Time management – What if a few new habits could dramatically increase your productivity, and even 5x or 10x it in key areas? What if you could get an an hour a day to read, exercise, or to spend with your family.
Time management is one of the key factors for success to work. Time is the most valuable asset or thing we could think of on earth. If it wasn’t for time we would never exist. If only everything you do was on time you would feel happy and will have nothing to worry about.
Being successful in life requires you to effectively manage your time well. We all have daily activities we do which make us feel busy but how much time do you always have for yourself? Be honest.
Just take a minute right now and think; are successful people any different from any of us? Don’t we all have the same 24 hours each day? Why is it that they accomplish more in life and we fail to do so. How do they dramatically increase their productivity without getting overwhelmed?
If you are a kind of person who often feel stressed, overworked, overwhelmed and take work home. If you always feel like there a lot to accomplish but feel like you have no time; you are in the right place. Learn to boast your productivity levels by practicing the secrets used by successful people as researched by the New York Times bestselling author, Kevin Kruse. Kevin. Kruse made a survey research and interviewed 7 Billionaires, 13 Olympic Athletes, 29 Straight-A Students, and 239 Entrepreneurs from which he got these secrets.
SECRET #1 Time is your most valuable and scarcest resource.
We all have 24 hours (1440 minutes) in a day. Successful people make each of every minute count. They know that time is very scarce and consider it to be the most valuable asset. I don’t know what your most valuable asset in life is but perhaps today you can choose to make time your number one priority.
From today on wards, I want you to guard your time from time thieves.
This what you are going to do; write a big 1440 using your laptop or computer. Make it Arial bold with a font size of 300. Print out/make copies and place them in areas where you spend your time. Say on your office door, under your TV, next to your computer monitor— wherever it will best serve as a constant reminder of the very limited and oh so precious time you have each day. Sounds stupid and childish, right? Just do it, it worked for Kevin Kruse so it will for you and me.
SECRET #2 Identify your Most Important Task (MIT) and work on it each day before doing anything else.
Are you being aware what you should be focusing on and how you are getting it done? It’s time to identify your most important task (MIT).
Successful people make use of the first few hours in the morning to work on their most important task.
From today on wards instead of jumping into the day doing unnecessary things or trying to fulfill some else’s priority; take time to identify that one thing that is most important in achieving our goals every single day. After identifying it turn it into a calendar and book it as early as possible.
SECRET #3 Work from your calendar, not a to-do list.
If you are still using to do list; chances are that you fail to accomplish most of your stated tasks in a day.
Successful people do not carry to do lists because to do lists are nagging to do lists/wish lists. They are a series of tasks you hope to accomplish, without a specific plan as to when you’ll get them all done. Highly successful people don’t have a to-do list, but they do have a very well-kept calendar.
Use a calendar to schedule a chunk of time for everything that is important to you as early as possible. Never cancel your goals. Rather reschedule and use your time blocked calendar entries as if they were appointments with your doctor.
SECRET #4 Procrastination can be overcome when you figure out how to beat your future self, who cannot be trusted to do the right thing.
Procrastination is the habit of putting off important, less pleasurable tasks by doing easier, more pleasurable tasks. Things like email, Twitter, Facebook, food, and TV are excellent ways to procrastinate.
Successful people usually don’t put things off. They accomplish what they have to do whether they want or not.
To overcome procrastination, beat your future self-using the time travel. Your future self is an enemy to your best self. It sabotages you. Let’s say your future self is going to sabotage your workout in the morning by saying you are too busy for the day. Defeat him with your present self by time blocking your exercise first thing in the morning as soon as you get out of bed and refuse to do something else until you work out.
SECRET #5 Accept the fact that there will always be more to do and more that can be done.
Super successful people don’t just burn hour after hour trying to cross more items off their task list. Instead, they think through their priorities, schedule time for each, and then enough is enough. They know that there is always more to be done, more that should be done, always more than can be done. So leave office at 05:00 pm with feeling guilty.
SECRET #6 Always carry a notebook.
Do you have a note book? When do you plan to get one? Take note that successful people write down every important thing that cross their mind.
