6 best ways to manage your time more efficiently
Best ways to manage your time
Time is the most useful resource any human being can ever have on this planet because unlike other resources; time cannot be bought or sold, borrowed or stolen, saved or wasted, manufactured or destroyed, reproduced or replaced. All we can do is make good use of it, and it does not matter whether we use it efficiently or not, it is going to slip away from our hands anyways. Therefore if you want to be a successful person tomorrow, Stop wasting your time today.
Time management is vital for your personal life and also for your success. Time management helps you make the most of your time and in turn, helps you make the most of your life.
So in this article, I am giving some very effective tips on how to manage your time more efficiently.
Make an agenda before meeting someone:
So many people waste their time giving a small discussion or a meeting more time than it deserves. When you are going for a meeting or going to your friend’s house for some important discussion then first write down the most important points that you want to discuss. List specific purposes that the meeting is supposed to achieve, list specific issues to be discussed and outcomes to be achieved. When you are having the meeting or the discussion act according to the agenda that you prepared and make sure you conclude the meeting or the discussion as soon as the desired outcomes are achieved.
“Don’t use time or words carelessly. Neither can be retrieved”
-Jackson Brown
Ask yourself how you can put your time to it’s best use
Ask yourself this question whenever you are unsure about what you want to do or whenever you have more than one things that you have to do and then analyze the situation and only dedicate your time to the thing which is more important to you. This prioritization technique will help you use your time only on the most important things and not just on what is urgent. The most effective people focus on the most important tasks and delegate the most urgent tasks. Important tasks are those that will be most impactful on your long-term goals, so make sure that you give priority to such tasks. This technique will also help you set priorities in your life.
“People who make the worst use of time may be the same ones who complain that there is never enough time”
-Anonymous
Use your time to grow:
An average person spends an average of 2 hours a day traveling and waiting.
This means:–
2 hours per day * 7 days in a week = 14 hours per week
14 hours per week* 4 weeks per month = 56 hours per month
56 hours per month * 12 months in a year = 672 hours per year
672 hours / 24 hours = 28 days every year
Just imagine if you can put these 28 days of quality time to their best use then how much you can think, learn, prepare and grow in a single year.
You can spend this time listening to audiobooks on your phone, reading books of successful people (you can also read e-books) or you can watch motivational videos on your smartphone.
Here is a list of top 20 websites from where you can download free ebooks. You can have the e-books that you download on your smartphone so that you can read them whenever you are traveling or waiting for a bus.
You can also download some free audiobooks from this site: reado.com
“Most time is wasted, not in hours, but in minutes. A bucket with a small hole in the bottom gets just as empty as a bucket that is deliberately kicked over”
-Paul J Meyer
Make a to-do list:
Make a to-do list before going to bed or after waking up in the morning. Spend at least 10 minutes each day planning your to-do list. The most important time of the day is the time when you plan your day. To-Do Lists help you stay focused only on your most important projects tasks and decisions. Even the best-planned day can have room for interruptions and emergencies: so don’t expect to get everything on your to-do list done but at the same time try your best to get everything done too.
Read – How to prepare a to-do list?
“You are the pilot of your life and therefore, you are in direct control of 525,600 minutes every year”
Carry a notebook with you:
Carry a notebook or use your smartphone to note down the most important points and conclusions of every meeting, activity or discussion that you indulge yourself in every day. It will help you analyze how much time you have spent in productive activities every day and it will also help you eliminate unproductive activities the next time.
“The time for extracting a lesson from history is ever at hand for those who are wise“
–Demosthenes
Block social media:
Block your social media accounts such as WhatsApp, Facebook, or Instagram unless you use these tools for productive activities like for your business or for gaining knowledge. Spending too much time chatting and surfing on social media is the most common and most addictive way of wasting your time and energy.
“Be selective with where you waste your time, wasted time is worse than wasted money”
– Anonymous
The Message:
Each person on this planet has only 24 hours, 1440 minutes, and 86,400 seconds in a day. It depends on us how we use that time that determines our success. None but only some understand the real value of time. Ask a student who has failed in his final exams the value of a year. Ask an athlete who has lost at the Olympics, the value of a millisecond.
Time-management was and always will be the most critical factor for success. If you look at all the successful people of history, you will realize that all the successful people of history made the best use of their time. The most successful people of the world are also the ones who are most conscious about the use of their time. So never waste time and get the most out of your day. And remember that time waits for no one.
“The bad news is time flies, the good news is you are the pilot”
-Michael Altshuler
Watch this motivational video on time management:
