers of our time:

1. Have a daily or weekly schedule and work with it. Ensure you schedule times for interruptions as they will surely occur.
2. Practice staying off social media while you work as it is a major source of distraction for most people.
3. Prioritize activities and allocate sufficient time to activities that seem more important than others.
4. Allocate a particular time for all your activities.
5. Learn how to say no. You don’t need to agree with everything especially when you know it’s not so convenient for you or you are very busy.
6. Devote some time to sleeping. Resting well will actually make you more effective.
7.  Find inspiration when you don’t feel like working. You could get inspiration from a book, a friend, a role model or a mentor.
8. Focus. You will find that your energy will flow to any activity you choose to focus on at a given time. This will, in turn, lead to productivity and better results.
9.  Place a clock in front of you. This will help you to be conscious of your time so that you don’t get too engrossed in your work such that you forget how much time has gone. Remember you have a time you intend spending on each activity.
10. Learn to delegate or outsource. You really can’t do everything by yourself. You need to learn how to delegate some tasks to others. This will help you use time effectively as you can pay attention to other things.

There are so many tips to help you become a better manager of time but you can begin by practicing the above-listed tips. Remember that time management is a step by step process that requires discipline. As soon as you become a better manager of your time, you will become a better manager of your choices, decisions and your life in general. In the end, your life is in your hands and you remain a product of your choices especially the ones you decided to make now as they determine the kind of future you will have.