Procrastination The Thief of Time

Procrastination is a thief not only of time, but also of life. It appears to be harmless, but has adverse effect on your time and dream. Many people are suffering loss, regrets, depression and pain caused by procrastinating. It has become a habit and way of life for some other people.

When you do not have a compass to where you are going and no ideal of what you want to achieve you open yourself to accept to do anything in order to be busy. But with clear goals you have constrains on you to focus and stay on course. Each time you have an excuse for not doing what is needed to be done at a particular time, you lose the power to put things under your control.

Procrastination is not a means of escaping responsibilities as most people feel, instead it makes the task taskier at the end. It only excuses you for now, but does not exonerate you from doing the work. There is an agenda meant to be worked on each day in order to achieve your set goal. Deferring from doing anyone of them, means you did not complete all you needed to do that day and as a result you stay behind time. Once you start to lack behind in activities, you delay the time of your accomplishment.

While do later what you can do now and tomorrow what can be done today? The activity you have planned for a day is just what you needed for that day alone. Adding to it a task not planned for creates overload.

• Be clear about your mission. Do not allow your situation shape your destiny. Declare what you want to do, how you want to do it, where you want to do it, and when you want to start on it. Have a mission statement for your live and let that determine the things you do, and how you handle your time.

• What you believe, you must do in order to become it. Do not do anything and everything, but only those things that you passionately believe can make your dream come true. Concentrate, focus and work on what you believe will make your dream a reality.

• Organize yourself and your activities in such a way that every moment of time is used for attaining success. If you start just at anything you will end up at nothing. Ensure that everything needed to be done is well arranged and worked on. You also need to be discipline and committed to the course you want to pursue. Nothing works like doing the right thing, at the right time, using the right resources in the right environment.

Your Time, Your Life, Your Dream

No matter what you do and aim to achieve, time is one factor you have to greatly take into consideration. In everything in life time is incorporated. It is the difference between the seasons of life and nature, measures the rate at which work is being done, differentiate where you are today from where you will be tomorrow.

Your dream is the life you want to live in future, and your life is measured by time.

Abuse and misuse of it has great effect on what the outcome of your life will become.

 Life is not a competition. The only person you will have to improve on is who you were yesterday. Your dream however the size poses great challenge to you, knowing that failure is not an option to consider.

Failure is one word people are afraid of. They do not want to hear it nor experience it in life, business, education and even in marriage. Do not leave your life to chance, focus on the dream you want to achieve, so that you can have a purpose for living.

            Plan your life in such a way that every second counts and has positive effect on your dream. This will help you to maximize your time and spend it with a clear sense of direction of where you are heading to. If you are not experiencing in your life those things you are dreaming about, it is either because you have a wrong plan or you do not have a plan at all. What you do with your time certainly will be revealed in the expression of your life dream.

            Schedule your time in such a way that you give priority to those activities in your life that will make your dream a reality. Let your dream be one of the reasons you have to live for each day. You must understand that each passing day brings you closer the fulfillment of your dream. If need be double your effort today so that you can cover up for the time abused yesterday.

Most people tend to regret the later part of their lives, because they spent their time doing the wrong thing. Identify those things you must do in other to actualize your dream. If you do not have a reason for living, it is because you do not have a dream. No matter how bad things may look your dream is the future of your tomorrow’s life.

Prioritizing...How It Works

In economics we understand that human wants are numerous and can not be satisfied all at once. This gave need to the concept for Scale of Preference, where you have to arrange your needs in order of most important to less important. This same concept is also applicable in time management.

There are so many things you want to work on, achieve and accomplish, but it is not just feasible to get them at the same time. With this in mind, it therefore becomes of great concern to do things in order of relevance to what you want to achieve. There is the one thing upon which other things are dependent on, and if it is done will answer the rest. How will you then identify it, if you just take on any task and begin to work on it?

            Prioritizing simply means arranging things in order of importance. This does not deny the fact that everything is important, but help to give a clear direction of what is to be done and in the order to which it should be done. It enables you to eliminate activities that are not relevant for which you would have spent time unnecessarily.

When you know what to do at a particular time, you are able to maximize that moment to your advantage. While time management is a big problem to people today is the fact that, they work just at anything not considering its importance to their set goal.

Just as every way will not lead you to your desired destination, so also any work will not get you to achieve your goal. There are activities that are relevant to what you want to accomplish, and until you start doing them, you will never arrive at your goal. Your planned destination will remain an imaginary picture in your mind and a written word on paper, if you do not do those things that will make it a reality.

