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Effective time management is not a myth. However, chances are that what you are about to read may sound a little unconventional but to get the best out of this article, you will need to read to the last full stop. Let us open with a few words from a famous strategist.
“The control of a large force is the same principle as the control of a few men: it is merely a question of dividing up their numbers. Fighting with a large army under your command is nowise different from fighting with a small one: it is merely a question of instituting signs and signals.
To ensure that your whole host may withstand the brunt of the enemy’s attack and remain unshaken—this is effected by maneuvers direct and indirect. That the impact of your army may be like a grindstone dashed against an egg—this is effected by the science of weak points and strong.
In all fighting, the direct method may be used for joining battle, but indirect methods will be needed in order to secure victory. Indirect tactics, efficiently applied, are inexhaustible as Heaven and Earth, unending as the flow of rivers and streams; like the sun and moon, they end but to begin anew; like the four seasons, they pass away to return once more.
There are not more than five musical notes, yet the combinations of these five give rise to more melodies than can ever be heard. There are not more than five primary colors (blue, yellow, red, white, and black), yet in combination, they produce more hues than can ever be seen.
There are not more than five cardinal tastes (sour, acrid, salt, sweet, bitter), yet combinations of them yield more flavors than can ever be tasted.
In battle, there are not more than two methods of attack—the direct and the indirect; yet these two in combination give rise to an endless series of maneuvers. The direct and the indirect lead on to each other in turn. It is like moving in a circle—you never come to an end. Who can exhaust the possibilities of their combination?”
These are the words of Sun Tzu, believed to have been written between 475 and 221 B.C.E. Sun Tzu was a Chinese military general, strategist, philosopher, and writer who lived during the Eastern Zhou period. This excerpt was retrieved from his book: The Art of War, from Chapter 5 titled, “Energy”.
In this chapter, Sun Tzu emphasizes that you control a large army just the same way you would control a small army. Looking at the opening of the chapter (the first two verses but in this case, our first paragraph) you will see that it is just a matter of dividing up their numbers.
This article aims to teach you how to manage your time. Let’s forget the fancy title for a minute. If we take the words of Sun Tzu for it, like reversing the idea, we can conclude from there that you may not exactly need more time than you currently have, but all that you need is just managing what you have because let us face it, we cannot have more than we can get.
What is Time?
A writer once called it “the framework within which our personality is organized. When it is absent, we are disoriented.” (Fraisse, 1964, p. 289; Retrieved from Psychology and the World of Work, David A. Statt)
Another writer further expounds on our need to maximize it: “Time is one of the central preoccupations in contemporary industrial society: enormous effort is expended in designing ways to increase the amount of activity which can be done in a given time…” (Blyton et al, 1989 p. 1; Retrieved from Psychology and the World of Work, David A. Statt)
Well, this article is not doing anything different. It is just explaining it differently standing on two grounds:
1. You cannot have more or enough of time
2. You do not need more of time
1. You Cannot Have More or Enough of Time
It is not a myth that we would probably want to ignore. It is a reality we must embrace; that we cannot have enough of time, and we cannot have as much as we wished we had. Remember that thing Adam Smith said about human wants? Smith said human wants are insatiable. Like money, no matter how much you have you still want more.
Now time is money, a popular cliché. It is also a commodity people pay for, either way, enough of it is usually not enough.
There are 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days in a year. It is high time we got used to that as we cannot have more than this. So, whatever we want to do in life, whatever we want to achieve, never forget that you do not have more time than you currently have.
Let’s say you are given a certain task to complete within a given period or let’s assume that the task has been analyzed and found fit to be completed within the period you were given. It is better to get used to it earlier on that you may not be afforded more time and you just have to work within the time that has been allotted to you.
This is the fact we have to get used to if we want to move on in life. You cannot have more than you already have.
2. You Do Not Need More Of Time
Taking illustrations from the words of Sun Tzu. Let us liken time to the army and the person in charge of this army, the clever General, to you, and let’s liken the enemies to the tasks at hand.
According to Sun Tzu, how you handle a larger force is the same as how you handle a smaller force. We could say then that if one is not skilled in managing a little force (in this case, time), one may likely not do well handling a larger force, that is, if you have more time, you might still end up achieving nothing in the end.
He said, you do not have more than five notes, and yet the combination of them in good proportion makes the best melodies you can ever hear. You do not have more than five primary colors and their combination produces brilliant paintings.
You do not have more than five tastes, and not more than five sense organs in the human body, yet with them, you can feel the taste of enjoyment in your mouth when you eat and your body is sensitive to every feeling there is. Throughout the day, you do not have more than three times morning, afternoon, and night. As established earlier, you do not have more than 24 hours in a day.
In summary, allocating this time, that is your forces, to these tasks i.e., your enemies in the right proportion makes you a clever fighter.
Below is a list of things you should consider in managing your time properly. However, let us make it fun under a funny subheading.
How to Not Waste Your Own Time
1. Never forget that you do not have more than three times in a day morning, afternoon, and night. 24 hours is just a fancy way to call it.
Out of these, you have only two that are useful to work as designed by nature which are morning and afternoon, the one left is for rest and sleep. Do not get it twisted, people who work night shifts also obey the same law, they sleep in the morning or the afternoon. It is the same for all, just two are useful.
2. Break your task into achievable milestones and allocate realistic time (hours, days, weeks, or years) to accomplish them.
3. Always keep in mind that if it is worth doing now, you should probably do it. Have a schedule and stick to it. Procrastination is truly a thief of time.
4. Do not bite more than you can chew; that is, do not take on more than you can do.
Normalize saying “No, that’s enough”. Saying “No, I can’t” is not a negative expression of failure, sometimes it is a statement of fact.
5. Place premium on your time. You do not necessarily have to be available for everything and everyone.
6. Kill the time wasters.
Social media for a start, time wasters could be that friend, that crush that won’t say yes. Let them go.
7. Attend only to important things and maybe urgent things, too.
However, these urgent things must be important. There are “could do’s”, “should do’s” and “must do’s”. They are relatively smaller up the continuum, as a rule of thumb, attend only to the “must dos”. Not everything is a priority.
8. Corollary to 4, only take up tasks you will enjoy doing.
That is, do not agree to do what you hate doing. At least if it is going to take your time, enjoy every minute you expend.
9. Delegate tasks where necessary.
There is no honour dying in “paperwork” when someone can help you do it. If it requires that you pay, just do it for the sake of your sanity. Honour your time.
10. Always allocate time for rest, and sleep well. Relax your eyes.
Lucid Chart may have a complementary approach to mastering this force called time. Why not check them out?
In conclusion, you might want to think about this. Name three great men who inspire you; for example, Elon Musk of Tesla, Jeff Bezos of Amazon, Jack Ma of Alibaba, etc., and ask yourself, “What Do I share in common with these guys?” The answer is simple: Time. You have an equal number of hours of the day as they do.
They don’t live in a separate world that affords them more than 24 hours a day. They manage the same time that you have. Now, if they made something great of the “limited” time, you can do the same too.
As you have earlier learned from Sun Tzu, it is a matter of strategizing, and understanding the numbers. You will probably waste it if you had more of it with poor time management skills.
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