I graduated from university almost a year ago. I was a student-athlete for almost my whole life up until the completion of my educational studies. Thanks to that, I learned various personal and interpersonal skills. One of them, which maintains student-athletes on track throughout schooling periods, is time management. I learned time management thanks to the limitations of free time I had due to studying whilst training sports. Having limited miscellaneous time, made me value it more, thus, I had to learn to manage it according to the value I gave it.
I encounter people whose time management is poor, and I might say that I believe, partly, that this bad habit originates in the lack of purpose they give to their time.
We must treat time as the ultimate currency, as it's one of the few things that once they vanish, don't come back. There is no way to compensate for lost time. Time being our most valuable asset, must be managed accordingly.
Substitution is a big player, perhaps, the most important one, in the game of managing time. Substitution is useful to fill in the spaces throughout your day where no particular tasks are assigned to them. Filling the gaps can help you accomplish more than you think, specially if you're someone lacking time management experience. I'm a firm believer in that details will always matter, thus, making the most of my time as much as I can is the route I follow. I recommend you to do the same.
Substitution can look like the following:
- You're cooking/baking a dish that doesn't require on-point attention, thus, utilize this time to get a head start of another task, like reading a couple of pages, writing ideas for your journal, brainstorming ways of how to tackle remaining tasks.
- You just accomplished a valuable task of your day, but the next one won't be accomplishable until a certain time of the day comes. You can assign a small task in between to learn a quick new skill, research about something you're interested about, speak with someone about something you have pending.
- You are resting during the weekend, there is nothing due. Utilize this time to rest whilst viewing productive content, going out for a walk, meditating, stretching your body. Do whatever doesn't impede you to 'rest', but still lets you make the most of your time.
These are a few situations in which substitution is useful. Now, you might have realized that "subsititution" is only a concept I invented, that translates directly to "make the most out of your time". Yes, this is about making the most of your time. An important note to take is, that this doesn't mean that you shouldn't take breaks. But, to a greater degree, it suggests that you should take breaks in more effective ways.
Substitute your free time wisely, for tasks or activities that are valuable to your own purpose and goals.
The clock is ticking. Be disciplined, purposeful, effective, and efficient.
-Aritz.