We all are human and tend to procrastinate things at the slightest pretext. We need not feel guilty about the same as most of us would have done it in some things in life. It may be worthwhile to understand as to why we do it and what can be done to overcome it.

Time is an invaluable resource and all of us are gifted ,with the same quantity in our lives. But some of us are able to gainfully utilise the same while others fritter it away ,thinking it is cheap and can be substituted with other resources.

It is important to realise that when time runs out, we can do nothing about it. It could be in our final school -board exams, where we did not prepare well and hence missed a distinction ,by a few marks. It could be that we did not apply on time and missed a college admission and thereby a year in life.

We may have missed a train or plane since we always have the excuse of bad traffic on our roads. But, the day we realise that the train or the plane does not stop for anyone in life, we may never miss it again.

I should confess that I have procrastinated many things in my life and I cannot blame anyone else other than myself. However, the good news is that ,when I realise that time will not wait for me, I do become self disciplined and then work like a machine.

This may be true for many of us. When we are working against the tide, we may be choice less. However, why do we need to create such a situation in our lives ? What prevents us from planning and organising ourselves in such a way ,that we are in control of our time ,at all times.

One of the basics of managing our time, is prioritisation. We need to segregate our tasks into important and urgent ; focus on the important and then the urgent. Our natural tendency is to focus on the urgent and the easier things in life and postpone the important ones.

The second important tenet of time management is our ability to “say no” to ourselves and others. We sometimes get overcome by greed rather than need. It is like having that extra sweet, when we do not need an additional one. We have to develop the skill of saying no to ourselves. Similarly, we need to say no to others, when we are sure ,we do not have time to do what they want us to do.

The third and the most important aspect of managing our time is planning. We tend to jump into action even before we plan. If we plan a trip well in advance, then execution is easy. However we generally jump into the train and then wonder ,where we need to stay and where we need to visit ,during a travel.

Life is no different. Time management is prioritisation, our ability to say no and meticulous planning. If we are clear what we need to do and what we need not do, that could be the first step. Then our ability to say no to what we cannot do. Thirdly planning in detail ,on what we need to do. Then we realise ,that time waits for us rather than we being overtaken by time.

I am reminded of a famous quote of poet Kabir, who said – “ Tomorrow’s work do today, today’s work now. If the moment is lost, how will the work be done ?

Time to reflect

S Ramesh Shankar

13th Sep 2023