We are living in a time where there are a wide variety of things competing for our attention. Time is our most precious resource but it is limited. It is easy to spend our time responding to the tasks which seem most urgent but this is unlikely to lead to long term fulfilment. Instead we find ourselves moving from one emergency to another. To prevent this, the most fundamental principle in time management is setting priorities i.e. what is most important. Setting priorities allows us to decide which tasks we really need to focus on and which need to be rescheduled, ignored or assigned to someone else.
Thinking about the future can be a useful tool when setting priorities. When faced with a difficult situation, such as how to best use our time and energy, it can help us to think about how we would like to be remembered. It can provide us with a real perspective on life. Would we like to be remembered for:
- The amount of time we spent in work?
- The size of our bank balance?
- The car we drove?
- The size of our house?
- The number of friends we had on Facebook?
The above are all superficial issues which do not lead to personal fulfilment. I have never heard of anyone on their deathbed regretting not spending more time on such matters. By taking the time to focus on what’s important and setting priorities; we can identify whether we are spending our time on the right issues, and, if we are not, then it’s never too late to change.
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Once we have identified our long term goals (i.e. what we would like to be remembered for) we can then work backwards to identify goals for the next 10, 5, 3, 1 years etc. With these goals in mind we can focus on using our time most effectively to achieve these goals and become a better time manager. It all starts with setting priorities.