For the last few decades, every author or speaker on management and self-help has said something about time management. Allocate time, analyze the work pattern, get a management diary, list out the priorities and assign time limits. After all time is life, and one must try to get the most out of time.

Essentially, we are advised to streamline our lives like machines. Decide to achieve goals, allocate time, and try to achieve the best in that much time. What about life and living? In many parts in the world, parents give very little free time to a child to be him/her self, because they themselves were taught to value success and thus work towards achieving pre-determined goals. Enjoying life is viewed as secondary to what can be achieved in life.

It is sad that many of us never seem to realize that we work at our best when our minds are free from timed, rigid protocols. We work best when we are given flexibility – as the saying goes, trees that don't bend will break in a storm. With only 24 hours in a day, we need to take a time out to relax once in a while.

This is not to say that time management is not important. Time is, after all, a limited resource that should not be wasted. However, if we live a life that is too structured, we fail to enjoy the pains and pleasures of living. We get stressed out. Therefore a balance should be struck when managing the time that you have – allocate some time to be human and to live your life the way you feel you should.