The elusive art of time management ...

I need a crash course on time management.

24 hours does not seem to be enough for a day. It feels like I work for almost all the time that I am awake. No time for exercise, no time for books, no time for entertainment, et al. Have you felt the same way? Well I do and I feel helpless :-(

I am not sure if it is because I am truly loaded with tasks all day or because of my faulty time-management techniques. I have heard people saying that when you really want to allocate time for something you can do it and other things will fall in place automatically. I have always felt that this should be true. But I am not able to implement it.

Our typical day goes like this:

• Get up around 6:00
• Tell oursleves that we will leave by 8 at least today
• Make decoction, boil the milk, make coffee
• Keep the rice cooker
• Make curry with vegetable (cut previous night) and let it get cooked/fry it
• Make rasam/sambar and let it boil
• Make something to mix with rice for our lunch
• When the rice gets cooked, mix it with above and make curd rice
• Pack our lunch
• Shave, shit, soap and shampoo when time permits in between all this
  
• Oh no, it is 8 already
• Have breakfast (sambar/rasam with rice) real quick
• Take the purse, id card, lunch bags, mobiles, helmets etc and rush down the stairs
• Forget one of the above mentioned things and go back to get it
• Leave to office by bike
• Get to Jayashree's office van at 8:30, which was supposed to leave by 8:25
• Reach office
• Work, chat, eat, browse, attend meetings and more work
• Leave office at 6:20
• Pick Jayashree at 6:30
• On the way back home, buy vegetables
• Reach home by 7:30
• Freshen up
• Start cooking dinner. If its chappathi or dosa it will be more than an hour to make 4-5 no.s for 4 of us.
• Cut vegetables for the next day
• Eat dinner. WatchTV during dinner.
  
• Its almost 10.
• Crash....

Now, I am not sure where to find the gap in this schedule to squeeze in some things that I would love to do. Like reading a novel, doing some form of exercise and other things. Sigh.

I wonder how other people manage to do so many things on a daily basis. I envy them.

My ideal day remains a dream as of now.