An advice from Billionaire Aristotle Onassis is that; Always carry a notebook. Write everything down. When you have an idea, write it down. When you meet someone new, write down everything you know about them. That way you will know how much time they are worth. When you hear something interesting, write it down. Writing it down will make you act upon it. If you don’t write it down you will forget it. This is a million-dollar lesson they don’t teach you in business school!
Self-made millionaire and legendary success coach Jim Rohn wrote and spoke frequently about the power of journaling. Saying; If you’re serious about becoming a wealthy, powerful, sophisticated, healthy, influential, cultured, and unique individual, keep a journal.
A journal is one of the three treasures to leave behind for the next generation. The three treasures stated by Jim Rohm are;
- Your pictures – Take a lot of pictures
- Your library – This is the library that taught you, that instructed you, that helped you defend your ideals. It helped you develop a philosophy. It helped you become wealthy, powerful, healthy, sophisticated, and unique.
- Your journals – These are the ideas that you picked up, the information that you meticulously gathered.
But of the three, journal writing is one of the greatest indications that you’re a serious student.
SECRET #7 Email is a great way for other people to put their priorities into your life; control your inbox.
Only process email three times a day, using the 321Zero system. Schedule three times a day to process your email (morning, noon, night). Set the timer on your phone for 21 minutes (or less if you don’t use emails often), and try to get to inbox zero in that time. 21 minutes is intentionally not enough time if you deal with emails often, but it will keep you focused, ensure that your responses are short, and that you don’t start clicking links out onto the wonderful world of internet distractions.
SECRET #8 Schedule and attend meetings as a last resort, when all other forms of communication won’t work.
Successful people rarely attend meetings because meetings often start late. Sometimes wrong people are in a meeting or meetings are dominated by wrong people who are extroverts. Limit meeting time and where possible hold a meeting for only 5 – 10 minutes.
Steve Jobs’ trick of limiting his time for a meeting is to conduct a standup or walking meeting. He finds it much quicker way of getting down to business, making a decision and sealing the deal.
SECRET #9 Say no to everything that doesn’t support your immediate goals.
“The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything.”—Warren Buffett.
It’s usually hard to say “No”. Despite the fact that “every yes is a no to something else,” we find it so hard to just say no. We’re afraid to make people mad, hurt someone’s feelings, want to be liked and don’t want to be rude. We underestimate how much time a task will really take, aren’t clear on our own priorities, we feel good by being helpful and like earning future return favors.
All those reasons are good to say yes but learn to give yourself permission to say no without guilt. Do not care about what others think of you for declining their requests!
SECRET #10 Eighty percent of outcomes are generated by twenty percent of activities.
This is a Pareto Principle that helps you yield 80% of results that come from 20% of your actions. Instead of running around with a calculator and actually do the math to figure out 80 percent and 20 percent calculations in different areas of your life. It’s more important to have a mindset of identifying the few things and activities that will give you outsized returns.
SECRET #11 Focus your time only on things that utilize your unique strengths and passions.
If only we could slow down and think about our activities in a new way, we could achieve massive time gains. The secret to these massive time savings is Drop, Delegate, Redesign.
We are going to do a self-assessment exercise below to analyze our tasks to see if we can:
- Drop: – What items can I drop? What can I stop doing entirely?
- Delegate: – What items can I delegate to a subordinate? What can I outsource?
- Redesign: What do I need to continue doing, but do it in a new, time-efficient way?
To put this into practice, make a list of all the tasks and meetings you worked on during the previous week and follow these steps:
- Ask, “How valuable is this task to me or to the company? What would happen if I just dropped it completely?”
- Ask, “Am I the only person who could do this task? Who else in or outside the company could accomplish this?”
- Ask, “How can the same outcome be achieved but with a faster process? How could this task get completed if I only had half the time?”
These three questions will give you the data you need to identify the tasks that are of low value and should be targeted to Drop, Delegate, Redesign.
The bottom line should be outsourcing everything that doesn’t maximize your strength unless:
- You enjoy doing it and it’s part of your rest and recharging process.
- It’s part of your values to continue doing the task.
- It costs you more per hour to outsource it than you want to make yourself.
