Wellness Strategy, Essay Example

Nowadays the intensity of our lives has reached such a point that the vast majority of the people have to combine a couple of activities they are enrolled in for the purpose of ensuring enough time and abilities to succeed in all of the interest fields. With the time being finite, “we have only so many hours to do what we need to do and what we want to do” (Mancini, 2007). Take me, for example. Being a full time university student, I manage to work as a pharmacy technician and also have certain family obligations to follow and keep up with. The evident problem that I am faced with is the need for a good time management strategy that will enable me to balance student, professional and family responsibilities. So, the main emphasis in this paper will be put on possible solutions and methods of handling time in regard to my three fields of current enrollment.

We all understand that time is a convenient concept invented to mark our days more precisely that morning, noon and night. For that reason, I personally believe that the first step on the way to good time management is the identification and specification of the time boundaries for each activity. What it basically means is that you have to know the exact time when each of the activities starts and is supposed to end. In my opinion, such kind of a strategy will be useful in creating a clear picture of the time limitations for the day, so that, for example, you won’t give a promise to your mom to come to visit, absolutely forgetting that you have classes from 8am to 2pm and then work from 3pm till 9pm that day. When you have established time frames it also helps the planning process by means of giving you an idea of what time you have on your hands for other than professional and student obligations, as “what we are really managing when we talk about time management is the events of out lives, including the tangible and intangible stuff connected to these events” (Dodd & Sundheim, 2005).

Now, when the time frames are established, the next key factor, to my mind, is making sure they don’t get lost or mixed up. For that reason, why not to use a personal organizer or keep some kind of a handy calendar as “it is impossible to carry everything around in your head” (Dodd & Sundheim, 2005). Capturing your thoughts frees creative energy: you don’t have to think of forgetting something and has an opportunity to focus on what is important. Using such kind of an approach will definitely lend a hand in not forgetting someone’s birthday or upcoming anniversary, which may get lost in the rush for academic excellence or professional advancement.

As far as I can judge, the above mentioned suggestions will for sure be successful if carried out and supported with one ground principle – knowing the value for time. Under this statement the time needs to be understood as something that can’t be repeated or postponed. Once being late or following the desire to sleep another half an hour can result in the frustrating consequences from failing an assignment to getting fired. The top priority here is “to understand what choices you are making consciously and subconsciously” (Mancini, 2007), so that each decision made in regard to the usage of time will be well-weighed and thought-through in reliance with possible and desired outcomes.

With all that in mind, it is also essential to remember that changing or rearranging the lifetime of habits takes time, which may vary from a month to a couple of years. The key factor in developing and incorporating the time management strategy is “being patient with your efforts to manage yourself better”, because “your ultimate reward is the life you have always wanted to live” (Dogg & Sundheim, 2005).

References

Dodd, Pamela & Sundheim, Doug. (2005). The Best 25 Time Management Tools and Techniques. Peak Performance Press.

Mancini, Marc. (2007). Time Management. McGraw-Hill Professional.