Billionaires and Beggars have the same 24 hours!
What you are, and what you become are a result of how you use your time. There are hundreds of books and articles on effective time management and productivity. The problem with most frameworks are it takes lot of time and effort from your side to practice it. Let me share with you a simple process to manage your minutes.
Ps of Time
Let us put all our waking hours in 3 Ps (Piece) .Every minute you have a choice on how you want to spend your time. At any moment ask yourself this powerful question, Which Ps(Piece) of time is this?
POWER TIME
One day a woman spotted the great painter Picasso in the market and pulled out a piece of paper. "Mr. Picasso," she said excitedly. "I’m a big fan. Please, could you do a little sketch for me?" Picasso happily complied and quickly etched out a piece of art for her on the paper provided. He then smiled as he handed it back to her. "That will be a million dollars," "But Mr. Picasso, "the woman replied, flustered. “It only took you thirty seconds to do this little masterpiece." "My good woman," Picasso laughed, "It took me thirty years to do that masterpiece in thirty seconds."
Overnight sensations are actually not made over night, we fail to see the amount of hard work they put to reach their peak. To receive rewards in public life you have pay the price in private life. The price is your power time! The time you invest to improve your craft .It is said it takes 10,000 hours of practice to demonstrate world class performance
When you add value to someone, when you make meaningful contributions to others, it’s Power Time. If you don’t adequately fill your tank first, you will be running around on fumes, spend some time doing what fills your tank every day. The time you spend to become valuable is your power time.
Writing this article at this moment is a power time for me.
PRESENT TIME
A 6 year old son - “Daddy, how much money do you make an hour?”“If you must know, I make Rs 300 an hour.”The little boy sat straight up, beaming. “Oh, thank you daddy!” – He yelled. Then, reaching under his drawer, he pulled out some crumpled notes.
“Daddy, I have Rs.300 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.”
It’s just a short reminder to all of us working so hard in life. We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts.
If we do the little things that bring us joy each day, and choose to be fully present and engaged in each moment, there will be nothing to regret. Present Time is the time you spend on things which makes you and others happy.
Spending time with friends and family, taking vacations, indulging in your favorite hobby, playing, watching movie, enjoying your favorite dish and the list goes on. Do more of what makes you happy and that’s your present time.
PASS TIME
Doing activities or things which are not adding any value to yourself or others is your pass time. Doing something that is unnecessary or does not produce any benefit is your pass time.
Most meetings at most organizations for most people is a pass time. TV, Social Media colleagues etc will provide you lot of pass time if you are not mindful.
Others will not respect or value your time if you don't send the message that your time is important.
We can also convert pass time to power time. Commuting to work is a pass time for me but I listen to audio books while commuting which makes it a power time.
You can’t hire someone to do push-ups for you to get muscles, you can’t hire someone to do meditation for you to get enlightenment. But you can hire someone to clean your house, wash your car etc. Delegate and Delate all irrelevant activities from your life and do things which matter.
In a nutshell,
Power Time – Doing things which will add value to you or others
Present Time – Doing things which makes you or others happy
Pass Time - Doing things which are non-beneficial for you or others
Don’t ask what time is it now, ask which time is it now.
Which time is it for you now? You are right, it’s Power Time! Keep Learning.
Hiring Physical Design ! STA ! DFT Engineer
4 年Well said
Expert in Training Interventions & Leadership Development. Helping Organisations Achieve Excellence
6 年Are all 3 essential?? What might be a general distribution?? Can one be converted into another voluntarily or forcibly?
Former Team Lead at RR Donnelley
6 年Thank you Sreejith for taking me back to your training session on Time Management. :) Miss those days... :( Its a timely reminder on how to manage your time .. :) Recently I read an article which says that you can't actually manage time....but you can manage your energy... Do all important things when you're at your best ... energy wise !!
Senior Vice President at Marsh
6 年Sreejith - very well written! Good read.