Time Management

I intended to have some readings done during the summer break: books I bought a while back but unfinished, books I rushed to the end and would like to read for a second time, and of course some new ones I want to read. But it seems I can hardly find any free time to sit down and read when I am apparently not that busy at all, which prompts me to take a look at my time management, naturally.

I found out that there are three levels of time management, tactical, strategical and philosophical. Most of the time management skills focus on the tactical level: make a list, plan your day, cut off unnecessary communications/distractions, take one step at a time, etc. At next level you should know differences between important things and urgent tasks: always tackle the important things first even thought they might not seem urgent right now, otherwise you would always be in the fire fighting mood.

One of the implied goal of time management at tactical and strategical levels is to be more productive, get more things done with our limited time, or put in a slightly different way, try to cut down the 'unproductive ', play time. For example, we will try to reduce our time of watching a sitcom or playing a video game. However, one has to ask a philosophical question that isn't our goal of life to enjoy ourselves and have a good time? It might be rational to have a sense of control in our life and manage our time in a disciplined fashion, nonetheless we do get most of our satisfications and pleasures from our irrationalities: be it watching TV, playing games, drinking/partying. From that sense we might want to take a second look at why we need time management in the first place.