FEATURE--How to Circumvent Time Limitations

By Timothy A. Edward

Time limitation is a compelling issue that affects all of us, irrespective of whether we are students, professionals, housewives or retirees.  Time is one of the valuable assets with which we have been blessed.  Our happiness will be mostly determined by how we spend time building success stories around life’s different facets.

A chosen few among us seem to be always on top of time pressure.  They seem to be having some tacit knowledge of how to make time work to their advantage. The question that begs is what are some of the strategies that they use innately on a daily basis that help them to overcome time-related challenges.

Stephen Covey’s classic advice from four generations of time management suggests four major strategies. Notes and checklists to recognise and organise the multiple demands on a person’s time.  Use of diaries, appointment books and calendars to plan ahead. Setting goals and prioritising them based on their value and importance.  Enhancing relationships and accomplishing results. 

Accordingly, one of the biggest strategies that we can implement to overcome time constraints is being disciplined in setting objectives, prioritising them and staying focused on achieving our set goals in the spectrum of life, which consists of at least seven major facets – which are spirituality, family, profession, intellectual pursuit, financial security, social and cultural activities.

Manage Energy

When we think of managing the different facets of our lives, something even more important than time management that demands our attention is energy management. Because we need the willpower to accomplish our to-do-list, and it takes a lot of energy to keep the willpower going, until those goals are achieved.  When we remain calm during the day, following a steady routine, we will end up with a lot of conserved energy to exert and maneuver our willpower around our to-do-list priorities.

However, many among us value intensity and we look forward to high-intensity events that can excite, elate, or bring enthusiasm into our lives.   But, on the contrary, by indulging in such activities, we usually expend a lot of energy, which finally leaves us too exhausted to pursue our goals and priorities.  

Discover Peak Performance Times

Another strategy could be to approach our to-do list from the peak performance perspective.  Research says everyone has a daily biological peak—a 2- to 3-hour window when we feel most focused and alert. During those peak performance hours, we are full of energy and our faculties also tend to sharpen up to focus more easily. We should take time to observe and discover our internal peak performance time slots, and then, in a routine manner, focus on our most valuable goals during those times.

Allocate time for creative thinking

It is human nature to repeatedly do the same thing that we have done well.  The flip side to this tendency is that we might end up doing a lot of non-essential things, but things that we have done well in the past and keep repeating them, which can be total time-wasters. How many of us spend significant amounts of time responding to emails and WhatsApp messages which are not important?  How often do we walk around corridors talking to people with whom conversations are not pertinent, which only end up interrupting our workflow?  On the other hand, we can spend those valuable moments doing some deep lateral thinking that can bring about new creative breakthroughs into our lives and workstyles.

Rules of Thumb

The ‘rules of thumb’ that we gather as we work in a particular profession can also help us to master our time management skills.  This is the tacit knowledge that we gain, which becomes part and parcel of our subconscious, which is knowledge-in-action, that gives us the know-how and insight and thereby saves precious moments. For example, this is how composers make outstanding music.  They know the rules of thumb of making good music acquired from years of trial-and-error in music, which is now an immediate and semiconscious kind of knowledge within them.

As the old saying goes, time and tide waits for no man and time will keep marching on.  So, it is up to us to set goals that give meaning to our lives, and prioritise them according to their value and set time logs to ensure that we stay focused in order to see those goals come to fruition.

(The writer is a Business Psychologist, with specialisations in Law and Human Resources Development).