Time Management is one of the most difficult things to do among we humans. Even the most successful people also struggle with time management. We all know that as humans, we have just 24 hours in a day to achieve whatever we wish to achieve and sometimes, you will keep wondering how some people are able to do much more within 24 hours while you find yourself struggling to complete one simple task or even achieve a set goal for the day. The whole difference is all about their time management skills. The beauty about the whole thing is the fact that anyone can learn this.
In this guide, I will be teaching you how you can effectively manage your time and achieve more than you expect. These tips I will be sharing with you is no rocket science but a proven strategy that has worked for me and so many other great people out there. I first got to learn this from reading Brian Tracy’s Book titled “Eat That Frog!” I believed it is one of the best books you can ready if you are struggling with managing your time.
Without saying too much, let me go straight to our topic of discussion
Understanding Time Management and How to Set the Table
One of the greatest minds known as Napoleon Hill once said that “There is one quality that one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants and a burning desire to achieve it.”
Before you embark on anything you want to achieve, you must first ask yourself the most important questions. These questions will help you ignite the burning desire to achieve the particular thing or task you wished to achieve. Most people end up not using their time properly is as a result of the lack of clarity. You must first ask yourself the ‘Why ‘and ‘What’ question. Why am I doing this task, why is it that important, what is the consequences of not doing this task. This is why I always tell people that come to me for mentorship that ‘CLARITY’ is the most important concept in personal productivity.
One of the reasons why you see some people getting things done at work, in their daily lives, or whatever they attempt is because they already have clarity. This is why you keep wondering if these individuals are smarter than you or probably have some super powers which you don’t.
The truth is, you might be 10X smarter than them but they will still get things done because they understand the rules of the game and how to apply it into every single task assigned to them. I once read somewhere, I can’t really remember where exactly, but it said the smartest people overthink and procrastinate why the average man goes into trial and error until he figures it out.
You don’t need to be smart to get things done, you just need to understand how to properly utilize your time properly to achieve your desired goals and complete important task at hand.
You might be wondering why your colleague at work gets work done despite the bulky task each an everyone is assigned. You keep wondering how they get promoted so easily and you are stuck in one place. Don’t worry, keep on reading as I reveal some of their secrets to you which you can also implement in your life to get things done.
For you to get things done, you need to have a clearer objective, set your goals and ensure you don’t deviate from them. Once you have a clearer objective regarding what your intent to achieve, this will help you have a clearer understanding of the steps you will take to easily achieve those goals you have in mind or even task at hand.
Most people end up procrastinating is because of lack of clarity of what they want to achieve and how they can go ahead to actualize it.
One thing I want you to understand about procrastination is the fact surrounding it. Most people end up procrastinating and doing nothing because the lack clarity. When you make room for vagueness, confusion and fuzzy-mindedness then you have prepared the perfect bed for failure in whatever you’re trying to achieve. You must try your best to avoid these common conditions at all cost.
I know it is hard to change, but change is a good thing which everyone can starting with baby steps. Once you can overcome procrastination, then you’re one step ahead to achieving proper time management in everything you do.
Rules Of Success in Time Management
There are several rules in achieving results when it come to time management. Once you’re able to follow these rules, you will experience greater change and progress in your life. One good thing about getting things done is the fact that it helps your mind become sharp and gives you some sort of super power within you. When you find yourself getting things done, it will reflect in every area of your life and people will easily spot the changes in you. Below are the Rules of Success in Time Management
Think On Paper
Thinking on paper is one of the best ways to get things done. This traditional method has been effective for centuries till date. Even with the advent of modern technologies such as smartphones, computers and tablets, this method has proven to be more effective than all. Most of these gadgets have notepads when you can use for brainstorming, however, these gadgets can be distracting as well. They deviate you from the task at hand.
Have you ever planned your day and task on your tablet, only for to just take a look at your social media and end up spending 1 hour of your time watching funny videos? Yeah, those gadgets are designed to draw your attention to things that will take away your time. To effectively get things done, you need to make use of the pen and paper to think and plan.
One crazy thing you might not know of is the fact that only 3 percent of adults have clear, written goals. These people accomplish five and ten times as much as people of equal or better education and ability but who, for whatever reason, have never taken the time to write out exactly what they want.
When it comes to setting and achieving goals, there is one powerful formula I want you to learn today from this blog post. If you pay attention properly, it might be the game changer that will change your life forever. This formula consists of 7 simple steps.
With these steps, the chances of your doubling and tripling your productivity is very high when you implement it properly. I have seen great and successful men and women increase their productivity using this formula over the years and till date, it has remained the most effective formula I have implemented in my life so far. When you implement it properly, you should start seeing drastic changes within months.
Seven (7) Powerful Formula for Setting and Achieving Goals
Below are the 7 most powerful formulars you can use to achieve your desired goals and get things done faster and effectively:
Decide Exactly What You Want
Deciding exactly what you want is the number one step you must take to effectively achieve whatever you wish and manage your time effectively. If you’re struggling with time management at work, you can either decide for yourself or you can sit down with your boss and discuss your goals and objectives properly.
This will help you have a crystal-clear idea of what is expected of you and in what order of priority you will be handling the task your have at hand. A lot of people working are mostly wasting their time away and achieving little to no result. At the end of the day, they have nothing to show for it. It will amaze you how many people working away, day after day, on low value task because they have not had this critical discussion with their managers.
I usually tell people that one of the very worst use of time is doing something very well that needs not to be done at all.
