The Way to a Better Life

I'm sure that you will have heard of the Pareto Rule about time management. This states that 80% of your effort that are not effectively managed in terms of time or focus produce only 20% of the outcome you were aiming for. 80% of the outcome you were aiming for however can be produced by 20% effort using well managed and focused time. Obviously although however there isn't any clear cut way to test this theory and the 80:20 ratio is not set in stone, it makes you realize how important effective time management can be.

How do you view time management? Lots of appointment setting, goal frameworks, careful prioritizing, planning and endless lists? Whilst admittedly rather tedious, these are the basic skills needed before you can begin to develop your time management skills further. When you are fluent in these skills then you can adjust and develop the finer points, giving you the edge to achieve your goals.

Apart from the tangible skills required for effective time management, you will also need to employ your inherent skills like the ability to make decisions, your EQ (emotional intelligence) and analytical thinking, all necessary for self improvement.

By employing a system and habit of effective time management, the areas of your life that should be improved include your social life, health, spiritual growth, intelligence and career.

By breaking down the areas mentioned above, we can explain the positive effects that this approach will have on you. Physically, your health will be generally better, you should be able to deal with stress and problems far easier, and you should have more energy. Intellectually, you should grow and learn. You will also find it easier to develop and maintain relationships, whether family, intimate, or those at work. By proxy you will find yourself almost unconsciously becoming a valuable member of society. Work and Education make up the career aspect, while emotionally you will be able to control your feelings to a certain extent and use them to your advantage. Spiritually, you will be further on in your search for answers, and meaning in your life.

Although as stated earlier, time management sounds like a tedious and intimidating project, in fact it is a great way of problem solving, breaking each problem down into its separate components.

Instead of rushing around and trying to achieve goals in absolutely everything, stick to a few activities that you know you can sustain. Make a list of goals and keep it handy, write down every time you reach a goal. Look at it often and appreciate how far you've come.

After a while you will see which of your tasks and activities are helping you achieve your goals and which aren't, helping you keep your lifestyle stable and sustainable.

Throughout the day, and even over weeks, as a result of the moon's phases, we all have a ‘peak' time of activity and a time when we hit rock bottom in terms of energy and motivation. It would make sense to do the harder activities and tasks when we are at our best, our ‘peak' times. Some advice which I myself was given recently is to learn to say ‘no'. So often when you are asked to do something, your heart is saying ‘yes' aloud, whilst your head is silently screaming ‘no!' It's okay to say no now and then, particularly if it doesn't fit into your schedule of time management, so give yourself a ‘well done' if you heed this advice.

The steps as outlined above are the starting point to your better and more fulfilled life. Once you master your time management, you actually give good things such as opportunities time to come and knock at your door, as well as finding solutions to aid your personal growth.