Stop wasting time: it is money
Ihave a couple of professors that I admire with regard to how they manage their time—one is at Bunda and another and Chancellor College. The two are celebrated researchers but also great consultants—have made big monies in the process. You see, time management is the same thing as money management, because time is money. Step back for a minute and think about it: Each person is blessed with the same allotment of time—168 hours per week. What we do with those hours matters so much. Whenever we find ourselves wasting time, we take directly away from those precious hours.
Time is money and when you manage your time well, you manage your money well, too. How do you do that? Here are the four most valuable little techniques I’ve found for managing my time.
First, start your day off with some planning. Make a list of what you need to get done that day – usually no more than three things. Preferably, do the planning the previous night for the following day’s activities. Take some time to think through why the chosen three are a priority and what you will need to effectively accomplish each one of them.
Secondly, once the day starts, alternate between multi-tasking and single-tasking sessions. Multi-tasking works well for some tasks – phone calls, emails, filing, and so forth. Those are tasks that usually aren’t mentally taxing at all and thus can be done two or more at a time. However, the meat and potatoes of your work usually does require your focus – and doing that with interruptions makes it take longer and reduces the quality of your work. For some part of the day, turn off your communication routes (put your phone on silent, and close your email programme) and concentrate on one of the key tasks you need to be done. When it’s finished, go back into multitasking mode checking emails and returning calls.
Third, find time to just meditate, especially before you knock off at end of the day. This sounds counterintuitive, but it really works. Just sit in a chair and relax. Think about how you have used your day and what you could have done better – celebrating your day’s achievements in the process.
Fourth, as you work and something crops up in your mind, jot it down immediately. Keep a notebook and pen near you at all times. Write down anything and everything – a word you want to look up, a personal task you need to take care of, a person you want to get in touch with, etc. Then, a few times a day, leaf through the notebook and take care of the things jotted down there. Getting these things out of your head and onto paper means you can spend far less mental energy trying to remember it – and use that energy instead focusing on your current task and getting that done as well as you can.
Another important tactic is to find ways to spend your free time that simultaneously help you grow as a person and bring you enjoyment. Reading literature that really pushes your mind is one example. Learning how to interact with more people (networking) is another invaluable way of spending your time.
Remember, the bottom line is that time is money – so stop wasting it. Have a blessed week-end!
