You've probably seen this in a movie.... A novice monk, ambitious and idealistic, arrives at the monastery. He wants to learn from the wisdom of the masters; to understand the great secrets of the universe, to discover purpose and the meaning of his role on earth. And....? The poor sap gets to muck out the toilets - or sweep the courtyard for weeks, or scrub pots in the kitchen, or whatever menial, boring, repetitive task occurs to the head monk (or, strictly speaking, to the movie scriptwriter). In this way - in the movie - the young monk learns important lessons, about the world, and about himself.
Now, oddly enough, this movie script has considerable relevance to time management, and it particularly resonates with TM4T. TM4T's intentions are ambitious. There are, in fact, great truths involved here. The aim is to transform teachers' lives, remove stress and instill tranqulity, to enable greater purpose and achievement, and even increase the likelihood of happiness. One well-known time management method in fact starts with an exercise involving a quiet room and a blank sheet of paper: simply write down everything that you want to achieve in life; your hopes and dreams. Now, TM4T doesn't actually include this exercise, because we assume that your life goals are focused on education - that's why you're on this particular website. However, we are nevertheless working on that kind of level: dealing with our lifetime goals, and our personal and social well-being. This, dear reader, is heavy shit.
And...? Well, just like in the movie, the reality may initially seem kind of disappointing. The steps towards great achievement are in fact, bafflingly small: trivial, menial, and frequently boring. In the time management method mentioned above, when you have written down your lifetime goals, you next identify the first steps in achieving them, then write down action points, and dates, and diarise review activities, and list resources, and ... well, you get the picture: very quickly hope and dreams get turned into a little spreadsheet.
If you are going to be successful at this time management thing, there is a lesson you need to learn right now: don't forget that this business is going to be repetitive and boring at times, but also don't forget that it is both life-changing and life-affirming. You will be operating in a world of tick-lists, plans, dates and diaries, but you will be simultaneously living in a world of dreams, goals, achievements, and fulfillment.