I bet you’re wondering: Where does my time go and what can I do to have more of it? Join
club. We are all in same boat! Speaking of boats, close your eyes for a moment and imagine you're on a cruise in Mediterranean. There is nothing passing through your mind other than tranquility of this pure moment. You have just experienced purity, clarity, relaxation, and having quality time. How do you get that same quality time into your daily life?The Gift of Time
How many times have you said to yourself: "There is never enough time” or “Where did time go today?" Our society moves fast and works hard. We rarely think about wonderful free things in life. The air, mountains, oceans, blue sky, sun, moon, and YOUR TIME! Time is a great gift, given to all of us at birth. It is yours, you own it. It's priceless— and it's free. What you do with it is your choice. It can make you more successful, relaxed, confident, happy, and give you that same cruise-ship feeling in your daily life.
We tend to take Time for granted because it's there with us every day, in our faces. It almost has its own voice saying: "So, what are you going to do with me today?" ANALOGY: Time is a natural resource. It is energy— just like oil, hydrogen, and electricity. These forms of energy have to be harnessed and stored and so does Time. Two examples of this might be:
1. Someone calls you to arrange for lunch, dinner, a run, a meeting, or to attend an event with your children. What do you do? You look at your appointment book or PDA and say: "I can do it, I'll block that time out." This suggests you are organized and have your time under control.
2. You look at your appointment book or PDA and say," I just don't have time, I can't do it." If this happens repeatedly, it suggests that you don't have your time under control.
In first example, your time was stored, like energy. When energy is needed, it is drawn on and distributed to a planned destination. Stored time can be distributed like it was in first example.
The Speed of Time
We all complain about how fast time moves, days, weeks, months, and all of sudden, it’s, “I don't believe it, year is over!" The solution is simple: Time is not managed in abstract; time is managed through organizing your home and workplace. When your home and workplace are organized, your time and life are managed. Research has proven this point over and over. Two hours of productive time are wasted each day through disorganization and clutter, causing stress and pressure, never allowing for that cruise-ship moment.
How many of us are guilty of occasionally not being able to find car keys, sunglasses, reading glasses, file folders, a favorite blouse, TV remote, telephone hand set, cell phone or even a pen? I have a friend who found TV remote in fridge, car keys in trash, his glasses under hood of car. None of this was a result of short-term memory loss. It was a result of disorganization.
Time is like speed of sound. It moves at mach speeds, nano seconds. In 1942 Franklin Roosevelt said it best: "Never before have we had so little time in which to do so much." Sixty-three years later, we still have so little time to do so much. The speed of time will not change. Nor will cultural mix of people throughout world.
It started in 1200s with great seagoing explorers. Their early connection with other side of world not only accelerated our perception of time, but it also involved our exposure to other cultures. I tell you this to illustrate a point. One of our concerns today is other nations. That may sound a little political, but that’s not intention. The intention is to put into perspective how we got to this fast moving pace. As world comes closer together, it seems to move faster. None of us can do anything about this. It's just going to happen. Ships, trains, telegraph, telephone, automobiles, air, one-way radios, two-way radios, mail system, television, satellite dishes, UPS, FedEx, mail order, computers, cell phones, Internet. All of these contribute to our fast-moving world. Bottom line, they help our lives. We get more, it’s more convenient. Is that good? Yes. These technologies have provided more opportunity to work remotely and from home, to stay connected with business and family. Does it make you want to hide sometimes? You bet!
So how can you deal with this dizzying pace? By finding your own internal rhythm—your speed. The challenge is not to keep up with speed of time and life around you, but to find your personal rhythm and balance. How do you get in touch with this rhythm? By being organized. The best time management courses in world will not bring you more time. They will help you to manage your daily schedule, but if your home and workplace are not organized, your time and life will not be organized. The Origin of Clutter How did disorganization and clutter get into our lives? The answer is our heritage and our environment. If you think about it, our ancestors came on boats to New World, bringing with them only their prized possessions; they were first pack rats. Their landing was beginning of America’s FAST-moving society. They had to move fast to survive, get their families settled, find work, get ahead. That early pioneering spirit established our momentum and we’ve never looked back!
How does this relate to organizing and managing your time? What we inherited is hard to shake. The reason why so many people have clutter, which leads to disorganization and time loss, is their inability to let go, to decide to get rid of unnecessary or inactive items that have been around for years. Most of this attitude is a result of our past. Holding on to those possessions. I present this brief history to give you a perspective, an understanding of past so you can relate it to present and future. Most people have allowed clutter to build up, hanging on to old because they have accepted it as part of life. They do not want to make any lifestyle changes. This is not about lifestyle change; this is about getting more out of life by taking control of time and space. When you don't have control of time and space, time and space have control over you.
