Time Management Definition

What is an adequate time management definition?

Time management is often thought of as getting organized and managing your “To Do List”. However, time management is actually much more important than that, Time Management is about Life Management.

To give you an adequate time management definition, and answer the question why Time Management is really Life Management, I need to break down the terms of “time” and “management”.

If you think about it, time is unmanageable. All of us, regardless of age, beauty or success, are allocated the same amount of time - which is 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

In my time management presentations, I often ask people the question: “What is time?” Reponses often range from ‘time is change’, ‘time is money’ to ‘time is constant’.

Isaac Newton believed that time formed a container for the events that took place, with time being as real as the events that occurred.

On the other hand, Immanuel Kant believed that time was concept of the human mind, that structured and gave meaning to human experience.

Scientists such as Einstein described time as a fourth dimension, which was integral to Einstein’s theory of relativity.

Whatever your idea of time is, what is noticeable is that people perceive time in a different way. This is called “lived time”. For example, perhaps when you are doing things that you enjoy you might comment “Time just seemed to fly”. However when you are doing something boring you might comment that “Time just seemed to drag on”

One of the ideas that I like most to the question “what is time?” is “Time is life”.

If we take that “Time is Life” then what we are really talking about is Life Management. So Time Management is more than setting “To Do lists”, it is about managing your life in the most effective manner possible.

If we waste time, then we are wasting our life!

We think that an adequate definition of time management is:

Time management is the ability to manage yourself within a given time.

To do this effectively you need to know how you spend your time, have direction and prioritize your tasks. By budgeting, organizing, and arranging your time you can become more effective at work and home.