I may very well not have written this article.
In which case, I'm sorry - but I had to make a cup of tea, check my emails, tidy up my desk, count the number of paper-clips I have, and then make another cup of tea...
sound familiar? Time management is largely about dealing with the dreaded art of procrastination, or the art of putting off to tomorrow what should have been done yesterday.
Many people struggle with the tasks at work, or in their own lives.
This is simply because of the incessant prioritizing of fun things to do over those that we know really ought to demand more of our immediate attention.
Once we start down this slippery slope, it quickly runs out of our control.
Time, once lost, can never be reclaimed.
This leaves us with tasks that are increasingly more critical, with a decreasing amount of time, and the stress we feel as a result only adds to the feelings of depression and sense of failure.
Generally there are two main reasons why we tend to allow ourselves to be distracted by mundane tasks rather than the important ones.
The first is that we may feel that the main task is unpleasant in some way.
Checking email or making a cup of tea is far more enjoyable.
Secondly, in some sense we feel that the task ahead of us is too difficult - we feel inadequate, at least of achieving results of which we can ultimately be pleased.
For many people the idea of time management is creating to do lists.
Although these can prove useful, all too often what they end up doing is adding to the burden of weight from which we are already suffering.
This feeds the need to reward ourselves with just one more cup of tea before we begin.
This waste of time becomes so routine we hardly realise we are doing it.
It is accepting this realization that is the first all important step to tackling the issue itself.
The first thing we need to do then is to accept that we are procrastinating.
Once we have admitted this to ourselves we have taken a very important step forwards.
The next thing we have to consider is why we are doing this in the first place.
Is it because the task itself is unpleasant? Or is it because we somehow feel inadequate for the task, incapable of tackling it either effectively or successfully? If it is because the task is unpleasant, but assuming also that we have no choice in being able to either do it or not, we must consider very seriously the consequences of not doing it.
This might include being yelled at by your employer.
It could be losing money or losing social time when you have to work instead to meet a deadline at the last minute.
Possibly it might be completing the task in a hurried and below-par standard, or simply working out how much your employer is paying you by the hour, and accepting whether you are really proving to be good value for money.
All time management is about stepping away from the immediate problems, and taking a good long look at ourselves.
it is about asking some personal and objective questions, before approaching the work again in a more enlightened manner.
And often we are the only real obstacle between us and success.