Time Is Valuable: Making Your Schedules Simpler To Gain Back Your Life
A lot of people equate time to money, but in the real sense of it, it holds more value than that. This is because when time is gone, that same moment may not be regained back. This is why you have to learn to simplify your schedules, not just a matter of productivity, but to manage time effectively and to reclaim your life, so as to live it more purposefully. If you do not have a schedule to guide your activities, you may not fully optimise your time. But by simplifying your schedules, you focus first on the priorities and then it becomes easier.
In the world we live in, a lot of people form to be busy, but at the end, not all of the busyness lead to productivity. You will see people fill their calendars with endless appointments, big commitments, and various activities that will make them feel drained, yet without fulfilment. People are quick to say yes to everything and anything - yes to distraction, yes to things that add little or no value, yes to what does not really matter. At the end of the day, they will be wondering where their time went to, because they cannot point out to one thing that they achieved for the day. Productivity is not a function of having your tables full with schedules, but simplifying them and starting with the top on the priority list.
Simplifying your schedules starts with realigning your mindset to know that not everything deserves your attention, and not all activities deserve your time. I have come to understand that there is a great difference between urgency and importance. That something is urgent may not make it important. On the other hand, that something is important may not make it urgent. You have to learn to differentiate between the both and know which one will come first in your priority list. On the same hand, there are decisions that, when taken, will affect a lot of other decisions, and there are some other isolated decisions which will not have a significant impact on the others. Knowing this will help you to plan your schedules adequately.
I once read something interesting about the late Steve Jobs; the co-founder of Apple Inc. A lot of people who knew him observed that he constantly wore the same style of turtleneck tops with jeans trousers. So at some point, they asked him about his choice of fashion, and the reply he gave made so much sense. He said that he loved wearing that simple style, not because he did not have a sense of fashion, but because he needed to remove small unnecessary decisions in order to save his mental energy for what truly matters. It does not mean that it is bad to dress fashionably, but to him, he saw it as a distraction which he should avoid. His simple lifestyle reflected a very deep truth about him, which is; he used his time to create products that would change the tech world, and would also produce wealth.
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I have come to understand that when you simplify your schedules, you will free your mind from unwanted stress. Instead of trying to multitask through dozens of commitments and end up not getting anyone done maximally, it will be better to focus on the important few and take them one after the other. In that way, you will be able to achieve more within a shorter time and be more productive. As you grow in life and get more experiences, you will understand that quality is, oftentimes, favoured over quantity. For example, instead of having 20 shallow friendships, you can decide to invest deeply in building just 5 friendships that will add extensively to your life.
It is worthy to note that simplification does not mean that someone is doing less as a result of laziness, rather it is choosing to do less of what does not matter, in order to do more of what matters. This, in simple terms, is prioritizing your activities. In order to do this, you have to learn to say a firm no to what does not add value to you. Then you have to clear your mind, so as to reflect well. This is because a clearer mind will help you to think and make better decisions. Also try to eliminate distraction. This can include reducing media exposure that can pressure you, cutting unnecessary meetings, and doing away with unwholesome habits to make time for what truly matters. Always have in mind that your time is your resources, you have to guard it jealously.
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