These are some of the advantages of prioritizing your daily activities.

• Things are placed rightly where they belong in your to do list.
• Irrelevant activities that steal time will eliminated, since only those task need to be done will be on your list.
• You start on the more important task and not just on anyone.
• Your energy and resources are used wisely, because it is directed towards the tasks that are needed.

            

Take Time Out...The Rest Factor

The world is in a rush. Every where you look, you see busy people who are on the move. The day begins with getting up early, catching up with the morning train or bus as the case may be. Having lots of work to do in the office, scheduled meetings to attend, and project deadlines to meet.

When you start working on a task, there is tendency to be overloaded. During work, you are using up energy as you try to beat time by getting the work done. You will not know the effect this is having on you, because you are focused and consumed with getting the work done. You pile up stress that wears you out.

When your mind feels stressed up due to the fact that you overload it with thoughts, a period of rest is what you need where you are doing not. This will help to replenish and refresh you.

Rest is a condition where your body is allowed to heal and reabsorb energy it has lost through the use of the body and mind. Research shows that you become more productive, reduced stress and improve your mental capability by taking a moment of rest. Rest is one important thing most people ignore, because they do not know its benefit. You have a limit to which you can work. When you try to go beyond that limit, you will break down. When you refuse to give yourself rest, your body system is affected due to overloading.

As an Engineering student back in school, we took a course on the strength of material and the effect of stress on a material. When load is continuously applied on a material, stress gradually builds up. It gets to a time that the built up stress is just enough to break that material. That’s same thing our body experience. When you work and refuse to rest, stress is built up due to overloading. The stress built up will just be enough to cause your body to break down.

Your state is very vital. You have to be mentally capable, emotionally balance, psychologically fit, before you start on any task. These are some of the benefits you get when you observe a moment of rest.

When you break down, your work will suffer, your plans will be on hold and your setup for achieving your goals will be on stand still.

Get refreshed, geared up, reduced stress…………observe a moment of rest.

Why Cant I Get It Done On Time

This is one question millions of people over the globe ask themselves every now and then. Before today, I once asked this same question, but could not really answer it. It is not as if you are idle, but you simply may not know that there is a difference between work and productivity.

By analyzing the word “WHY”, many questions can be answered that will help you in time management. It is a word of reason, purpose, and intent.

Until you start to question the reason you do things, you will not be able to manage time. That you did not meet up with a deadline does not mean you were not working on it. You only failed to question yourself about the task before you got started.

Priorities can change depending on certain factors. Your plan is the picture that gives you an ideal of what you are aiming at, but the method of achieving may vary from time to time. Change may occur, but the “why” factor enables you to know what area to apply the change.

Before you start on the next activity, task or project, ask yourself why you want to do what you are about doing now. You will by this be able to know if the task should be done, and if the timing is right.

Doing the right time at the wrong time makes it absolutely wrong. So it is not just enough to do what is right, also consider if it is done at the right time. You will be able to accomplish any task, achieve any goal, if you learn to ask the WHY question.

Your task and your time are related as they compliment for one another. Your time has value, when you spend it on what is right at that instance. On the other hand, the value of your task is when it is done at the right time.

The regret you have for time misused, is that it was spent on things that were not profitable to you as at when you spent it.

Time can not be wasted, because it can not be preserved, replaced and replenished.

You are always doing something with your time. What matter is the relevance of what you are doing at the moment with you time.

The desire to make a difference begins with the ability to take the right decision on what to do. What you want to do is base on its relevance to you. All these will become simple if you will ask yourself WHY.

Be The Coach Of Your Time.

Time is common to everybody, but it means different things to each person. No matter the interpretation or description people give to time, it does not change the value, worth and the fact that there are 24 hours in one day.

• Do you know you can determine and control the things you do within the time frame you have.
• Nobody can control your time for you.
• Your time is unique and peculiar to you alone.
• You can become the coach of your time.

Remember that you do not have control over other people’s time. You only share of the time they are willing to allocate to you.

You have to take charge of the things you do. Do not allow situations determine how you decide to use your time. Just the way you plan your monthly budget, plan the daily use of your time also.

See 24 hours as the money you need to spend a day to purchase the commodities you need for that day. Let your activities become the commodities needed to be purchased. When you do this, you find that you wont need to purchase certain things, therefore you will not spend on them.

