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In today’s world most people are living fast lives. We all tend to be in a constant hurry. We want to do more things but tend to run out of time. Alternatively we may feel that our energy levels are too low to keep going and we start procrastinating. Nevertheless most of us want to achieve more with less time.

And that is the point where time management will help us. We learn how to set goals, prioritize tasks, make weekly and daily schedules, how to communicate and act fast. It is all about getting more things done. If you ask someone to describe an excellent time manger, then most people will point out that he/she is very rational, always busy and has excellent career progress.

Still, not all people prefer to live a fast life. In contrast to the business of the present world there has been created so called slow moment, which promotes living slow life. It is s a cultural shift toward slowing down life’s pace. It started as a protest against opening a McDonald’s restaurant in 1999 in Rome. In the beginning the aim of the movement was to resist eating fast-food, but soon it spread into the other areas of life such as travelling, reading, parenting, etc.

The followers of slow movement promote downshifting. Downshifting is simplifying your life and accepting to earn less income for working less hours and having more leisure time. At the same time they seek for non traditional leisure activities as they find that much of the leisure time of ordinary people is spent on obligations for purpose such as keeping you fit, community work, building social networks etc.

It has gained popularity all over the world. Some of my colleagues at the university are participating in the local groups. These people tend to see themselves as opponents to me, who teachers people to be efficient and manage their time.

But is there really a contradiction between managing your time and slow life style. Basically everyone is managing their time regardless he/she recognizes it or what kind of priorities he/she has. Although most people do not get it, time management is about spending your time in the way you like it the most. It is about finding time to achieve your goals. And it is really about YOUR GOALS. You are the one who decides what you want to do with your life. And from that point onwards it is about finding the best ways of doing it and allocating your time.

Time management does not mean that you have to live a fast life. The reason people who consciously manage their time live the life at fast speed is because the want to achieve career success and to do it fast. They want to earn more money, buy a better car and home, and travel to foreign countries, play golf and so on. It is their choice. We may argue that it is the matter of our culture and role models in our society. Rich people are heroes for many of us and so people want to follow them. But it is their choice.

At the same time you can apply time management for working fewer hours, having more time together with your friends and so on. Time management actually makes you to think about your aims and what is the purpose of your life. Time management does not mean that you should aim at earning more money, becoming a member of parliament or developing a perfect body. It does not mean that you should drive a car instead of a bicycle, that you should eat-fast food instead of cooking a meal yourself or even that you should buy food from the shop instead of growing it by yourself. Actually many people, who participate in my time management courses are seeking more for getting more leisure time than earning more money.

It is all the question of preferences. What do you want to do with your life? People are different and so are their preferences. It is your choice if you want to earn lots of money to drive a Ferrari or you want to work less and ride a bicycle.

kristjan time management Business, goals, slow life, time management