Setting Limits On Your Time

Written By Colēgia

Given that time is one of our most valuable resources, being able to use it accordingly is an important part of the process. There are a lot of situations that can benefit when we use our time in a more mindful manner and one method that can help is learning how to set limits on time.

Why Limit Ourselves?

The idea of limiting the amount of time we give something might seem confusing at first. For one we might think that some things might merit more time than we think. While certain things shouldn't be compromised as far as time, many things can be done with less. Let's consider a longer study session's effectiveness versus something shorter. A good example of this is the Pomodoro method which focuses on around 20 minutes of deep focus on a subject. The benefit of this is that it forces us to work more quickly and come up with solutions on the fly because we have less time available. The closest comparison would be that it’s more of a sprint than a marathon. A longer study session on the other hand can be helpful to prevent cramming information so that it can be retained long-term.

“A good example of this is the Pomodoro method which focuses on around 20 minutes of deep focus on a subject.”

Managing Resources

Resource management is one of the primary reasons to consider setting limits on your time. Given that there are only so many hours of the day we need to be aware of how best to spend them. Certain things are already set in stone for us such as the hours of school we attend along with our work hours so it's important to plan around those. With that in mind, the amount of time we give for things that correlate to those can change. For example similar to setting a limit on how much time studying can take, we can also apply that to assignments as well. If we feel that we can put out our best work during a certain time frame and assuming we have several days to submit something, we can break it down into multiple days if need be. It's good to understand how you best handle doing tasks since it can make it that much easier to set limits.

“Resource management is one of the primary reasons to consider setting limits on your time.”

Reclaiming Your Time

When we set limits we're also able to reclaim our time in the process. When you stop to think about it, limiting our time also means that we can give that same amount of time to something else instead. A great example of this is only being on social media for example for half an hour of the day. It teaches us to value that time more given that we have less of it but it also means that we're able to diversify our schedule too. Setting alarms can help with this too given that it functions as a hard stop for the activity we're doing. Limits to our time are necessary since they effectively allow us to enjoy our lives more as a result.

Colēgia

Colēgia

Previous

Being Open With Communication
Next

Having A Good Relationship With Yourself