Utilize Your Time Like a Professional
What’s the magic recipe for great time-management?
The Secret Ingredient
Every one of us gets the same 24 hours every day to become successful and do all other essential activities, but some people manage to be more productive while others do not. The secret of maintaining constantly high productivity throughout the day is hidden in their time management.
There has always been some point in our lives where we have realized that we wasted a lot of time on one particular thing. Similarly, looking back in the past made me realize that I could have made much more out of time that I ended up wasting. At some point I found my self in a very unpleasant situation, thinking that I wouldn’t be able to correct my mistakes.
One late night when I was browsing through the internet, I came across the inspirational story of Colonel Harland Sanders. It was awe-inspiring how he made it through a lot of ups-and-downs; facing constant rejections throughout his life. When he invented his recipe, it was rejected as many as 1009 times before someone accepted it.
It was this secret recipe which we now know as “Kentucky Fried Chicken” or KFC. It now has 22,621 locations in the world. It is fair to say that it was his passion and determination that kept him going into his old age. He didn’t even franchise the company until he was 62, when many people were already retiring. He worked with the company closely until he sold it at age 75. His accomplishments proved to the whole world that age is just a number.
Learning his story was a turning point for me, because it really contrasted what I used to believe. It changed my perspective on how I see success, and it made me realize that it’s never too late to change your life. It made me realize that all the creativity and discipline that we have takes some time to foster and grow. If must first learn to enjoy cooking if you want to make delicious food.
All we need to do is keep doing things we like, and we will flourish. If we waste our time, the abilities inside us remained underutilized. That means you are not giving yourself a chance to show your full potential, all while thinking you can’t do it.
It is strange that we all know the value of time at some level, but we often end up wasting our time in the ways we don’t even realize. The philosopher Theophrastus said it best:
“Time is the most valuable thing a man can spend.”
The few reasons we end up wasting our time
- Not planning well
- Lack of motivation
- Distractions
Don’t let these reasons impede your progress. No one can stop you from achieving your goals when you are determined and passionate about it. Here are the few things which I did and you can also do to avoid distractions and make the best possible use of time.
Listen to a Motivational Podcast
Motivational podcasts can be one of the best free resources you can go for when you want to make the best out of your time. Why? Because they motivate you to make the best use of your time, and expose you to new ideas. These types of podcasts can help you to define your goals and remind what you should be doing instead of endlessly scrolling through your social media feed.
My favorite podcast on Spotify is “The Mindset Mentor”. It is a very inspiring podcast and gives me new energy every time I listen to it. Apart from this, his methods for self-control are truly a blessing to me.
That's not all, according to research, it was found that managers who were mentored showed a 88% increase in productivity. That is a very good percentage and that’s why you should listen to motivational podcasts at least twice a week.
Make a Schedule
A schedule can help you to decide what all tasks are actually important for you. It helps you to determine when the best time is for a task to be done. Doing this helps you to stay organized and avoid unnecessary wastage of time. However, making a schedule to be more productive does not mean that you should try to allocate all your time to work.
It is very important to make the schedule thoughtfully and make time for essential activities like physical fitness, rest, and sleep. It is necessary because without proper rest and exercise your body won’t be able to function properly making it difficult for you to stick to the schedule.
Establish Priorities
Are you stuck between two or more choices? Many of the small tasks that pop up throughout our day can be distractions that obstruct progress towards your ultimate goals. You must make sure you give enough time to the task you think is more important.
You can make more room for the tasks which are important by avoiding distractions. Prioritizing your tasks helps you to determine which task is more important for you, and which ones you should ignore. By doing that you will ensure that you are giving adequate time to the goals that have the potential to make the biggest impact for you.
Choose Not to Waste Time
“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them — Walt Disney”
One of the main reasons why you are wasting time can be simply because you aren’t putting proper thought into what you need to accomplish. Wasting time is like an addiction, you cant get out of it unless you really want to do it. When we are using social media or watching videos on YouTube, a lot of time may pass quickly while it feels like only a minute has passed.
If you are passionate about your work then it is easier to keep yourself on track. Even if you are passionate, keep in mind some goals require sheer determination and dedication to see to victory.
Avoid Distractions
Distractions are one of the main reasons why we are not able to finish our work on time. There are plenty of distractions that can keep you from completing work on time, especially when you want to work from home. Distractions can also encourage you to multitask and divide your attention between two or more tasks.
In most cases what we do is not really multitasking, we are just switching between two or more tasks quickly. As a result, the quality of your work will not be as good as it should have been. The more time you spend in “the flow state” by avoiding unnecessary distractions, and deeply concentrating, the faster and better the results you get.
Conclusion
Losing focus on everyday distractions is normal, we lose focus because of the wandering nature of the human mind. What matters is how soon you can get out of unnecessary distractions and get back to your work.
Keeping focus and properly managing time depends upon your determination and understanding of how important the goal is for you. Try to dedicate time to your schedule for all your recreation like watching Netflix or social media. Make sure you set a time limit for all these activities so that you can get enough of everything. You will surely achieve what you want to do when you utilize your time well.
