How To Make The Best Use Of Time

BY Vinay Kachhara 

Time flows like a river.

Have you heard of this phrase before? Certainly, you must have. Moreover, we all experience it.

We cruise along and drench ourselves in the river of time – sometimes we even get lost in it!

Or, at other times, time seems to have frozen, it just stands still.

Time stops!

Don’t the lovers feel so?

They are so engrossed in each other that even though they are together for hours, it seems like just a few moments, and they are left longing for more time.

In the material world, the time clock keeps ticking but your mental clock seems to betray it and stops following all laws.

I felt so, rather recently. No, not while romancing, but while working. 

Can you imagine that we’ve been away from blogging for months at a stretch? We hadn’t thought our break would be this long!

It feels like only yesterday when we wrote last on the blog, but it’s been a while now.

It’s been a strange and enlightening experience, which I’d share with you.

“Know the true value of time; snatch, seize, and enjoy every moment of it. No idleness, no laziness, no procrastination: never put off till tomorrow what you can do today.” ~ Philip Stanhope

Let’s Analyze Time

Based on my experiences, I’ve observed two things:

a) When idle, time moves slow.

Let me ask you about Sundays, holidays, or when you are on vacation. Don’t you feel like the day is too long or it’s hard to pass time when you sit idle?

It seems like days, even if a single day hasn’t passed.

On the contrary –

b) When busy, time moves fast.

This is what happened to me. I’ve been so busy with things that I was amazed so much time has elapsed, and I don’t even feel it! Time flies!!

It seems like a week, though a few months have passed.

Surely, Einstein was right – time is relative.

It depends on many factors, and one of them is your mental state.

Do you remember your experience taking an exam or watching a movie?

You sit through the exam writing all the answers, and the number of hours passes so quickly that you’re left gasping for more time.

Or you are so engrossed watching a good movie that you do not realize how quickly time passes. Then, you really feel the movie has been worth your money, don’t you?

But sometimes, even if you are busy and engrossed, you end up wasting time or not making good use of it.

Strange, isn’t it?

Making The Wrong Use Of Time

Even the slow and steady can win the race.

Besides working hard, you also need to be smart.

You waste your time if:

> You are not organized or do not have the things planned.

> You do not have a system that makes sense of the things you do and gives you a direction.

> Your efforts are not concerted; rather they are divided and not connected.

> You try to go too fast or engage in multitasking.

Are you making any of these mistakes?

Yes, I did. I made some of these mistakes and I do not regret or feel ashamed to accept it.

I believe acceptance opens the doors to improvement. The act of improvement will make you avoid the same mistake and lead you to the path of success.

My mistake was that I tried my hands on too many things at the same time. The result was that none of them got completely done.

I’ve been very busy all this while working on a few new projects, and for me time flew at the speed of the Concorde! But I still don’t have anything concrete to show you all.

I’d just take on a task as a challenge and keep working on it, and in the process neglect the other important tasks.

So, how does this analysis and my experience help you?

Yes, you now know that there’s more to making the best use of time than being busy.

Ways To Make The Best Use Of Time

Here’s what I conclude from my experiences and analysis of time – the more attentive and passionate you are, the more you make use of time.

Also, the faster the time moves, the more valuable it becomes.

But it is also true that if you do not mix fast and slow time in your working, you may end up being burnt out.

Don’t always be in the fast lane; take time out of your busyness and slow down.

To make the best use of time, you need to:

• Have the right mental state to leverage time.
• Have a practical strategy in place.
• Remain focused to be more productive.
• List your tasks daily and keep track of them.
• Balance and prioritize your work.
• Put your hands on what you can manage.
• Take up one task at a time, complete it, and then move to the next one.

Making good use of your time isn’t difficult as you just need to implement and practice these guidelines frequently. Gradually, they will become new habits and a part of your routine.

If you can leverage time in the right way, you can achieve stability, strength, and prosperity.

I’ve a step-wise structure for you to make sure that you include all the guidelines to make the best use of time.

 “Eternity: a moment standing still forever.” ~ James Montgomery

T.I.M.E. – The Four Steps To Harness The Value Of Time

If you wish to be successful, you need to harness time. Here’s my method to help you.

I love acronyms. This time I’ve a special one for you and it’s called – TIME!

It stands for:

T  – Thinking

I  – Implementation

M – Management

E  – Exploration

Let me explain them to you.

Thinking

The seed of success is an idea or a thought.

To incubate an idea of success you need to have the right state of mind.

Furthermore, you need to connect your ideas and think deep to develop a plan.

Planning is essential for success, no matter what aspect of life. It gives you a form and direction to follow.

You create the long-term and short-term goals making sure they are realistic.

But mere planning is not enough. You need to go ahead and implement those plans.

“Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.” ~ William Penn

Implementation

It is nothing but putting your plan to action.

To implement, you need to have the will or the motivation to get out of your state of inertia or the comfort zone.

You can bank on your four personal qualities, the 4 D’s – Devotion, Dedication, Determination, and Discipline. I’ve laid it all out here in this post.

Without implementation, your planning is useless, a futile act and a waste of time.

It will help if you make achievable to-do lists at the start of each day and carry out those tasks.

However, you need more to make your plans become effective.

“We must use time wisely and forever realize that the time is always ripe to do right.” ~ Nelson Mandela

Management

You need to make sure that your plans are implemented in the way they are meant to be.

To implement your plans successfully, you have to ensure that your efforts are organized and are in the right direction.

You need to develop the right skills and especially learn the skills of time management.

Keep track of all your tasks, and besides allocating deadlines, define time limits to each one of them.

In fact, you need to manage all the aspects of your life that may affect the implementation of your plans, directly or indirectly.

Proper administration saves you time and make your efforts more efficient.

If you wish to achieve excellence, then you need to go a step further.

“My favorite things in life don’t cost any money. It’s really clear that the most precious resource we all have is time.” ~ Steve Jobs

Exploration

Yes, you need to become an explorer!

Most successful people are pioneers and inventors of some sort, who spend a millionth part of every second they got to explore new avenues and methods.

You should leave no stone unturned and make sure that no second of your life goes waste. You have to be systematic and spontaneous too.

Going by the book is good, but you also need to be flexible enough to change your ways when your plans do not work as desired.

Yes, sometimes it happens that things do not go as per the plans. Don’t lose hope or treat that as a failure.

There is a time for everything, and your job is not to give up and keep trying.

To harness your time in the best way, you need to be able to extract the best out of every moment, change your thoughts, and look for signs of better opportunities.

“Tough times never last, but tough people do.” ~ Robert H. Schuller

Let’s Be Efficient And Smart

“Time and tide wait for no man” and “Lost time is never found again” – these are popular quotes that I’m sure you’ve read many times before.

But the real problem is that we forget as soon as we read it.

We need to change our habit and stop wasting time.

Remember that every moment is precious. Make every intention sacred, every thought positive, every behavior meaningful, and every act decisive.

Let’s resolve to use every moment to develop ourselves, grow professionally, and cherish the gift of life!

So, are you going to make good use of your time now?

“Time stays long enough for anyone who will use it.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci

Over to You –

Do you believe in the value and power of time? How do you make the best use of time? Share your thoughts and experiences in the comments below

SOURCE

13:30:00 - By Vincent 0

HOW TO 80/20 YOUR LIFE

By Mark Manson

In 1906 there was an Italian economist named Vilfredo Pareto. One day Pareto noticed that every year, 20% of the pea pods in his garden produced approximately 80% of the peas.

This got him thinking about economic output on a larger scale. Sure enough, he began to find that in various industries, societies and even companies, 80% of the production often came from the 20% most productive faction.

This became known as the Pareto Principle, or what is now often referred to as the 80/20 Principle.

The 80/20 Principle states that 80% of the output or results will come from 20% of the input or action.

The 80/20 Principle has historically been most popular in business management situations. Businesses often found that roughly 20% of their customers brought in 80% of their sales. They found that about 20% of their sales reps closed 80% of the sales. They found that 20% of your costs led to 80% of their expenses.

In terms of time management, they often found that 20% of their time created 80% of their productivity, and that 20% of their employees created 80% of the value.

The examples go on and on. And of course, nobody was actually there with a yardstick measuring out exactly 80% and 20% for all of these items, but the approximate 4-to-1 ratio popped up constantly. Whether it was actually 76/24 or 83/17 is irrelevant.

The 80/20 Principle became a popular management tool that was used widely to increase efficiency and effectiveness within businesses and industries.

It’s still widely taught today.

But few people thought to apply the 80/20 Principle to every day life or the ramifications it could have.

For instance:

• What are the 20% of your possessions you get the most value out of?
• What do you spend 20% of your time doing that gives you 80% of your happiness?
• Who are the 20% of people you’re close to who make you the happiest?
• What are the 20% of the clothes you wear 80% of the time?
• What’s the 20% of food you eat 80% of the time?

Chances are these are easy questions for you to answer. You’ve just never considered them before.

And once you’ve answered them, you can easily focus on increasing the efficiencies in your life. For instance, the 80% of people you spend time with who only add 20% of the pleasure in your life (spend less time with them). The 80% of crap you use 20% of the time (throw it out or sell it). The 80% of the clothes you wear 20% of the time (same thing).

Identifying the 20% of the food you eat 80% of the time will probably explain whether you keep a healthy diet or not and how healthy it is. Hey, who needs to follow a diet? Just make sure to switch to where the 20% of food you eat 80% of the time is healthy.

When I first considered how the 80/20 Principle applied to my own life, I instantly realized a few things.

1. A few of my hobbies (television shows and video games) accounted for 80% of my time, but only brought me 20% of my fulfillment.
2. I didn’t enjoy a few of my friends who I spent 80% of my time with (hence I was not happy in my social life).
3. 80% of what I spent my money on was not useful or healthy for my lifestyle.

Recognizing these things eventually inspired some hefty changes in my choices and my lifestyle. I dropped video games and television for one. I made efforts to identify other friends to spend more time with, and I paid more attention to what I bought with my money.

And of course, the 80/20 Principle can still be applied to productivity at work.

What tasks do you spend 80% of the time doing that bring in 20% of the returns (i.e., checking email over and over, writing memos, taking a long time to make basic and unimportant decisions, etc.)?

What is the 20% of your work that gets you 80% of the credit and recognition from your team or boss?

And finally, you can apply the 80/20 Principle to your emotional life and relationships as well. What are the 20% of behaviors that cause 80% of the problems in your relationships? What are 20% of the conversations that create 80% of the intimacy with your partner?

These are important questions that most of us never even consider.

It doesn’t occur to us that there’s an efficiency to every aspect of our life, to everything we do. And not only is there an efficiency, but we have control and influence over that efficiency. It’s something we can take responsibility for and improve.

What changes could you make in your life today based on the 80/20 Principle?

One of the most obvious answers, of course, is possessions. It’s highly likely that 80% of what you own brings you a small amount of your pleasure or happiness. An obvious place to start 80/20’ing yourself is with all of that extra stuff laying around.

Obviously, the 80/20 rule is not necessarily a rigid dictum to live by (don’t let the 80/20 rule become the 80% that gives 20% of the results!). But think of it as a tool, a lens to view aspects of your life through. Sit down and think about it, maybe even write it out. You’ll likely be surprised with the realizations you come to.

12:29:00 - By Vincent 0