SECRET #12 Batch your work with recurring themes for different days of the week.
3 Themes you can start with by Dan Sulliva are;
- Focus Days: “Game days” – focus on our most important activities on these days, typically revenue-producing activities, use your unique talents and do what you do best.
- Buffer Days: On these days catch up on emails and calls, hold internal meetings, delegate tasks, catch up on paperwork, and complete any training or educational activities that are related to work.
- Free Days: These are days without any kind of work. These are days for vacation, fun, or perhaps charity. No work-related emails, calls, or thinking should be done on these days; it’s a time to rejuvenate.
Do some work and theme/design our ideal week. Determine how your typical week going to look like. What you will do on Monday through Sunday in relation 3 themes above?
SECRET #13 If a task can be completed in less than five minutes, do it immediately.
Highly successful people take immediate action on almost every item they encounter. They know that to be efficient, they want to expend the least possible amount of time and mental energy processing things. In short, they practice a “touch it once” mentality.
Apply the ‘touch it once’ rule and immediately take action on something if it will take five minutes or less to complete.
SECRET #14 Invest the first 60 minutes of each day in rituals that strengthen your mind, body, and spirit.
Do you have solid “POWER HOUR” or “daily me time”?
Highly successful people design an empowering and energizing morning routine and stick with it. Successful People don’t all follow the exact same routine, they do have consistent themes such as;
- Most wake up early—6 a.m. or earlier.
- They hydrate by drinking a lot of water.
- They eat a healthy breakfast, although each has a different definition of healthy (e.g., fruit and oatmeal, green smoothie, protein, slow carb).
- They exercise.
- Many meditate, practice gratitude, journal, or read.
In his book Miracle Morning Elrod, makes a compelling case that no matter what level of success you already have, using your first minutes of each morning to invest in yourself will take you to an even higher level. He developed a system called Life SAVERS which you can use as a morning routine guide;
- S is for Silence (quiet, gratitude, meditation, or prayer)
- A is for Affirmations (purpose, goals, priorities)
- V is for Visualization (of goals or ideal life)
- E is for Exercise
- R is for Reading (a self-improvement book)
- S is for Scribing (journaling)
SECRET #15 Productivity is about energy and focus, not time
We can’t get more time; but we can get more energy. Time management is all about doing more done with less stress and the secret behind this that successful people use is maximizing energy.
To maintain your productivity levels, try to make use of the Pomodoro technique. This is a time management method based on 25-minute stretches of focused work broken by five-minute breaks. Here is what you need to do;
- Choose what you’re going to work on.
- Set your timer for 25 minutes.
- Work, avoiding distractions, until 25 minutes are up.
- Take a five-minute break to take water, talk to a work colleague, go to the wash room, walk around or watch anything funny.
- After four work periods – that’s an hour, take a 15–20-minute break. Then after repeat the cycle.
There are so many pomodoro-apps that you can use to time yourself and you can choose any of your choice. The important point isn’t the exact length of the sprint or the break, it’s to figure out what “pulse and pause” cycle works best for you. You can choose 30 minutes, 90 minutes. Whatever works best for you use that.
Take note that productivity starts with taking care of your health. Therefore, get enough sleep, minimize alcohol and caffeine intake, especially late in the day. Eat more whole foods and fewer processed foods, maintain a healthy weight, drink a lot of water and exercise daily.
Conclusion
Pick up the 15 secrets successful people know about time management by Kevin Kruse to get a full encounter of these secrets. The book gives 20 productivity hacks you can incorporate in your daily life and sums up the 15 secrets with an easy to implement system called the E-3C System. E stands for Energy, and the three Cs are Capture, Calendar, and Concentrate. As a system, what work for you may not work out for another. So, you don’t have to implement all the 15 secrets to see improvements in your productivity. Most importantly learn from the habits shared by highly successful people and adopt them in a way that works for you and your situation.
Time is a very scarce resource and you can’t guarantee that it will be there tomorrow since each day come with its own trouble. Guard your time just like you guard your money. Use it well and boast your productivity and increase your chances of getting successful in life. Remember, there are only 1,440 minutes in a day. Do not wait for tomorrow; take action right now.
Cheers.