Time Management by Adam Mortimer

Truly the saddest thing that could happen to us is for us to look back on our lives and realize that we mismanaged our time here. There are so many people that let the things that really do not matter take the time of the things that really do. There are so many distractions along the path of life that, if we are not careful, we will fall into the trap of wasting our lives away. It has been said that successful people and unsuccessful people have the same amount of time in the day. The difference between the two is how they manage their time. Time truly is our most valuable asset. If we start to think of it as a tangible asset it can help us to invest it wisely. Would you invest your money in something that produces poor or even negative returns? Where are we investing our time that will produce the most desirable returns on our investment? Recently, I was working with one of my students, and as we were reviewing what he had accomplished the week before, he confessed to me that he was not able to do all of his homework. When I asked him why he had not completed his homework, he said that he did not have enough time. I then asked him if he had watched any TV that week. He responded that he had watched about five hours of TV that week. I then responded that he really did have the time he just chose to spend it in different areas.
Allow me to illustrate a few principles of time management though this illustration. Imagine that your time is represented by a pickle jar, and that sand, pebbles, and rocks represent the things that you need to do in a day. The rocks represent the most important things that you have to do like eat and sleep. The pebbles are the less important things, and the sand represents leisure time and unnecessary things that we do. If you put the sand in first, and then the pebble, and then the rocks you will see that it will be hard to fit everything in. If you start with the most important things first, the rocks and then work your way down to the sand, everything fits. We can take this same principle and apply it in our lives. If we do the most important things first, we will be able to fit more into our day. Remember, never let the things that do not matter take the time of the things that do. If we do this we are bound to take a lot of the wasted time out of our day!