“The single most important thing when it comes to time and productivity isn’t a tactic or a trick – it’s a shift in mindset.”
I recently perused through a powerful book with a captivating title – “15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management” . I was completed floored by the ideas from the book that I penned them down, committing to execute on them ASAP.
“15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management“ was written by Kevin Kruse, a New York Times best-selling author and founder of several multi-million dollar companies. After interviewing 7 billionaires, 13 Olympic athletes, 29 straight-A student and 239 entrepreneurs, he distilled his findings into 15 salient points which forms the building block of this book.
I share those points here
1. Time is your most valuable and scarcest resource
Successful people acknowledge that time is their most valuable assets. They think about time in minutes, not just hours or days; to them 1440 minutes is always their focus and they develop a sense of urgency to make the most of their time.
2. Identify your most important task and do it first
They begin their work day tackling their “Most Important Task” based on their top priorities. The reason is that they choose to use their early hours, which are their best, to complete the most valuable tasks, the one thing that when completed will give them the most satisfaction.
3. Work from your calendar, not a to-do list
Most folks who work based off a to-do list never complete up to 41% of their set tasks according to the book. Instead of following a to-do list, the top folks work with a calendar which clearly defines their most important tasks, that way they can be more focused on what truly matters to them. Apart from that, top folks also schedule time to work hard and play hard as well so they can enjoy all-round success in life.
4. To overcome procrastination, beat your future self
The top players focus on being the best version of themselves NOW and not later. They do at the moment what is the right thing for them. Some of the ways they enforce this include: imagining the outcome of their planned actions, seeking accountability partners, acknowledging imperfection (most procrastination is tied to fear of failure or perfectionism i.e. waiting for things to be perfect first before taking action), reflecting on the consequences of inaction. They choose not to leave for tomorrow what they can do today.
5. There will always be more to do
Successful folks set boundaries on their work mostly to avoid disrupting the balance in other areas of their lives . They know that they only have a set number of hours each day so they prioritize what they can do today and leave the rest for tomorrow.
6. Always carry a notebook
Sir Richard Branson is known to carry around a notebook where he can scribble down ideas immediately. A number of other successful people do the same. They’re always ready to pen down ideas which can hit just about any time. And writing down ideas with pen and paper has been proven to be more accurately retrieved from the brain than ideas typed down.
7. Control your inbox
As you probably know, checking emails is one of the greatest time wasters. Successful people practice the 321-zero approach to checking email. This means that they open their email 3 times a day and spend 21 minutes perusing messages. They then take one of three actions on a message – delegate, execute immediately or sling to calendar for future reference. The goal being to leave no new message in their inbox unopened.
8. Schedule and attend meetings as a last resort
Mark Cuban, Steven Jobs, Elon Musk have shown time and time again that meetings can be a waste of time. They choose to communicate via other means other than formal meetings.
9. Say no to everything that doesn’t support your immediate goals
Because they have clarify of their most important tasks, successful people commit only to activities that align with their long-term priorities. And that means saying no to many others.
10. Follow the powerful Pareto principle
The Pareto principle says that 20 % of your effort make up for 80% of your results. And so successful people always seek out ways to maximize their skills and talents to produce significant outcome. Expend less to produce the most results.
11. Focus on your unique strengths and passions
They delegate easy, routine tasks so they can focus more time and energy on higher value tasks.
12. Batch your work with recurring themes
Contrary to popular beliefs that multi-tasking is beneficial . The top players actually focus on one kind of tasks at a time; they schedule similar tasks within a pocket of time as opposed to doing 1 or 2 different tasks at the same time. They even extend this to doing a certain kind of tasks on certain days only. For example, they can decide to hold meetings only on Mondays or create podcasts/media content only on Fridays, etc. This encourages concentration and hence boosts productivity.
13. If you can do a task in less than five minute, do it immediately
They quickly complete little tasks (e.g. respond to an email, clean up work space, add an entry to calendar) to free their attention on more valuable tasks.
14. Routinely use early mornings to strengthen your mind, body and spirit
The early hours, they say, are the rudders of the day. How you begin each day can determine how well your day goes and ends eventually. Successful people understand this fact which is why they spend time early in morning to feed and energize their mind, body and spirit by reading, meditating, working out ,etc. (For more on early morning routines, check out this article ). These exercises are proven to recharge the body and get it ready for the day’s work.
15. Productivity is about energy and focus, not time
It’s not about time management but energy management instead. The top players set time to revitalize their body regularly to maintain a high energy level throughout the day. Some ways to do this include taking breaks from intense work every 90 minutes, drinking water regularly, taking brief power naps, exercising the body, infusing some fun along the day, etc.
If you’re looking to eliminate procrastination and manage your time more effectively then you should check out “15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management” .
Which of the 15 points stood out to you?
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To your success!!