Highly successful people manage one of their precious resources exceptionally well. It is just because they manage this precious resource; they are highly successful.
If you want to be more successful in any aspect of life, we have to use time well. We manage money with more care as we know it is not available in abundance. We look at our bank statement and know how much we have. Hence, there is an awareness to spend carefully within what we have.
On the other hand, we look at time as unlimited. We have lesser time than money with us, and we can make any amount of money if we invest the time carefully.
Let us say you are 30 years of age and you will live happily and healthily for the next 50 years. That gives us a calculation of 18250 days or 438000 hours within our control. If you reduce 1/3rd of this for sleep, we have 12166 days or 292000 hours that we will be awake before we leave this world. Do you see that our time is more limited than we can think? If so, whose responsibility is it to protect it?
Investing our time in the right way can help us in different areas of life.
- In finance, time spent carefully and with the right intention can create abundance.
- In relationships, time spent right can create a role model relationship that will inspire others.
- In health, the time invested in the right areas can create a youthful body.
- In a professional career, time invested productively in the right balance can create the most fulfilling career without retirement.
- In mind and soul, time invested in the right areas can bring in more peace and harmony to you and the world.
Let us see how we can invest and protect the most precious resource in this world.
Step 1
First and foremost, it is crucial to know where you are currently spending your time. Please go back to the earlier chapter of Identifying Hidden Gems (Secret 2) and complete the exercise. It is essential to do this for at least a week to know how and where you are spending. Just being aware of this could change the way you live your life from today.
- If you spend more time in Grid 1 (Urgent and Important), you are generally firefighting and find out what can be planned better. Please note that not all Urgent and Important things can be planned and that is fine. Just be aware of those and accept.
- If you spend more time on Grid 2 (Important and Not Urgent) than you would like to see, see if you are ignoring the urgent things or entertainment for long-term growth. There has to be a right mix in life even for Important and Not Urgent. If you are not spending much time in this grid, see how you can intentionally spend more as this is the grid that will bring a more fantastic future, help you avoid failures and achieve more success.
- If you spend more time in Grid3(Urgent and Not Important), you are living not by your standard but by someone else’s. See how can you avoid a few of these or delegate.
- If you spend more time in Grid 4 (Not Urgent and Not Important), see how you can limit the time in this grid. Entertainment, television, movies—all are important, but it should not be at the expense of Grid 1 and Grid 2. After spending your quality time in Grid 1 and Grid 2, you are free to spend the time in Grid 3 and Grid 4 as per your wish.
Step 2
The next step is to invest in the most important areas of life. If you have not identified a more exciting thing that you want to do with your time, you will most probably go back to your old ways of living.
Find out one area of life you need to pay maximum attention – relationship, career, health, mind or money.
The next step need not be a big one. Small actions are more powerful if done daily, and it also helps in maintaining consistency. List small actions that you can take. It could be any of the tips given in this book or your customized small actions.
Track the consistency of your small actions in an app. There are many apps available. I use Habit bull as I like it for its simplicity. You could buy anything of your choice or use a notebook that you will have at hand to track daily. Tracking is highly potent and even not doing something for a few days when tracked brings in more significant change.
Step 3
For some of the important tasks, block your time. Blocking has a great advantage as it reminds you and, most importantly, you will be forced to act. If you are performing the task defined for the block, it is excellent and can also be a reason for celebration. If you are not, you will at least reschedule to a later time. Do block your time for important things—it is one of the habits of highly successful people.
Step 4
Use the prioritization secret to know what the priority is. You could use the online link that is shared in the chapter to prioritize things. Once you see the priority, you will hardly procrastinate.
Step 5
As mentioned in one of the earlier chapters, we lose 40% of our awake time due to multitasking. Do not multitask. Focus, focus, focus as it is a sure way to manage your time effectively. It might be challenging to start this in all aspects of life. Try this only for short periods daily in one area of life that you want. You will become better with practice.
Step 6
Learn the art of saying “No”. “No” is one of the most important words you will need to learn if you have to be successful in life. Else, you will end up living your life for somebody else. “No” need not be aggressive. It can be handled very professionally and politely. People will respect you more over time if you say “No” for trivial things. Leaders who say “Yes” to everything do not command respect from senior management or their team.
Step 7
Use “Not to-do” list. To-do list helps you to focus on what is important and to be completed. A “Not to-do” list is your friend to handle distractions and bad habits. For example, social media is something distracting throughout the day, and you could include it in the not-to-do list as “No social media till 4 PM”. “Not to-do” list works well as we have listed ONLY one item, and hence we will be focused on not doing them.
Step 8
If you have reached this stage and want to improve further, Read or Get Trained on “David Allen’s Getting Things Done“. Though I was very organized, I got huge benefits after I went through this coaching. Post this; my mind became very calm as I had captured everything in my life (literally everything in my mind) and also, each has a place of reference. As per David, the mind is for ideas and not for storing information, which is a key creator of stress for many. More details can be found at https://gettingthingsdone.com/.
Reflections
- On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being highest), how will you rate yourself on your time management skills?
- Which area of life do you want to manage your time better in—health, self-development, relationship, finance, career or another area?
- What is your % distribution of Urgent and Important for four grids?
- In which area do you want to practice the power of No (think what would make you happier if you do not have to do it)? Start small.
- What are the Top 3 critical things daily you want to block your time?
- Discuss your kids’ current time management challenges.
Self-Evaluation
Please select what resonates with you after reading the chapter and reflecting on the questions. Evaluation is just for you, and nobody is going to look at this. So, be honest in your evaluation:
- Managing my time is very difficult. I live my life.
- I do manage a few areas and plan to improve in other areas of life.
- Mostly, I manage my time well.
Small Actions
- Time block your calendar for one task in a week at least.
- Google search the “Power of No”.
- What is that one activity in Grid 3 that is a “should” than a “want”, and you want to avoid?
- What is that one activity in Grid 4 that is “should” than a “want”, and you want to limit?
- What is that one activity in Grid 1 or 2 that you see as “should” but would be great if you can move to the “want” list?
- Think about a famous person and try to find out how they are finding time for whatever they are doing.
- Think who in your known circles manage their time well. Speak to them over a cup of coffee.