Seneca on time management

We tend to regard time management as a uniquely modern concept, but nothing could be further from the truth. The fact that our ancestors employed more primitive technology did not prevent them from pursuing personal effectiveness. #seneca was not an exception in this respect. After devoting years to philosophical research, he put his ideas down to paper, aiming at producing a large literary output. If we compare Seneca with #marcusaurelius (121-180 AD), we can appreciate a large difference in their literary output. I estimate that Seneca outproduced Marcus Aurelius by a factor of twenty, even if he possessed fewer material resources. Was Seneca a better philosopher than Marcus Aurelius? I do not think so; the difference in literary output arises from higher personal effectiveness, not from higher philosophical accuracy. When it comes to time management, Seneca demonstrated to be ahead of his contemporaries. His life and writings convey the keys to his personal effectiveness. Let us review those keys and see how we can put them into practice nowadays. Seneca devoted his essay “On the Shortness of Life” to the question of personal effectiveness. He acknowledged the limits of the human lifespan, but at the same time, he reassured his readers that the length of the human lifespan is more than sufficient to attain man’s natural purpose. I regard this insight as revolutionary for Seneca’s time. Even nowadays, few individuals are totally free of worry or anxiety. They have not grasped that the human lifespan is long enough to achieve its essential goals, and that we do not need to panic about mistakes, delays and failure. The praise for #calmness and #serenity appears in prior #stoic philosophers such #zeno of Citium (334-262 BC) and Cleanthes (330-230 BC), but Seneca was the first to point out that worry and anxiety are inefficient. Here is the link to the original article: https://johnvespasian.com/seneca-on-time-management/