On my birthday this year a friend mailed me a story, which had great impact on my thought process in terms of managing my time effectively for achieving life objectives.

I don't know about the author , but decided to share it with you because it radiates a powerful message; we all know but neglect conveniently!

Imagine there was a bank that credited your very own account each morning with a large sum of money. But, it carried over no balance from day to day.

Every evening it deleted whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day. What would you do? Draw out all of it, of course!

Each of us has such a bank. Its name is - Time . Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.

Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose. It carries over no balance. It allows no overdraft.

Each day it makes a new deposit for you. Each night it burns the remains of the day. If you fail to use the day's deposits, the loss is yours.

There is no going back. There is no drawing against the "tomorrow." You must live in the present on today's deposits.

Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success!

The clock is running. Make the most of today. And remember that time waits for no one. Yesterday is history.

Tomorrow is a mystery. But today is a gift. That's why it's called The Present!

This reminds me of an article i wrote on time management few months ago; highlighting my personal experience ,while working for Bajaj Auto Ltd in Aurangabad, India. Time Management - Lesson Learned , Decades Ago.

It may be something you do if you don't have anything else to fill up the gap ! Humorously called "Time pass".

You must have read numerous articles on this subject suggesting hundred of tips, but tell me frankly - how many of you have seriously attempted to implement those in practice ?

Think it over seriously , devise your own strategy and implement immediately....time is running out.

Let me now share with you , how, i started managing my time effectively :

My story :

Few months ago i almost lost track of my important daily activities like :

1.Making phone calls.

2.Replying to emails.

3.Task allocation to colleagues and follow-up.

4.Attending meetings

5.Shopping

Some of those activities , if not carried out on a particular day render useless and quite a few are attached with emotional strings also.Forgetting those tasks might even put me in an embarrassing situation ,possibly making a dent in my relationships.

While desperately searching for a solution, i happened to notice a mobile software called "Follow-Up"; meant for putting a tag on important future events and remind according to the specified schedule.

This software claims to have a tight integration with important native applications like : all email clients on phone, address book and phone call logs etc with the ability to transfer the chosen next action to in-built Task Manager or Calender.

I installed it on my Blackberry and started tagging all future activities according to the preferred schedule.

Amazing results-an alarm set according to my schedule-it started reminding me without fail , the important future activities i had decided to perform ; not only for the day or next , but also for coming weeks, months even years ; either single or multiple occurrences.

Since then i have not looked back, and hopefully managing my time better if not the best !!!

Author : Abhijit Kar

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