There is something Stephen Covey said which I can never forget, He said “Before you begin scrambling up the ladder of success, make sure that it is learning against the right building.”
Write Down What You Want
As I have mentioned earlier before, thinking on paper is one of the most powerful strategy for organizing yourself and managing your time properly. By the time your write down your goals on paper, this will give you a blue print of what you need to do and how to actualize it. What most people don’t know is the fact that writing on paper crystalizes the whole working process. This will give you a tangible step to make things happen.
The crazy part of this is the fact that that simple strategy creates something tangible, something you can touch and see. On the other hand, any goal or objective that is not written down is merely just a fancy wish that may never come to pass.
Have you ever sat down and make a statement that I’m buying a car? That statement is just a wish which everyone does, but when you pick a pen and paper, write down how much you make, how much your expenses are, what expense can you cut, how much can you save. Doing so, you will have a clear visual map of how that can be achieve, how long it will take you to achieve that, and what you must do to make it possible. That is the power of writing on paper.
When you fail to write down your goals and objectives, it leads to confusion, vagueness, misdirection, and numerous mistakes.
Set a Deadline on Your Goal and Sub deadlines If Necessary
Knowing the finishing line for any race is the motivating factor for starting the race. Let’s look at this example, will you want to start a race when you don’t know where it ends? Hell No! No one will embark on such journey.
This is why as a professional or individual, to achieve something, you need to set a deadline to when you want to finish it. When you set a goal or make a decision without a deadline, it creates no room for urgency. This is why you see your boss saying, “Hey, I need this task on my desk by tomorrow morning”, He is doing that not because he doesn’t like you, he just understands the importance of time and getting things done at the right time.
This is why you need to ensure you understand the importance of setting deadlines for whatever you’re doing. Without you having a definite deadline accompanied by the assignment or acceptance of specific responsibilities for completion, you will end up procrastinating and little will be done from your own end.
Make a List of Everything You Can Think of That That You Are Going to Do to Achieve Your Goals
Take your time to sit down and make a list of all the things you must do to achieve your goal. Make sure they are written on paper. When making the list, if any activity comes up in your mind, add it to the list. Ensure you keep building the list until you are fully satisfied with what you have.
If you feel the list is complete, then you can stop there. What this list will do is to give you a visual road map and picture of which task are the major and minor task. With that, you have just prepared a track to start your race by taking them one after the other and striking them out of the list. I promise you, once you do that, you will be overwhelmed by what you can achieve in a short period of time.
Organize Your List into a Plan
Creating your list is not just enough if you don’t act on it. By the time you create your list, you can then go ahead and organize it by priority and sequence. With the list you have at hand you can take your time to decide on what you need to first and what you can do later. With this it will be much easier for you to take things one step at a time instead of jumping from one thing to the other when you are yet to complete one.
When I was struggling with time management, this was my major challenge. I always find myself starting something without finishing and then jumping to the next, at the end of the day, I will end up doing nothing and wasting the whole of my day without accomplishing anything.
One of the easiest ways you can do this just in case you’re confused, you can create a checkbox for all the things you want to achieve, once you complete it, you can check the box and move to the next.
Another way you can do this is by categorizing them into A1, A2, B1, B2 etc. A1 standing for top priority task that needs to be done first and B2 means they are less a priority compared to task that fall under the category of A1 and A2. With this strategy, you will have a visual explanation of each task and which ‘MUST’ be done first and completed at a given time frame.
If you do this, you will be amazed at how much easier it is to achieve your goals when you break them down into individual task.
When you have a well written and structured goal and plan, you will realize that you are way far more productive and efficient than people who are carrying their goals around on their mind.
Take Action on Your Plans Immediately
Don’t over romance your plan, you just have to start anyway. You don’t need to wait for it to be perfect before you start execution. One thing people fail to understand about planning is the fact that an average plan that is vigorously executed is way far better than a brilliant well written plan on which nothing is done. For you to achieve any kind of success, you must execute any plan you have or else it will be covered with dust and becomes useless.
Do Something Every Single Day That Moves You Toward Your Major Goal
The final step of getting things done and managing your time properly is by doing something everyday that will lead to your final destination. There is this popular saying, “A journey of a thousand miles start with a step”.
To get to that final destination, you must take baby steps that will get you closer to your destination. The question is, how do you make that possible?
One of the easiest ways to get that done is to build the habit of integrating your activity into your daily schedule. Imagine trying to read a book, the book might look big and bulky, but reading a page or two daily will help you read the book to the end. Same thing applies to goals and task, to get anything done, you just have to start and execute every single day until you get the desired result you wish.
Just just have to keep pushing forward every single day. Once you start moving, the goal is to keep moving without stopping. Just don’t stop!
This decision, this discipline alone, can drastically increase your speed of goal accomplishment and boost your personal productivity.
Conclusion
Most people underestimate the power of written goals. When you have a well written goals, it will have a wonderful effect on your thinking. They will help in motivating you and galvanizing you into action. One thing people don’t know, written goals stimulate creativity, releases one’s energy and helps in overcoming procrastination as much as any other factor.
Our goal is usually the fuel in the furnace of achievement. When the goal is big and clearer, it creates this excitement of achieving it. This will give you more reason to think about it which will give you that inner drive and desire to accomplish it.
Always think about your goal, feel the excitement of seeing yourself crushing it daily. Just begin every morning and you will thank yourself for what you are accomplishing.
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