Page 24 - Time Management

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Taming Time
How can you interpret your choices?
If you selected valley-like, white, hollow, available, un-
claimed, ready, blank, or empty, you view time as something to 9
be filled. On the one hand, this can be positive: you’re probably
not under very great time pressures. On the other hand, you
may be too passive about time, allowing others to dictate its use
to you.
If the following terms dominate your choices—spent,
exhausting, mountainous, jammed, relentless, restless, tense, or
bumpy—you view time as an enemy. This is dangerous. It can
mean that you’re presently overstressed by environment and
responsibilities or that you feel that time controls you. In either
case, some change will be necessary before you can truly man-
age your time.
Did the following words compose the majority of your choic-
es: opportunity, busy, energetic, lively, handy, friendly, effective,
exciting? If so, you’re the kind of person who takes charge of
time, who reshapes it to fit your goals and lifestyle.
What if no one category won? Like many people, you prob-
ably have mixed feelings about time. By the time you finish this
book, those feelings should change. You should be able to view
time as an ally, not as a bully or an enemy.

Your Environment

The words environment
and environmental have Environment Broadly
defined in time manage-
already appeared several
ment as the major people,
times in this chapter.
places, and things that affect the way
Environment, in time man- people shape their time.
agement, has a broad but
defined meaning. It refers to the major people, places, and
things that affect the way people shape their time.
Some environmental factors may seem beyond your control.
What can you do about a spouse who never writes down phone
messages? Suppose a color laser printer would simplify your life,