It is important to keep in mind that the one single thing that we can learn is to plan, prioritize and invest our time wisely. Learning to manage your time wisely is crucial to achieving success in life. On the other hand, not being able to manage these skills can seriously impair one’s self image and the way others think of you.   It has also been found that not managing your time well leads to stress which can affect your physical health. There are some people who rightly think of time as a non-renewable resource – if it’s gone, its gone. There are others who think of time as money and they find ways and means to budget it.

One simple and practical way to manage your time effectively, as devised by Stephen Covey, is to write all your goals on index cards. Separate your cards on the basis of urgency. What absolutely needs to be done now, and what can wait? This should give you two piles of cards. Next, go through these two piles into items that are important and items that are not so important. This should result in four piles of cards, representing four categories of goals: Urgent and important, urgent but not important, not urgent but important, and not urgent and not important. The most important quadrant is quadrant 2, where you categorize activities that are important but not urgent like planning, and exercise as well as recreation and relaxation. You should also try without procrastinating to perform important tasks in this quadrant before they become urgent.