A good Time Manager, is a good Life Manager!

Time Management – A Self Management Skill

The one thing that never stops is Time. And if we don’t manage it well, it feels that it is passing too quickly! A skill that separates Great personalities from Normal ones, is their ability to manage their time well, and be disciplined.

Time management is very important, if we want to succeed in life. By managing our Time, we can plan our things better because we will have a lot more things to do, than the time available. We have to prioritize our tasks, see what is more important, what needs good time devotion, and then we should work accordingly.

It’s a skill that should be inculcated in children from an early age. It helps in the later age. A good time manager is always valued, respected, entrusted, comes across as a disciplined independent personality, and helps get to success much quicker. It helps us to build our Self Esteem.

Let’s ask children to follow these pointers for becoming good Time Managers – 

Shut off your Lazy Mind – Let’s educate children that we have 2 minds, and not to operate from our Lazy Mind. Our lazy mind will say wait, rest, indulge in some other activity which it likes, but will force us to leave behind important tasks, only for us to regret later. Operating from our active mind and listening to your inner voice is the way out. Sometimes, for breaks, it’s OK to rest and not do anything, but that state should not last long. Let’s educate them about the lazy mind and active mind inside us. The cause-effect will help them overcome time mismanagement to a great extent

Stop Procrastination – Let’s tell them what procrastination means. Why does that happen? Because of our Lazy mind again. Make it Ok for children not to think much, because when we overthink, we procrastinate. Just ask them to make a habit that whenever they feel like procrastinating, they should start doing what is necessary to be done, be it a small thing, but get up and start taking the action. Procrastinating is dwelling. More we do, the more it indulges us. Best way out is, as we push that turn off button in TV remotes, we should stop procrastinating immediately, turn off the lazy mind & take some action, be it small. The remote control is in our hands to turn it off for our own good

Prioritize your work – We should ask children to prioritize, what should be done first, what can be done later, and plan how much time they will tentatively devote for all these tasks. Let’s promote clarity, because if we don’t have clarity on what we should do and when, we will screw up and things will get messy. Motivate children to write down the day’s tasks on piece of paper, or in diary, or in their mobile notes, prioritize them, allocate time for each one of them, and then take action accordingly

Try to stick to your Plan – We need to inculcate this discipline in children. Discipline means, respecting the right thing to do at the right time. Realizing our tasks, our responsibilities and completing them as per time. Create an environment where parents demonstrate and push others as well to stick to the plan, the time table. There can be some misses, as some tasks may take some more time than expected, and some other unlikely events can happen, but we should try to stick to a routine and plan

Stick to the time – If we have given someone the time to meet or deliver something, we should stick by that time. We need to value Time, if we want people will Value us. Ask children, will they value some person who is always late or does not stick to the time? We need to explain this well to the children

Find free time in between for your hobbies/fun/pass time – Also, we should give that space to children to have breaks in between, find their leisure time to relax, chill, party and enjoy as well. Because if we over-advise them, and not give this room, they will think Time Management is some burdensome activity, whereas finding free time in between is also very much a part of good Time Management practice. Let’s promote that balance from an early age. We need to talk about work-life balance, so that they devote appropriate time to all things.

Have a Vision. Foresee the future – When we have a vision, we automatically work and start managing our time well. Push children to build a goal, have a vision for themselves, what they want to achieve in this week, this month, in this year, or in the next 5 years. It can be any academic achievement, or extra curricular achievement. We can guide them so that they can break it down into parts and work on them making some time plan. Also, to brief them that people who don’t have any vision, they waste time the most!

Don’t overstress or Over do – Sometimes, when we are supercharged, we overstress ourselves. We need to ask children not to overstress. Distributing the time equally and efficiently should be our agenda. If we overstress for a few days, then we will get exhausted and give up soon. We need to tell children that Time Management is a practice of continuity and not only a few days affair. It’s a habit.

Don’t Overthink – Ask children not to overthink. When we overthink, then we go on thinking and thinking, without doing anything. Instead ask them, whenever they are overthinking, Just start doing. Do that immediately!

Don’t indulge into Social Media reels and stories too much! – Nowadays, people spend hours and hours watching stories, reels and content on social media. Children also sometimes see us, and follow the same. It is making us lose many important hours of our day, draining our energy, which can be utilized in some other important things. Use your phone wisely, so that children are also pushed towards good time utilization eventually.

Develop a Growth Mindset – We need to educate children about Growth Mindset, and motivate them to have one. Having a growth mindset, where we aim at something, and want to grow, helps us plan our time well. If we don’t have a growth mindset, we will remain stuck in gossip, social media reels and stories and not achieve anything. It’s our choice, whether to live a below average life, or a good life!

Take ownership of your Time – Children should be pushed to have that sense of ownership, where they have to own their time, and be responsible for it. Ask them not to excuse or blame others. Try to incentivise good time ownership behavior. If we know we have to do a thing at a particular time, we have to do it. Simple. It’s our ownership & responsibility

Time management is just mental willingness. When we feel something is important to be done, we try to make time for it. We need to watch children for this very trait and continuously push them to become a Time Manager