“In the realm of
time, there is no aristocracy of wealth and
no aristocracy of intellect. Genius is never rewarded by even an
extra hour a day. And there is no punishment. Waste your infinitely
precious commodity as much as you will, and the supply will never be withheld
from you. You cannot draw the future. Impossible to get into
debt! You can only waste the passing moment. You cannot waste
tomorrow; it is kept for you. You cannot waste the next hour; it is kept
for you.” ~ Arnold Bennett
Stop for a moment and picture
the most successful person you can think of.
Got it?
Perfect.
What makes that person
incredibly successful is that they have learned how to use their time
efficiently, so they can form the right habits and execute the right
activities that will enable them to accomplish their goals.
The one thing that person has
in common with you is that you both have the same 24 hours within a day.
That’s the beautiful part
about it.
The moment you wake up, you
have a clean slate.
No matter who you
were the day before, or what happened, the moment you open your
eyes, you have a brand new beginning.
Full control and power to
direct your life the way you want it.
You must learn how to use this
valuable resource because you can never get it back.
And the even better news
is, after several years of experimenting with productivity techniques and
tools, I’ve finally compiled everything I’ve learned that can help you become a
master of your time too.
Disclaimer:
If you were expecting a fancy version of a To-Do list, you won’t find
it here.
But
you will learn:
1. How to get more time
2. How to use your time more
efficiently.
1. How to get more time
I’ve identified a couple
of tips to really get more time out of your day.
Assess
how much time you are currently wasting
We live in the age of
distraction.
Because
of that, we need to pay special attention to what we spend our time on,
and to see if we have a gap that we are not aware of.
Next thing is to define
the biggest time wasters (activities that you spend time
on, which are not contributing to your goals).
Be honest with yourself.
Evaluate how much time you
spend daily on activities such as social media, youtube, television, and
others.
It doesn’t mean you need to get
rid of those activities all together.
It just means that you should
be aware of how you spend your time, and where you allocate it.
The point is that you have full
freedom to decide where you will invest time at any moment of your life.
Now that we have assessed where
you currently are at, we’ll now move to the second important piece…
Optimize
sleep and get up early
Oh man, this took me 4
years to establish as a habit. Luckily, you don’t need to go through this by
yourself. You can use my learning lessons.
By “optimizing sleep”, I mean that you should find the perfect
time you should go to bed each night, and discover the ideal time you
should get up in order to maximize energy and health.
Try to hit
sleep cycles, which last for 90 minutes (1.5 hours)
It would look something like:
1.5 hours > 3 hours > 4.5 hours > 6 hours
You know how sometimes
you sleep for like 11 hours, and you wake up groggy?
That’s
because you woke up during a sleep cycle.
On the other hand, have you
ever woken up after sleeping for 3 hours and you felt wide awake and energized?
Again, sleep
cycle.
For me, establishing a
habit of getting up early had the biggest impact on my life, because it allowed
me to focus several hours on myself and my biggest goals.
When it comes to getting up
early, my suggestions are following:
·
Go to
bed at the same time
·
Get
up earlier gradually (If you are currently getting up at 8am, and your
goal is 6am, start with 7:50am, then 7:40am, and so on, until you reach your
goal, and then work on maintaining it)
Note: you might experience
energy drops in the first couple of weeks. But that’s normal until your body
adjusts to the new schedule.
Pro
tip: if you experience a sudden drop of energy, ta 30-minute0
minute nap.
Reclaim
dead time
Dead
Time = time
spent on activities that don’t require too much mental effort which you
can eliminate at the moment, but can be used more productively.
Example: commuting / working
out / buying groceries
Find something you can do while
being engaged in these activities.
Possible options
include: listening to audiobooks / podcasts /
reading books / using apps like Duolingo or Memrise for
quick language learning.
The main idea here is to do
something that will give you value while performing items that you already are
committed to spending time on.
Now that you have found
some ways to shave hours off your current time expenditure, let’s go onto…
2. How to use your time efficiently
I’ve done a number of
different experiments, and these are the most efficient ones.
Set
goals
You should be smart about how
you distribute resources. If you don’t have goals, it’s quite easy to
waste time “by accident”.
That’s why it’s
so important to purposely allocate your resources so that they line up
with your long-term goals.
This is important
because if you know what you are striving to achieve, you will be able to
direct your attention to it.
Goals work like a lens of a
camera.
If you set the lens and focus
properly, you will be able to take a clear picture.
If it is out of focus, your
picture will be blurry.
When it comes to setting goals,
there are tons of guidelines. But here I would keep it
simple.
Focus on one year ahead, and
set 3–5 main goals, for the most important areas of your life (work, health,
social relationships, personal growth, travel, etc.)
Make your goals specific,
and phrase them in a way as if you’ve already
achieved them.
All you need to do is write
down yours and start.
Define high leverage activities
Here you can
implement Pareto Principle or the 80/20 rule.
This principle states
that 80% of results come from 20% of your activities.
To
make this easier, I suggest you ask yourself:
If I could only do one thing on
that list all day long, which item on the list would add the most value
and help me get closer to my goal?
Then,
ask:
If you could do only one more
thing on your list of key tasks, which would be the second activity that
contributes the most value to me?
Finally, ask yourself what the
third most important task is.
Create
a morning ritual (or your “thing”)
An effective morning ritual is
an incredible way to kickstart your day.
Your rituals should consist of
the high leverage activities you’ve defined above, the ones that help
you achieve goals.
An
example:
If your goal is to start a
blog, a high leverage activity would be to write an article every week.
Your ritual would maybe be
to write 30–60 minutes in the morning.
