Protecting Your Time
Tracking your time is absolutely necessary if you are someone who likes to do too many things. If you like to read books over the weekend, spend time with family, watch a movie, catch up with friends, and still get in a decent workout, then you need to learn how to allocate your time.
This may sound like a bit of an overstretch, but it isn’t. A single phone call spanning an hour can disrupt the entire chain of events for you. A casual message can pull you back into work, taking away a couple of hours from your day. If this happens a few times, you lose track of the project you were working on, which eventually leads to frustration over the things that pulled you away from your schedule.
When it happens too frequently, you begin to understand why productivity gurus recommend putting everything on a calendar. The point isn’t just to know when to start, but also when to stop. When you allocate a dedicated block of time to each activity, you don’t have to worry about pushing other things off your plate. You can focus on what you are doing without worrying, because there is a dedicated time slot for everything else.
Not everything can be put on a calendar, especially when you are planning to relax for the day and have nothing on your plate. But for those who want to maximise their free time, allocating chunks of time to each activity becomes necessary.
Any day that is wasted is gone forever. You are never going to get it back. The least you can do is spend it on activities that make your life better, give you lasting happiness, and ultimately elevate your overall sense of satisfaction.