Time Management

Obviously, I know that time management is very important. Everyone cannot live forever and have limited time to do things and not regret. Worse still, nobody is able to work 24 hours for all seven days. And there goes some more precious time to be active. Thus, I feel that what stands out for us, as a human, in the animal kingdom is our ability to think and plan things ahead of time. With that ability, it is no wonder that we can invent so many things and advance much faster than the other animals in the world. Time management is important as it differentiates humans from animals.

I’m not saying that a person without the knowledge of time management is an animal. In my opinion, everyone (truly universally everyone) in the world already has and is using the knowledge of time management! It just boils down to how well and in-depth is your time management skill. Having a calendar or a watch is already a form of time management; unless you do not use your calendar or watch at all. The basis of time management is to know where you are heading to and how long you have spent in doing a certain task (in my opinion). The only differences between good time management and poor one are the planning and goals setting aspect.

To start out any planning or timetabling, clear, well-defined and realistic goals are of essence. The goals, as mentioned in LMS notes and from what I’ve learnt from many workshops I attended, have to be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-framed (or bound). I feel that we should always set goals that will spur up our motivation and interest but yet not demoralise us. Goals are extremely important to me. There many more able-body people out there as compared to people with disabilities. And yet, I would not get too demoralised and complain about the limitations I have compared to the other able-bodies. Why? Perhaps it’s because I’m setting so many goals (as compared to some others who are too lazy to set goals). I know very well that I do not have a lot of time to spare to do some things due to my deteriorating condition. So, that’s why I told myself that I should make my life fruitful and set out my goals for me to achieve them. I do believe that it’s not how long you live that people remember you well; it’s how well you lived and how much you contributed during your life that people will remember you even after you cease to exist in this world.

However, I must say I seldom do a good work/life schedule. I found it rather hard to do out a proper monthly or weekly plan for what I want to do and what I would complete doing. Instead, I preferred doing a rough-gauging schedule in my mind as I also know that I’m someone who hardly keeps to a schedule or plan (because of my addiction to computer games). At least, I foresee that I would need to have a very rough idea what I would need to do and finish but not do a proper schedule where I put in the timeframes. But perhaps, I should have an activity log such that I can know how well and satisfied I am with my progress and workload. As the polytechnic life goes on, I’m starting to see the need of more organised planning (with all the projects getting bigger and bigger in scale; closer projects and assignments dateline).