Not until you monetize your time, you will not know how much of it you are spending on those things that you do not have need for.

When you misuse your monthly funds, either by planning a budget above you pay or by spending on those things that are not necessary, you will run into budget deficit.

That’s exactly what happens also, when you loose control of your time. You will have a lot of pending task which you will have to take over to the next day. Each day activity is just enough for that day. In order be a good coach of your time, observe the following things;

1.      Have a workable Plan.

2.      Control your activities.

3.      Decide what is right and do it.

4.      Avoid distractions.

5.      Stay focus.

6.      Do not procrastinate.

7.      Have a good and positive mental altitude.

8.      Monitor your progress.

For every time you waste, something suffers for it. Know that you are never idle. You are either busy about one thing or another. That you are busy does not mean you are productive. Being occupied with an activity does not imply that the activity is worth that time.

You are the coach of your time. Adopt a system that supports change in the face of challenges, and still keeps you focused. Have a strategy for allocating your time and a mechanism for tracking your progress.

Improve Yourself.....And Manage Time

Do you know you are greater than your task? Whatever you are working on, whether on a project or a task, understand that it is man’s initiative and can not be greater than the initiator. When you decide to carry out an activity, you must consider yourself first. No task can perform itself except you work on it. You then must give preference, value and consideration to yourself first.

Self Development

In order to stand out and make a difference in whatever you are doing, it may be on a project, in a job, or as a student, you must know what others do not know. Those who lead and are at the top, are those who know and understand what others don't. This is the mark of excellence and uniqueness.

You should note that there are countless number of people who can do what you are doing effectively and even produce greater result, if only they had the same opportunity as you.

Learn Skills

Learn the skills relevant to the work you are doing. This might require you to take on a part-time course, attend training sessions, go for seminars, so that you can become more informed and equipped with the skills you need to make a difference.

One advantage about this is that, you become good in time management. You are able to work on a task without wasting time on it. You are capable of managing yourself, value time, and handle it to achieve your desired result.

Experience and expertise is a result of the skills acquired and practically applied to increase productivity.

If you remain the way you are, over time you will lose relevance and be relegated.

Change occurs every moment. What is generally accepted and obtainable today, might be obsolete tomorrow. This is what change brings. It helps you to refine, package and adjust yourself with the present moment.

Get Results

People who are new on a job and suddenly climb high the hierarchy to the top within a short period of time are those who produce results.

·        The manner with which you do things.

·        Your approach and style.

·        Your commitment.

·        The Result.

These factors distinguish your work from that of others. At the end, what is important is the result, outcome, and output. All resources, machinery, man power implore on a task or project is geared towards an expected result.

 When you develop yourself by being equipped with the right skills, you increase your productivity rate and position yourself for leadership.

Goal Setting-----Tips To Know

Your goals represent your life in the future. It simply shows the picture of you living ahead this present time into the future. Just the way you can not be separated from your shadow, so also you can not be greater than the goals you set to achieve. Goals may be different with people, but it all points to a destination of success, a happier life, greater productivity and a fulfilled dream.

As important as this stage of time management, people spend little time on it. Note that the quality of time and attention you give to something, determines the quality of the outcome. So it is wise you invest more in this, as this is the sum up of what time management is about.

In setting goals, there are certain things you should know in order to en sure that you are able to achieve your desired expectation.

·         Make sure that your goals are reasonable, obtainable and that you have realistic chances of achieving them within a particular time limit.

·         After this is done, the next thing is to set up a mechanism to measure the rate of progress you are making. This will help you to monitor your progress, ensuring that what is needed to be done is done, and at the right time.

·         Ensure that in the occurrence of unforeseen circumstances, you are able to apply change, and still keep your goals alive and on track.

·   Resist and avoid all forms of distractions. It possesses a great threat to your achieving your dreams, as it invades your time and denies you of achieving the goal you want. See distraction for what it is, irrespective of where it is coming from.

You should understand that no matter how big, wonderful, and great your goal may be it requires a catalyst for it to become a living reality. You are the catalyst that can make it come through, no matter what people may feel about it. 

According to NEWTON’S FIRST LAW OF MOTION; A body remains in a state of rest, unless acted on by an external force. Nothing will happen expect you take deliberate positive action, directed towards the course you want to achieve. Position yourself as such that you are actively doing those things relevant to your dream.

·         Your goal is the future you want to achieve.

·         Nobody can interpret your dreams for you better than you.

·         No one can bear the burden of your goal like you can.