Let’s remember our previous post Live to work or work to live. Part 9. TM-bacillus: how to convey the idea of time management to other people.

Let us digress for a short time from the techniques of planning and management tasks and talk about more sublime things – the ideology of time management.

“Sublime things” – are not necessary “impractical”. As the saying goes, “nothing is as practical as a good theory”. And a good ideology is even more practical. Technology without ideology is dead and helpless. Therefore, in the last article, we summarize the ideological worldview of time management.

Technology and Ideology

You can usefully apply the “35-day planning methods” and “28 motivation techniques”. You can reach the next level and establish a logical and structured system of personal time management. And finally, you can master the ideology into the spirit, feel the fundamental principles. This does not cancel the techniques and methods, does not replace them with the “abstract philosophy”. On the contrary: the ideology will give unprecedented freedom to order and efficiency of the technology.

TM- facts

You can interpret the time management as a simple screwdriver set, some of which are worth to get out of the suitcase when a shortage of time occurs. But the next level is to understand that TM is not just a tool, but also an ideology, a new “angle” on the surrounding reality.

For comparison, recall martial arts. All techniques are only the implementation of some philosophical systems. But subtract the spirit – and the technology will lose any sense.

The ideology of time management is based on simple facts and axioms:

  • Life is given only once. You have to live it not to feeling sorry for the lost time.
  • Time is the material from which life “is created”. Any other resource in the course of life may be lost and acquired. Time is only spent, and we have not too much time, about 200-400 thousand hours, we are not even “millionaires”.
  • Time and human actions are irreversible.

Time-management deals with issues of the relationship between man and time, namely:

  • “How to go” – quickly and competently, effectively, not overworked.
  • “Where to go” – how to select targets (strategy).
  • “Why go” – conscious understanding of values ​(philosophy).

This sequence is called “TM- stairs” because a person usually begins his familiarity with the organization of time with issues of efficiency, technology; but after a while comes to the issues of ideology and philosophy.

The specialization of “time management” is divided into three levels: technological, strategic and ideological (philosophical). Reasonable time-management contains all these three levels are in continuous interaction.

TM-ideology

TM- ideology is the main provisions of the discipline of “organization of time” on philosophical and ideological levels. “Thoughtfully and intelligently use irreplaceable lifetime in accordance with conscious personal values ​​and priorities”. We can distinguish several basic values ​​and principles:

1. Freedom of choice. We are free. Our actions, of course, depend on the initial conditions – heredity, limitations of available resources, etc. But still crucial is our own choice and our willingness to change something in your life.

2. Responsibility. A person is responsible for the way of his life and the way of spending his time.

3. Development. Lifetime is the time of constant development.

These principles underlie the TM- ethics: “remember that time management is not only protection of your time, but also respect for the time of other people”.

“TM-bacillus”

Time management is able to change person’s values. The mechanism of this change is as follows. Beginning with time-saving techniques, a person comes to the question about the purpose of his activities. Without an understanding of goals it is impossible to find out what is worth spending time and what is not. You have to be determined with the objectives and most importantly – with priorities.

But the questions of goals and priorities are inseparable from the question of values. You can not answer the question “What is more important for me?” without answering the question “What is important to me in general?”. Thus, time-management switches the attention from technological issues of the organization of time to the ideological. A person thinks about why he needs to achieve certain results, understands why he lives in this world.

Summing up, we can formulate another element of TM ideology. Time management is a unique tool that helps people to develop, change for the better at the most difficult level – at the level of values ​​and ideology. All in all, it is beautiful, worthy and important task. If you wish – join us.