Lessons I learned from Poor Time Management.

Poor time management is the ability to mismanage time due to some common reasons and end up feeling bad and unproductive for the day. One of the most common causes is the thief of time called PROCRASTINATION. Most times, we feel laziness brings procrastination as we tend to shift what we ought to do at the right time because of something else that shouldn't have been next on the list.

For instance, an individual had planned his day successfully and decided to begin ticking the ones that are done. Then, in the middle of the task, he was caught up with a phone call from a friend and both spent a large amount of time gisting and recalling past memories, then once that is done, perhaps the other person recommended a movie that was so interesting and he wasn't going to let it slide, he picked up his jotter, looked through the list, and said, "oh well, I should get on this later once I finish watching this movie", then he switched on to downloading the movie and binge-watch with a favourite snack that was remaining in the freezer. After watching, he decides to take a nap because he was too tired or had back pain as a result of lying on the sofa/bed or sitting up straight. He left all other tasks till the end of the day. Then he feels bad not doing those things he had intended to do for that day.

This is something that has happened to many of us and I am not excluded because I have, on many occasions managed my time poorly and end up feeling unproductive, unsatisfied and annoyed because I couldn't complete all I wanted to do, but this definitely will pile up for the next day.

There was a time I got angry at myself because I failed to do some things when I ought to have done them because I kept shifting and saying, "I will do this in the next minutes....." but the minutes never end until the end of the day. The previous night, I had planned how to achieve my task the next day and decided what time to sleep and wake up. I had a lot of work to do and waking up early should have been the best time for me because one thing that makes me happy for the day is completing my task earlier than expected so that there would be a lot of time to do other stuff like playing with others outside my compound or watching a movie on Netflix, I hardly have time for it these days now.

That night, I watched two episodes of an interesting movie and I got interested and the suspense kept making me watch another episode until late in the night when I decided to sleep. The next morning came, and I did not feel the need to get up from the bed as I was rolling left and right like a person that needed a warm embrace. I thought of the task to do and I grumbled, saying, "once I wake up, I will do these things since I am not going anywhere". I was still in bed when the light came and that made me jump out of bed to start engaging online which was not the first or second on my list because I had planned to complete all my offline work before coming online. Before I know it, there was still light for some hours and I shifted from engagement online to watching movies while taking advantage of the light and that was how I wasted hours of the day doing things that shouldn't have come first on my list.

At a point, my stomach started rumbling and I knew I needed to eat but those tasks must be completed before cooking. I needed to wash the plates, go to the market, and return back home to start cooking. Lo and behold, my mind changed as I could not visit the market but went with what was available in the house while I wasted money on junk for the rest of the day. With the way I was rushing a lot of things, I felt stressed, had pains in my body and was getting angry unnecessarily at myself that it made people not move closer to me because of the way they were talking to me, I did not respond and as they saw my mood, they left me alone. I slept early that night just to calm myself down and the next day, no one taught me to do the right thing first and at the end of the day, I felt happy to complete all that was planned and had enough time for other things.

My time was managed poorly due to distraction and not being focused on what to do. If I had been focused that morning, I would have jumped on my task even before the light came, I would have visited the market early also and I learnt my lesson to always be mindful of things that could distract us, jump onto the first task of the day, then onto the next and the next till you are done. You will feel productive too. If not all, I can still say I am trying my best to beat procrastination and do what I need to do by waking up early, doing my offline task, taking my bath, and then getting on with my online activities. This has been going on as planned for me which keeps me on track for the day.

Thanks for your time on my blog.