‘All that I have accomplished, or expect, or hope to accomplish,
have been and will be by that plodding, patient, persevering
process of accretion which builds the ant-heap, particle by
particle, thought by thought, fact by fact.’
Elihu Burrit
Time is a very scarce resource and for this very same reason, a very
valuable resource. All of us have the same amount of time irrespective of
our position and responsibility in life.
We need to understand the distinction between available time and
productive time. Available time is the total time that is at our disposal.
This is common for all of us. Productive time is the time that we
use to convert the available time into useful outcomes. We differ in our
ability to convert the available time into productive time. The more we
convert the available time into productive time, the more valuable we
make our time.
The critical question is how to convert the available time into
productive time. The very essence of time-management is nothing but
developing this important skill. If our time is invested on value-adding
high pay-off activities, then our time becomes productive. If we have
the right type of knowledge and skill combined with the appropriate
resources, we can make our available time even more productive.
We have to be very clear on our objectives and goals and we should
have a strategy to realise our goals by systematically pursuing appropriate
activities. You may be aware of the acronym S M A R T, which stands for
Specific, Measurable, Actionable, Realistic, and Time bound.
We need to ensure that all our actions are focused towards our
goals and tasks. We need to be clear on our monthly, weekly and daily
priorities. We need to be conscious on how our time is spent on an hourto-
hour basis. At the end of the day we need to evaluate how our time
was spent and what result we achieved.
If we do all this, we can convert all our available time into productive
time.
(From my book 'The Gift of Time')
N C Sridharan
www.thetimefoundation.com
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