Strategies that increase your efficiency, make you more effective, and free up time for the things that really count include goal-setting, planning and scheduling, and the self-discipline to control technology, say no and maintain focus. These are the basics that I have been teaching in my time management workshops.
But the greatest time management strategy of all is to live longer and healthier. Gaining an extra five years or more through healthy living far exceeds the few hours you may gain each week through time-saving tactics. Combine a longer healthier life with the time management basics and you have accomplished the ultimate.
The key word in all this is healthy. When I think of growing old, I have visions of visiting my father in a nursing home surrounded by elderly people slumped in wheel chairs staring blankly into space. As one elderly visitor remarked, "We are not living longer; we are dying longer.
Life expectancy is increasing; but life expectancy and health expectancy are two different things. You want to live longer, not die longer. This can be accomplished through balance. Most of us realize that our priorities include interactions with friends and family, adequate sleep, renewal time, proper diet, exercise and mental fitness. But these priorities are under attack by the eat-and-run mentality of the electronic age.
Speed seems to be the new currency. We are driving faster, eating faster, working faster and sleeping less. No longer do we work 9 to 5. In fact, with BlackBerrys and other PDAs, work is no longer a place you go to, but a state of mind. The U.S. is the most vacation-starved country in the Western world, according to Joan Chittister, in her book, The Gift of Years. And when people do take a vacation, most of them keep in daily contact with their work. Multitasking is the norm, and work time is eroding family time and sleep time.
We must realize that fast is not better; it's just faster. And life is not about going faster; it's about going farther. It's what you accomplish that's important, not the speed at which you travel.
Among the goals that we set and the activities and tasks that we schedule in our planners, should be those things that have been surviving on scraps of time left over from our work-related pursuits. These will include such things as vacations, family outings, and leisure activities with friends, hobbies, lunch breaks, medical checkups, and physical exercise.
To live a longer and healthier life, and maximize our accomplishments, we must bring balance into our lives and forgo all the fast-food and frenzy.