Take Charge of Your Time

 

Make the most of today

 Did you know that time is the most finite resource you have? That no matter how hard you try, time once lost can never be recovered? Did you know that the secret of the ultra-wealthy is that they leverage time by making others work for them thereby multiplying their productivity?

What do you do with your time? How do you extract maximum value for your time every single day? Let’s cut to the chase. What do you intend to do today or what are you doing today to optimize the utilization of the valuable resource that is time.

In this article, I will share a few tips on how to make the most of your day every day. 

The English say time and tide wait for no man. So how do we go about ensuring that we stay on top of things when it comes to time?

The first thing you must do is determine how much time you have to work today. From the time you wake up to the time you intend to sleep there is a number of hours available for you to do what needs doing today. Not all your waking hours will be spent working. There is time to prepare, travel, eat and so on. What time is left-when you subtract everything else-for you to work on what needs to be done. When you get clear on how much time you have, you can allocate yourself the tasks and how they will be spread out through the day.  

Gather the tools you need. To avoid wasting too much time unnecessarily, make a point of gathering the tools you need for the tasks ahead of you in advance. If you can leave your ‘office’ the previous evening with the tools you need to start off the next day, the better. If that is not possible, then you must create time early in your day to put every tool and requirement in its place because it will save you precious minutes along the way.

Start early you must develop the habit of getting started as early as possible on your tasks. There is a burst of energy available in the morning that must be spent on your most significant tasks of the day. For a majority of us, thinking creatively occurs best early in the morning when the mind is still fresh from sleep and unoccupied with a million things. There are exceptions to this of course and I recognize that but by and large, we find ourselves falling into this category. It is also less noisy in the morning and you can really make quick progress on challenging tasks before the noise of the day kicks in. Starting early also reinforces the discipline of rising up early which in itself boosts your levels of confidence making you capable of so much more.

Define your deliverables. What are your deliverables? What are those things that must be done today for you to consider your day a success? What kind of outcomes or output do you want to see from your day today? When our expectations are defined we are much more likely to focus on accomplishing them as opposed to when they are vague. If you aim at nothing you always hit it with precision. This is because for you any outcome is acceptable. To avoid falling into this trap, it is wise that you have clarity on what you want from your day and ask/go for it unashamedly.

Prioritize. Beyond knowing your deliverables, ask yourself which among them is most significant to you. Which of them must rise to the top of the pile. You want your most important and urgent items at the top of your list. These are tasks that you must see to personally because their accomplishment has a great impact on your long term interests. Next on your list must be the important but not urgent. This can come later in your day after you are done with tier 1 items. The third tier is urgent but not important. These kind of tasks you can do only after the first two but in case you have little to no time, then my next tip applies. The not urgent and not important can as well be thrown into the garbage can because you have no business doing anything that has no bearing on the future.

Delegate. I mentioned above that the ultra-wealthy know how to leverage time to get more done. It goes without saying that when you have so much to do and limited time-as is so often the case-delegation becomes your friend. You need to find a person competent enough to do the tasks that you can’t find time to or the tasks that are not very high value but still necessary for the smooth functioning of everything else. Just like organizations outsource non-core functions, individuals must learn to delegate non-core responsibilities so that they spend more of their time on those core tasks. (Offer a local workplace for mundane tasks)

Eliminate distractions. The challenge of living in our connected world is that there can be so many texts, emails, DMs, tweets and much more that are keen on stealing our precious time. I am sure you can relate to that time when you told yourself I will just check this one update and then continue doing what I was doing before. How you ended up spending the next 20-30 minutes on FB is anyone’s guess but the thing is that the little update just cost you half an hour of time you would have accomplished much. Distractions can also come from people who want to pop in time and again to catch up, say hi and all those seemingly harmless things we do daily. Maybe a DND note on your door would send the message to any potential catch-up colleagues. Do you need to put your notifications off within a certain timeframe? Is it worthwhile to put your phone on silent mode? What do you need to do to eliminate distractions? Just go ahead and do it. (Suggest tools that can be used to eliminate distractions)

Schedule Email and Social Media times. Because you must eventually come to the point where you need to look at your emails for important updates, go ahead and schedule a set time every day to look at them. In this time ensure you respond to all pending queries and requests. There is no crazy urgency when it comes to emails. If there was, the concerned party would have called to tell you to check out his email. Because also of our social nature, it is important to create time within your day for social catch up both on and offline. There is nothing wrong with looking at your Twitter when you have scheduled it. A little chatter over tea break will not hurt your productivity by a long shot. Socialize.

Keep your focus till the task is done. Build your ability to focus on one task until it is done. Do not be a touch and go kind of person because at the end of the day, you find yourself with too many projects hanging in the balance and it begins to stress you. Discipline yourself enough to say this is what I set out to do and no matter how challenging it gets, I am going to stay on course until it is done. You must refuse to be thrown off balance by little setbacks in the course of your day.  

Pair up activities. Another secret of getting more out of your day is to pair up activities that can be done concurrently. Think about listening to a podcast or an audiobook while driving from one point to another. Or using your lunch break as an opportunity to catch up with a friend or a prospect. A drink in the evening does not have to be a solitary affair. You can pull a friend or two and have a meaningful conversation in the course of your unwinding.

Automate. If any of the tasks you need to do can be automated, do the honorable thing and invest in an automated system to do the task for you. We have a lot of intelligent machines that can do some of our work better than us. We need to be ready to let them do it so that we can be employed in higher value tasks that need human ingenuity. We are entering the age of the autonomous car. That can only mean one thing. That you have more time on your hands to do things on the go like reading a book, having a meeting, making calls and so on. Take advantage of all the advancement in technology to free up more time for yourself. (Sell Automated solutions for tasks)

Catch your breath in between tasks. It is advisable to take a moment or two to catch your breath as you move from one task to the next. Taking a deep breath or stretching your limbs a little bit helps to keep you alert. Some people give themselves a power nap which could be as short as five minutes and they feel rejuvenated to go on with the rest of their day. Whatever you need to do, do it to refresh your mind especially after a mentally taxing task. There is a productivity technique known as the Pomodoro where you engage intensely in the task at hand for about 30 minutes then take a break before you go again.

What hacks are you applying in your own life when it comes to time? What have you learnt from this article that you will incorporate into your management of time? Let me know in the comments below. 

Would you like to delve deeper in this conversation on Time Management? If your answer is yes, reach out to me on samuelmwinamoa@gmail.com or +254725832477. 

Photo Courtesy of networkworld.com