The five best ways to spend time

Often we find ourselves saying, “If only the day had a few more hours…”

Whatever we do, we seem to need just a little more time and we would have done the thing in the best possible way. But, as the cliché goes, even Einstein had 24 hours in his day and not a second more. I accept that not everyone can be an Einstein, but lack of proper time management stops many of us from being the best that we can be.

Here, I have tried to put together a list of five things that can help a person manage his time better. This list is by no means exhaustive and I am sure you might have some things that you can add to the list.

 Think: The one faculty that a man possesses and which differentiates him from other species of the animal kingdom is his ability to think. So, if we possess this ability, we should make good use of it lest we begin to lose it. Now, thinking is different from day dreaming; it is the process by which we set a goal for ourselves and then plan to achieve that goal. While doing that we must keep one eye on the resources available to us. The goal of every individual should be to become the best that he can be, under any given situation. So, thinking, according to me, is one of the best use that we can make of the time available to us. But thinking should always lead to action and not just stay confined in our brains as a thought, because, as they say, the smallest action is better than the greatest thought.

 Read: Reading is an absolute must for everyone. Reading gives us an insight into different minds, different times and different schools of thought and helps us to look at things from different perspectives. There is no doubt that nothing can substitute a real life experience, yet reading about it is the next best thing. Here, the pitfall is believing everything you read. It is important to think about what you read and digest it well before you let what you read affect your thoughts and philosophy. For, however great a man might have been, he did make a few mistakes.

 Job or Work : Whatever work you do, do it well, for a man gets most satisfaction from a job well done. Call it human vanity, or what you will, but we do like to be appreciated for our efforts. More than any words of praise, it is the look in the eyes of a person as he looks at your work that makes you feel really good inside. So, do your job well for every job is a self portrait of the man doing the job.

 Interest: While work is important, it should not become the core of one’s existence. There should be something that one does because he likes it and not because he has to do it. Do something just for fun and have fun doing it. No one can tell you what it is that you like to do; you have to identify that activity yourself and follow it through. One risk with this is that you might get too absorbed in your interest and neglect other things in your life. This is a pitfall that has to be avoided and then things should go smoothly.

 Working Out: One thing that everyone needs to do without fail is work out. Both physical and mental. Working out is not just setting aside an hour or half in your daily schedule for weight training or aerobics or some other such thing, but it’s a continuous activity that lasts over the entire day. Avoid driving if you can walk, avoid elevators if you can climb the stairs, avoid a calculator where the calculations can be done with a pen and a paper. Doing such little things and others like these will keep one in great shape, both mentally and physically, and help a person lead a better life.

That ends my list which, as I said before, is not exhaustive. What do you think needs to go out of the list and what should come in?