Time Mastery vs. Time Management - Knowing the Difference

How much time do you spend on Mastering Your Time?� I don't mean managing time.� There is quite a difference between managing and mastering your use of time.� The goal of managing your time is to be more efficient, to squeeze more productivity out of your day.� There are a lot of benefits to being a good time manager, especially in a rushed and frenetically paced culture.�

The goal of mastering your time, however, is to live better, to savor your time?. which is just another word for your Life.���

�If you accept that your time is non-renewable, precious, then it makes sense to take this most valuable personal resource seriously, and devote to it the attention it deserves.� Look at Time Mastery as a way of actually lightening your load ? even if it paradoxically takes a little bit of time to lighten up.

Here's one approach to Mastery: Each morning, use some time to plan your time.� That is, picture your day ? what you want to accomplish, what things are urgent and what things can wait, what preparations it would be useful to make, and a high priority is to focus on what pleasures you are anticipating.� Those events and activities that emerge from this review which are most important go into your scheduler first, and everything else must fit around them.� That way, as you move through your day, you'll know what can be relegated to low priority; you'll know what requests to honor and which to refuse.�

By spending a very few minutes in focused concentration each morning, you can prevent the tendency we all have to allow our time to be appropriated by others.� Once you know what is necessary and desirable for now, it is easier to recognize the un-necessary and un-desirable, then eliminate the drip drip drip that adds up to an erosion of your non-renewable day.��

In short, using those few minutes in the morning to get clear is a small investment that helps you throughout the day to avoid the lost moments here and there that add up to a great chunk of time - your life.� Even better, a little planning helps you focus on making sure every day includes something to savor.

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Judith Schwader, the Time Guide, is the creator and publisher of Time Mastery, an e-zine focused on the philosophy and practice of living in abundance through a conscious use of time.� To find additional guiding articles and subscribe to her FREE e-zine, visit www.masteringyourtime.com.�����