They say how your spend your time is as important as how you spend your money. Very true. There are lot of people who seem to stay busy doing a lot of little things but at the end of the day never complete any of them. This post is about time management. By effectively examining how you spend your time each day, you can see just how much you waste and make the necessary adjustments to become more productive. Here are 5 ways that worked for me.
1. The “To Do” list: I live by my list and try to check mark as much as I can everyday. The app that comes with my phone makes this easy to manage. Sure there are things that may pop up that will cause you reorder the priorities of your list, but at the end of the day, those check marks make you feel like you’ve made some accomplishments.
2. Multitasking: Some how this became a cool word for people who claimed that they could work on several things at once. I’ve been guilty of it too. Don’t do it. Would you want your surgeon multitasking while you’re on the operating table? I think not. The more you focus your mind on one specific task at a time, the more efficiently you’re going to complete it. In the beginning, I used to write articles for this blog while listening to artists submissions, monitoring twitter and watching television. I thought I was getting more done but I was constantly going back correcting spelling errors, replaying music and reviewing what I missed on TV. I was wasting a lot more of my time and not doing the job to the best of my ability.
3. Meetings: Most physical meetings about business are a complete waste of time. It sorta makes people feel productive and important so say, “Lets have a lunch meeting.” The fact is, a large majority of those meetings could have been taken care of over the phone in a few minutes. Cut out the fat and get to the meat! You’ll save time and the money you would have spent on gas, lunch or the bus. Now I think that it’s important to have first introduction meetings face-to-face, but if you want to look at the other party, use a webcam with Skype. It’s free!! You don’t even have to pay for the call and you can record the meeting if you want. How cool is that? Use the technology!
4. Over-planning: A well thought out plan is great, but far to0 many people spend too much time sketching out the blueprints and never get to the actual building. Sometimes you can spend months and years planning an idea, only to find out that it’s a bad one. The quicker you put your ideas to work the sooner you can find out if they fail or if you need fine tune them. If it turns out to be a bad plan, no big deal. Scrap it and start a new one. This will bring you closer to one that succeeds.
5. Rest: Overworking the human brain and body will eventually cause it to cease operating at an optimum level. Resting is something that i had force into my daily routine also. I love what I do so it never feels like work. Grinding 24hrs a day is not only unhealthy, but it causes you to not be as sharp in mind as you would be after proper rest. Resting greatly reduces the stress of those dreadful tasks you need to complete as well. You’ll look better too.