Here are several super tips to
make your ritual even more efficient:
Drink water (500ml)
Your body just went 6–8 hours
without the water, it’s time to renew it.
Get a small win
Do something that will make you
feel proud (like making the bed).
Exercise
Nothing can kickstart your day
like working out.
It can be any type of
physical activity (a gym workout, yoga, walking, jogging, swimming).
Delegate,
Eliminate, and Automate
We usually think that we
need to do everything on our own.
We maybe can. But we
don’t have to.
Out of all of the activities
that you have to do, look at the ones which are not your HIGH leverage ones.Of
those items, decide which can be delegated to someone else.
See whether or not you can
eliminate something, and in the end, see whether certain activities can be
automated.
An
example:
I used to spend at least
2 hours preparing food every day.
Then I calculated that I
can save those 2 hours every day if I bought food in a restaurant and had it
delivered instead of prepping it myself.
Having freed up 2 hours,
I can now decide on which high leverage activities I can invest it in.
In this case, it’s my
writing.
Block
Time (or “Schedule a meeting with yourself”)
You should schedule a meeting
with yourself based on the high leverage activities you defined.
After that, learn how to
protect that meeting with yourself, and use it to focus on activities that will
get you closer to accomplishing your goals.
Always start with the first one
in the sequence.
Work
in bursts
This is actually quite
interesting, your time is best utilized when broken into 2–3 bursts.
I find the “Pomodoro Technique” to be
particularly useful.
This technique was
developed in the late 1980’s as a means for time management.
It typically means 25
minutes of work, followed by 5 minutes of break.
This will keep you relaxed, but
also highly effective in those 25 minutes.
Get
into the flow
Everybody has “THE ZONE!”
When you are
completely immersed when working on something.
I get into the flow when I know
exactly what I am working on, and that it helps me reach my goals.
PRO TIP: find music that works
for you, it’s one of the best ways to get in to the state of flow.
Take naps
I am a big believer in
naps.
After you finish a big
chunk of work, you energy will typically drop down.
If it happens to you,
simply find a corner of the office or your home where it’s quiet.
Just close your eyes.
You don’t actually need to fall
asleep, but let your body relax.
Have
a buffer
If you have an important
meeting or a project.
Always schedule a certain
amount of time that you can count on, in case something doesn’t go according to
plan.
If meeting is scheduled for
3pm, you come at 2:45pm.
Just to be safe.
Or if the project official deadline is until 1.7.2018, you can set
yours couple of days before, 28.6.2018.
Like a fail-safe.
When
things don’t go according to plan, chill
Even if you become an
expert in productivity and time management, you will still have a lot of
inefficiencies.
This is usually because
we often depend on external circumstances.
If I schedule a meeting and
someone is late, I just take out my kindle or podcast and make sure to use that
time efficiently.
And breathe.
Track
how you are investing time
Keeping a time log of your
most important activities and evaluating it at the end of the week is an
important technique.
This will allow you to
see what causes the inefficiency and whether or not you can do it
better next time.
Evaluate
your results
Once per week, sit down
for 30 minutes or so and go through the week.
What was productive? Focus
more on that.
What was unproductive? Try
to eliminate, delegate or automate.
Bulk
up on tasks
Dedicate one day a week to
do the following:
·
Grocery
shopping
·
Food
planning and preparation
·
Apartment
cleaning
·
Decluttering
Say
no to meetings that…
…don’t have a specific
outcome defined!
On my previous job, I would
usually ask what is the meeting outcome, and in the case one isn’t created I
ask to be excused until they need me to discuss my area of expertise.
Sometimes it doesn’t
work, but for the times it does, you will save time which you can invest in
something else.
Say no to email until…
…you’re
done with your morning ritual!
PS: don’t check email
more than 2 times a day.
Say
no to things which are not supporting your goals
Beyond strict tracking of your
progress, the biggest thing that will help you stick with your resource
allocation is learning to say no and keeping your life as simple as
possible.
Remember that you are not
saying NO to others, you are saying YES to yourself.
Reward
Yourself
Not every minute of your life
should be planned out.
After a productive week of
work, reward yourself with a lazy couple of hours or even a day.
Something of a cheat day.
Develop
a night ritual
At this point, you’ve had
the most productive day.
All you need is a
closure.
Benjamin Franklin always
asked himself:
“What good have I done
today?”
Think about the amazing
things which have happened.
Do
a tech detox (i.e. enter “Amish hour”)
An hour before you go to sleep,
turn off your laptop, phone, and all electronic devices.
Talk with your partner or
read a book, and get yourself ready for the next day, by defining your
priorities, and what you will wear and eat.
Final Takeaway
Building these rituals took me
several years, and even today I am continually optimizing them to make sure
that I am aware of how I spend time.
Yes, every once in a
while I watch a movie or two, but I always find my way home, just like Lassie
does.
I know I can never get
back time, so because of that, I make sure that I am doing my best to use it
efficiently and become better every day.
The reality is that you
won’t be able to do it perfectly, and you shouldn’t strive to.
You
have to think about the little things. Things you can control. You can
control when you wake up, what you do first thing, second thing and so on. All
I think about are those small things. When you do them, that’s it, all
other things are no longer in your control, and you don’t have to worry about
them.
Test out any of these
techniques, and you will see a huge spike in your
results.
You will see how much more you
will be able to achieve once you start getting more time and optimizing how you
spend your time… and then the achieved goals will start lining up, one
after another!
Remember, consistency is the
key.
https://www.zerotoskill.com/the-most-productive-day/?inf_contact_key=2db5d674fbf891e99d0b1d5e4cadf740680f8914173f9191b1c0223e68310bb1
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