Published on Vision Magazine, San Diego, CA on October 2004
Published on Canadian Hairstyles Magazine – June 2004

Time Management
Bridge the gap from failure to success with scheduling.
by Behnam Bakhshandeh

Time management! What a concept! I think everyone loves to have their hand and their control on the dials and control of their time. Don’t you? In this short article, I do my best to give you some access to the way you are relating to your time and your schedule that might make a difference for you. I will not tell you how to do it, but I will assist you to see how you relate to your time and your schedule.

To start, write down a typical day for you in your life and your job. Start from Monday all the way to Sunday and look at everyday on that week and write down everything that you usually do on that piece of paper. You can make a column for each day and write down what are you doing, like a list or schedule. I know it might be annoying, but it is a start and we will go to the next step soon.

After you complete that, look and see based on your typical routine, what emotions do you experience?
Upset, Tired, Helpless, Resentful, Hopeless, Frustrated and more…

Why do you think you are feeling that way? I suggest that you look and see, what are your beliefs about following a schedule or time management? Or about Time itself? All of these beliefs started when we were young, or when we started working and making our own money. When we were kids we watched our parents and the way they related to money, time, work and schedule and we learned to do that too. Or we learned what didn’t work and we decided we would do something else, like do it another way!
So, possible places that we established our beliefs about time management are:
Parents, School, High School, Church, Friends, First boss, First job, Government, Society, Media and more…

These beliefs that you picked and decided on then became your realities today! You said that to yourself for so many years that you believed them yourself. For some of us, we never examined the workability or un-workability of other ways, we just believed that and that was it! For some of us we, believed that Time is sacred and it is hard to manage and that was it, we said it and thought it for so many years that it became part of our day to day reality.

I am going to walk through some steps and I am asking you to follow these steps and see what have you learned about yourself.

A- Look at what is the excuse that I use most often for not following my schedule?
I don’t have time, I am too busy, I don’t know what to do, I am getting interrupted a lot, I am tired, I have to do something else first, These are not important and more…

B- Look at some examples of things you have been putting off, dreaming about or projects you have not completed. I am sure there are lots of them;
Buying a house, having your dream car, finishing different projects, getting married, having a family, going on your dream vacation, building your own business, losing weight, accomplishing your goals and more…

C- Look at what has been missing for me to not have the above items, projects or goals in my life today?
Disappointed, upset, resentful, tired, helpless, hopeless, frustrated and more…
Exactly the way you experienced your emotion after you wrote your daily routine. What does this tell you about you? You are not up to it; you just love to complain…! You might not like what I am saying here, but take a hard, honest and authentic look at yourself and tell me if you are not being lazy, disorganized or a procrastinator about your time and schedule!

D- Describe your life after you have done or have all the above things, projects and goals.
Happy, fulfilled, content, successful and more…

E- You can have different beliefs and realities for yourself about time and schedule! Like what? Like;
Schedule and time management are my tools to fulfill my projects.
Without scheduling I cannot get my dreams accomplished
I can bridge the gap from failure to success with scheduling and time management.

Now, what do you realize about yourself?
You are in the way! You as your thought, your beliefs and realities that have been created from your past are in the way of fulfilling your future.

In the end remember this;
If it’s not in my schedule it won’t get done.

Have a productive life.