OPTED Magazine

I’ve pondered this out loud, as I imagine you have: there are not enough hours in the day.  With the pressures of work, family, social lives and other commitments to ourselves and others, the 24 hour day races by with a seemlingly endless list of tasks yet to be accomplished.

We’re given 24 hours in each day, but after the necessary time commitments to the “essentials” we’re faced with a very small window of free time to pursue our dreams and spend time with the ones we love.

My personal study

For instance, I took a hard look at my average work day from Monday through Friday to see exactly how that 24 hours broke down and it started with these uncompromising limitations:

• Sleeping (8 hours)
• Work at my office (8 hours)

If I were to assemble a pie chart to break down the time I had available, after considering the need for sleep and fulfilling work commitments at the office, I’m left with 8 hours, or just a third of my day.  Talk about a wake up call!  And most of these items for the remaining third of my day don’t leave much room for adjustment either:

• Commute to the office (2 hours 30 min)
• Grooming and maintaining my health (1 hour)
• Meals and cooking (1 hour)
• Paying bills, errands (grocery shopping, post office, etc), house chores (1 hour)
• Social networking online, phone calls, email (30 min)

What’s left over? A mere 2 hours — what a sobering thought.

Two hours a day to devote to time with friends and family, reading, blogging, exercising (with weight loss one of my primary goals) and extra time for many of the above categories that require much more attention.

Participating in this exercise for myself was an eye-opening experience.  It made me reevaluate exactly how I spend my days and make the most of unexpected windows of time.  While time management  may seem old fashioned and boring, it may prove to be the key ingredient to a happy and fulfilling life!

Have you participated in an exercise like this?  Has it changed your life or prompted any unique time management techniques?

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