Principles of time

Time management is subjective but principles are not.

Time management and productivity hacks are topics you will find a lot of material around. While preparing for a session on productivity, I realized that what works for one does not necessarily work for another. Each one manages time differently and can harness productivity in different ways.

However, principles that govern time, if understood correctly, you may be more successful in choosing the right tools and techniques to manage your time. Eg. We all have 24hrs in the day :) You cant change that.

Principle 1: Time cannot be created but it can be destroyed

I call it the principle of ‘Conservation of time’ which is different from the principle of ‘Conservation of energy’. Remember that you have limited time so don’t destroy it.

Principle 2: Time is a perception

Imagine your career of 30years and then compare it with just one of the year, which is 2020 and then think of today. So does a bad day really affect your career? Time is perceived differently by different people and your ability to change your perception, empowers you to change your mindset and thought process. Eg. Re-orient yourself in the morning imagining how a bad yesterday affects your career, and you will realize it doesn’t. Jeff Bezos has the unique perception of time where he thinks decades ahead and that makes it to his plans for the day.

Principle 3: Do not time travel

You cannot be at multiple places at the same point in time. So dont try doing it. Multi-tasking is not the best use of time. Id like to define multi-tasking as using the same human organ to do multiple things at the same point in time. Running and listening to a podcast, hence, does not classify.

Principle 4: Stress = 1/[Clarity * Time]^k

k: Personality constant

Stress is usually associated with time or in fact, lack of it. However, an important parameter also affecting stress is clarity of action. The less clear you are what you should be doing, the more stress you get. If you realise, time is beyond your sphere of influence, so clarity is what you can increase in the equation to reduce stress. However, each person has a different value of ‘k’ that exponentially increases the value of stress and is governed by factors beyond this write-up.

I would like to summarise by taking you back to your childhood days. Evaluate why how the principles played out for you. How you destroyed it by not doing anything, how your biggest problem one year didn’t matter the next year, how you did one thing with all your heart and focus and how stress was something you never knew.