Time Management – The Balancing Act

Most of us have lived in simpler times when all our tasks at hand were getting completed as planned. People could balance professional and personal life easily. Today we find ourselves struggling with deadlines at work, demands at home, challenges in relationships and decline in health. We hurry through our days complaining about not having enough time.

It is important that we supplement time management with a sense of ‘balance’ in all aspects of life. If we ignore a task at workplace there will be immediate repercussions. But if we ignore our family member or physical health, they may not immediately react. This is why many of us take our personal life and health for granted. We even justify that we are only pushing forward our careers towards success and that will make our family happy.

Let us become aware that inner success is the foundation of outer success. Once we internalize it, our time starts flowing to balance every area of life – work, personal time, health, family, finances, spirituality, relationships, hobbies, socializing and relaxation. A good practice is to pause and check every night if we divided our time and energy to balance all of them or at least most of them. If any area is ignored repeatedly depending on our circumstances, we can analyze and re-prioritize.

Let us check at each step what we gain or lose from our actions in terms of our inner treasures like peace, love and joy – We may be workaholic but if we do not see past our job, then our health and peace of mind suffer. In relationships, we may be so involved with one person whom we consider to be special, and ignore those who really matter. This is common in new friendships and new relationships. Another important aspect is to check that our spiritual wellness – our relationship with God and Self is not compromised. Spending a few minutes every day to connect with God and fill the Self with His powers will keep us calm and successful. We will then move forward in a more meaningful way, leading to healthy balance in handling daily responsibilities.

Time is an entity affected by our thoughts, awareness and consciousness. Sometimes we may be in the middle of an activity but our mind suddenly switches off from that context. It creates a series of thoughts of worry about the past, fear of the future or thinks about somebody. This can go on and on if unchecked, sometimes for up to an hour. By the time we realize and come back to the scene, a baggage of thoughts and feelings would have significantly drained our inner power. We feel heavy, exhausted and may even experience a headache. In this depleted state of mind, if we resume the task, our clarity, focus, efficiency and speed reduction. The activity that should have taken an hour may take us two hours to complete. Unhappy about the delay we try to rush through the next task but because the mind is not calm, we may go wrong and get delayed again… we gradually shift from being easy and live a busy life.

Often we feel that either time is chasing us or we are running behind time to catch up with it. We wish to bring time to a standstill or at least slow it down so that we can organize ourselves. There are also moments when each of us will want to temporarily step away from demands of our roles and responsibilities, to enjoy a few moments of solitude. Spending a few minutes to nurture the Self is a necessity but many people find it a luxury that they cannot afford. 

If we begin our day reading or listening to pure and positive information such as spiritual knowledge for at least 15 minutes, the foundation layer of the mind will have an unshakable setting of peaceful and powerful thoughts. This strengthens our mind and intellect, so our improved efficiency saves us time and keeps us enthusiastic. Meditation connects us with God to recharge our emotional batteries. This means the emotional treasure that we are seeking outside will now be activated and rejuvenated from within us.

When every thought, word and action is a product of our spiritual charging, we will experience peace even while working and meeting targets and deadlines. We will never find yourself short of time. When we are in charge of our mind, then time will not control us, time will co-operate with us.