We’re hours away from the new year and as much as we don’t want to admit it, in some days we held time by the guts and did stuff according to plan but on other days, time just dragged us by the heel and before you know it, time sneaks out and we’ve done nothing on our schedules. Yeah, I can relate and everyone reading this, no matter how disciplined and determined you are, can also relate to this.
So here I am, still wrestling with time management, trying to tell y’all how to manage time effectively. I know you’ll say that I’m barely qualified to talk about this subject but I believe that time is the most insolent resource that God created and it ain’t gonna wait for you unless you wrestle to make the most out of it. Since time is constant, to manage it effectively you have to be malleable enough to blend with it. So here I’ll talk about two things;
- The Central Principle of Time Management
- Nine Tools to Manage Yourself and Your Time
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The Central Principle of Time Management
- Date Yourself
Borrowing Gillian Butler and Tony Hope’s words, ‘spend your time doing those things that you value..’ You’ll never know the things that you value unless you know who you are, not to sound cliche or weird, it’s about knowing what you like and dislike, knowing what gets you angry and what makes you laugh, knowing when your body has had enough food and when you’re hungry.
Knowing these small things go a long way, you cannot effectively control time if you do not have self-control, and there ain’t gonna be self-control if you don’t even know the entity you’re controlling. And my very simple answer is to take a break from knowing so much about other people and date yourself, yeah that’s right, be more in touch with yourself than anyone else.
- Clarify Your Values and Goals
If you were to be attending your own funeral in the next three years what do you want your loved ones, colleagues, and friends to say about you? Yeah, that’s deep! This ain’t really about what you think they’ll say but what you want them to say, this would help to streamline your values and your goals. These goals might change as you grow older but in a short period of three years, what are the behavioral patterns and achievements that you want to be known for?
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I never knew that I loved the movies until I answered these questions, I never knew the amount of grit that I needed to achieve my goals until I wrote them down. Do the same and you’ll see that the zeal to grab time by the gut would rise up on the inside of you. ‘Cause I promise that you don’t want to get old and rusty in some old people’s home wishing you had done stuff different from the way you’re doing it now.
- Let Your Goals Take Root in Your Imagination
Never ever let your circumstance rob you of your imagination. Even when the world’s turning upside down and your goals don’t look feasible in the real world, it’s an abomination to let it in to crash your dreams. But how can you stay afloat?
You see that tiny paper where you wrote your goals in, read it to yourself every day, memorize it, see yourself doing it, defy realism and nature by insisting to hold on to your dreams. You do this while spending time engineered towards the achievements of your goals.
For example, when a machine is programmed to do something, as long as the battery’s still on, no matter how much you try to stop it, it’ll still do exactly as it was programmed to do. In the same vein, your programming is your mind, once you let your goals in, never let any obstacle choke you out as long as you’re breathing. Yes, people with dreams are stubborn, be stubborn too!!
Now that we know our goals and values, how then do we manage our time,
Nine Tools to Manage Your Time
Before I go into this I want to let you know that these nine tools were put in words by Gillian Butler, Ph.D., and Tony Hope, M.D. in their book ‘Managing Your Mind’. Having established that, let’s get into it, shall we?
- Use Your Starter Motor
Have you ever mapped out your plans for the day and you just find it very difficult to just do the first thing on the list? The first tool is to get started with the task at hand, if you don’t get started, you either do little work or use time ineffectively. How can you get to work easier, first, list the tasks beforehand, then keep to memory the benefits and the smile on your face when you finish your work according to plan, and create a good working environment.
2. Make Routine Your Habit
This works when you make your routine a habit, if you’re to finish a novel in two weeks, then you decide to read a chapter before showering and another after dinner. When you continue that way consistently, it becomes a habit. Psychologists say that it takes 27days to a month for a habit to be formed and with time you’ll notice that you’re already doing it without thinking too much about it.
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3. Every Yes is a No to Something Else
This speaks for itself, when you’re saying ‘yes’ to something then it’s a ‘no’ to another thing. Therefore, before you say ‘yes’ to something make sure to analyze whether or not it’s worth crossing anything out of your schedule.
4. Distant Elephants
Here’s the thing, when you see an elephant from far it’s just never as big as it should be as opposed to when you come really close and its’ breath is on your face. The rule here is to never commit yourself to unimportant activities no matter how far ahead they are.
5. The Chin-Chin Pace (Salami Rule)
I have an aunt that fries chin-chin for leisure and when she fries it, she packs it in custard buckets, just so we don’t have to disturb her again for chin-chin till the end of the year. Looking at the custard buckets would make eating look like work, but when I start taking it out in hand fulls, it just never stays till the end of the month till the buckets are wiped clean.
In the same way, large tasks would always look like hard work if you don’t start cutting it out little by little. If you don’t start little, it’s either you just never start or you start and give up while at it.
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6. The Curse of Perfectionism
Before I started blogging full time, I had many potential blog posts that I refused to publish ‘cause I thought it wasn’t perfect. Yes, there’s a place for perfectionism but there comes a time where not much is gained if the work is overly perfect, at that point just submit and get going.
7. Once Past The Desk
Most times you plan your day and so many other unplanned stuff intrude and sometimes, these activities are important too.
First, you have to map out whether or not it is important to attend to these problems, then look at the steps you have to take to solve them, set a time frame to get it solved; either immediately or on a later date, and then do it when the time allotted to solve the problem comes knocking. Don’t just sit there grumbling and wondering whether or not to do it, be quick about it, either get it done or set it aside until you’re ready.
8. Appointments Need To End As Well As Start
So as not to end the entire day with just one tick on your to-do list, you have to set time to start appointments and when to end them as well. Make an estimate before you start out and make sure you stick to time, you might not get it right at the first attempt, that’s why they say practice makes perfect.
9. Make Time to Plan
You’ve got to set time to map out your day, for some like me it’s immediately you wake up, for others, it’s the night before or at dawn. Keep in mind that the minutes that you spend planning can be saved many times over.
That’s it for today guys! If you’ve read this up to this part, I really appreciate it and I’m sure that you’ve learned a thing or two to start off the new year with. Make sure to subscribe and spice up my day with your comments.
A Very Happy New Year in Advance!!
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