Identify Roles in Managing Your Time

This post is labeled under Personal Development


This article is a continuation of previous post on Time Management. Please visit here if you haven’t read it.

One of the best ways to manage your time effectively is to spread your commitments schedule in a span of a week.

But how do you do it?

The first thing you need to set is the roles you want to play given in a week. Our idea is to spend more time in Quadrant II (Not Urgent, Important) which is more inclined on building relationships, cultivating our interest, and making us whole in every aspect of our lives.

We may belong to different professions but doing professional work is just a part of the whole personal being. A programmer spends 8 hours per day coding programs but as one comes home, he/she immediately transforms to be father, mother, son, daughter, brother or sister. Playing a different role demands different focus and expectations.

Figure 1 is a sample on how to identify roles. You don’t need a computer to do this. All you need is to put your ideas together with the use of paper and colored pens. The roles or activities may vary week after week depending on how you want to spend your time effectively to each and every role. It may be best to plan this at the start of a new week.


Next step is to plot it on a week’s time (see Figure 2). Here, you can manage on which day or hour you will place your scheduled commitments. You may prepare this by using Microsoft Excel spreadsheet. Viewing your roles in a week time identifies days which may stress you out. You may fill in days where you are free to provide flexibility and enjoyment doing your parallel roles at same time.



Recently, my mother got ill because of mild stroke. As I visited her and spent more time with her at hospital (eventually brought her home), I noticed how she aged all this time and how weak she became because of prevailing illness. She now walks slowly and I felt guilty of not spending much time with her on times she feels well.

We may be busy earning a living, building our career with the aim to have a good life. We even promised ourselves and our loved ones that we are all going to be happy as we attain a certain level of success. Often we take for granted little things in building relationships and people that matter most to us. But life itself is fleeting away if you fail to notice it as time passes by.

I remember planning an extravagant vacation our family would enjoy. That plan was put on hold because of the economic crunch and everyone in the family is unwilling to spend much. Sometimes I’m stuck on ideas on ways to make my parents happy especially on times they visit me. I usually accompany my mother to the malls where she buys things she needs. I let her enjoy foods she never tasted before. At the end of the day, I would receive a text message from her thanking for the wonderful time she had with me. Nothing fancy but a pure simple of being together.

We make plans because we want to achieve something; it boils down on events which make our life meaningful. Learn to assess your life early on and re-focus priorities things that matters most.