“Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it” – Leonardo da Vinci
Has it ever happened to feel that time is always slipping through your fingers and that you never have enough? Have you ever said “I want more time?” I’m telling you from the beginning that it’s impossible. No matter what you do, the day will still have 24 hours. Time cannot be multiplied, won or controlled so actually Time Management doesn’t even exist.
Starting from this premise, I want to offer you a new perspective on things. Let’s talk about Life Management! Why? Because what you can actually control is the activities you do, and most importantly, YOURSELF. All you can do is SPEND differently the time you have got. So let time be! J
Therefore, what I have for you today are 8 pieces of advice which have changed the way in which I look at time and have increased my efficiency:
- Focus on the things that depend on you.
Don’t you waste another precious second worrying about things which you cannot control, wondering how they sort out or “What will happen if….?”. Filter everything this way: does this result depend on me? And at the end of the day ask yourself: did I do my job very well where things depend on me 100%?
- Focus on the activities that bring high value to you.
I have learnt in time that if there is a golden rule of Time Management, it is closely related to Pareto’s principle: 80% of your results are determined by 20% of your actions. Therefore, the golden rule of time management is: do fewer but more important things, spend more time doing them so that they can be better and better. Nowadays nothing is more important than the focus, in a world which bombs us on a daily basis with dozens and hundreds or proposals, projects and ideas. Furthermore, train yourself daily on key activities: go to courses, read learned books, talk to experts in the area.
- Become aware of the power of giving up. Make a Not To Do List.
Give up doing things out of compliance, because “you have to”, things which don’t really help you and don’t bring value to you, but which may be comfortable or usual, things you do only because other people put pressure on you. In this respect, I wrote in a previous article about the best question to ask yourself at the end of the day in order to feel motivated and involved.
Many of us have a To Do List. Do you have one? I am sure that you have one one way or another. I have seen terrifying interminable To Do Lists and their owners hardly come close to them. And what do they look like at the end of the day? Probably half-ticked J. I wonder: is this productive?
A better question today is: do you have a Not To Do List? For example, the first question I ask myself when I start planning my next week is: what activities am I willing to give up? And this is how I outline a list with endless discussions on whatsapp instead of a simple, efficient phone call, conversations on Facebook, mail checks every 3 minutes, discussions with my colleagues over coffee before completing important tasks. What would you write on your Not To Do List?
- Select 3 key activities
On a simple analysis you will see that the magical number 3 in fairy tales applies in your activity as well: basically there are 3 key activities which you can do all day long to bring you efficiency. In order to identify them, I challenge you to do the next exercise which can get you a little out of your comfort zone: if you were to do only one thing all day long, what would it be? What about number 2? What about number 3?
- Group the similar tasks
If you have phone calls to make, make all of the at the same time. If you have e-mails to reply to, reply to as many as possible in certain periods of time. For example, I have been applying for some time a useful piece of advice coming from Brian Tracy: I reply to e-mails at 11 am and 3 pm. There are exceptions, of course, but now I feel that I am saving a lot of time which I allocate to other more important activities at that time.
- Work in real time
Deal on the spot with any task which might appear (an e-mail to send, a phone call to answer to) and which does not take more than 3 minutes. Stop postponing! J
- Use the Pomodoro Technique
It is a technique developed by Francesco Cirillo and involves focusing on a task for 25 minutes then having a 5-minute break. This cycle is resumed 4 times (4 periods of 25 minutes with 5-minute breaks) then you add a supplementary break of 15-30 minutes. Here is a link where you can find a timer for the Pomodoro technique which lets you know when an interval is completed. If you use this technique, it is important to focus 100% on your task without any distraction (phone, Facebook and so on). Pomodoro helps you realize that you can pay your full attention to an activity and make full use of the power of the break which helps the brain relax.
Depending on the task, you can also use Peter Drucker’s 60-30-60 technique, designed for more complex tasks which take more time. The technique involves 50 minutes of work and a 10-minute break. After 2 cycles of this kind, you have a 30-minute break. This is actually a doubled Pomodoro J
- Prioritize the activities
“If you fail to plan, you plan to fail” said Benjamin Franklin. Here is a method which is very effective in prioritizing, called ABCDE, and which I discovered in Brian Tracy: make a list with all the things you want to do today/tomorrow then write for each of them the allocated time and the corresponding letter as it follows:
A = must do
B = nice to do
C = fun to do
D = delegate
E = eliminate :) (you write on your Not To Do List)
The difference between A, B and C is related to the consequences that might appear if you don’t do that thing.
2 golden rules:
- If you have several A activities, prioritize them with A1, A2 and so on.
- Never do a B-activity before an A-activity.
In conclusion, Time Management actually means Life Management because the activities you choose and the FOCUS on the ones which are truly important to you, are the things you can control. Nowadays, Time Management means not having a nice and long To Do List anymore but knowing how to give up on things which bring less value to the detriment of the things which have a very big contribution to your life. Have you defined the most important and valuable things to do today?
If you want to learn how to manage your life efficiently, I invite you to a Time Management course or Life Management course as we call it at Self Trust Academy. You will learn how to organize yourself and how to use your time to the fullest and we shall go even further. We shall talk about perceptions on time and you will learn how to overcome your inner communication barriers in order to become efficient. I look forward to seeing you!
Andrei Dunuta, SelfTrust Academy.