Time management: how to fight back time killers

How to be a successful entrepreneur and manage everything? Set clear priorities, schedule your time and do not shovel to the back burner. Do not strive for perfectionism and do delegate authorities. Besides, forget about internet forums, social networks and TV. It takes too much time.

It is impossible to cook a nice dinner without care, make a wonderful car without passion, write a love poem without feelings. We jump in feet first falling into the glimpse of blinding happiness and interrupt our flight right away to get back into established routine. Why do we need depth when we have calmness on the surface?

The fragility of time catches laggards up – old acquaintances who achieved more than we come to light. Anger looks for tricks, make up stories to smooth the pain from defeats: "Parents helped Vanya", "Masha got married to a prosperous man", "Petya cheated to get the post".

It is easier to find an excuse for being left behind rather than pluck up courage to live a useful life. Pretending to be a fly in amber, get stuck in this fluid and become solidified in this gum remaining successful, young and beautiful. However, the Langoliers are not waiting!

Terrifying sharp toothed monsters devouring the past, lead us from the glimpse present to illusory tomorrow. While life aimlessly passes time killers flourish – among which distracting habits, interfering trivial details, disturbing people, messaging apps and email overload.

It is time to fight with routine and defend our life control choosing the right path. Let us analyze time killers:

1. Unclear priorities. Tight deadlines and pretended importance confuse and force to reschedule. Set three priorities, assign colors of traffic lights to them. Do not overuse red color, it indicates what should be done right now.

2. Poor planning. The absence of timetable for a day and a week upsets the applecart and leads to chaos. Forget about organizers, remember the top five important deals of a day and five directions for a week.

3. Lack of self-discipline. When you prefer sweet dreams to boring obligations sing down to earth mantra: “We shall not be moved, as our way to nowhere proved”.

4. Millions stickers. Small sticky paper squares are not designed for missions and tasks, do not make a mess on your table and glue over monitor frame with tickers. Use notebooks, do not loaf to write down new and cross out achieved activities.

5. Do not pigeonhole. A syndrome of constant putting everything off and permanent procrastination increases anxiety and triggers stress. Everything which is easier to do than postpone should be executed immediately.

6. Overpriced promises. Attempts to do a lot at once or strive for perfection polish perfectionism and steal from relatives. Sometimes satisfactory result is enough.

7. Vague statements. Inaccurate claims lead to inability to achieve a goal. It is worse when you delegate tasks to others. Pronounce the idea out loud and you clarify your thoughts.

8.Frequent trips. Sitting in the driver’s seat is not compatible to productivity. Choose the passenger’s seat and prepare your homework in advance: books or audiobooks, notebooks with a pen and brain teasers.

9. Predictable expectations. Traffic jams, line to a doctor, schedule shifts are planned gifts of fate, expect them in advance, fill up the gap with postponed calls.

10. Ineffective meetings. Internal sessions are not dedicated for smoothing information space and self-affirmation. Demand to follow an agenda, follow the timing and suppress escape and sideways jumps attempts. Do not start discussing complicated questions without proper preparation.

11. Rare delegation. A position is not power; it is scale of results. Do not slow down processes, assign deputies, provide authorities. You need to have rest and have days off for personal reasons.

12. Someone’s else work. When the division of labor is inadequate, someone’s work becomes burden. Besides, fictive pride forces to suffer till the end. Question yourself: “Should I do this?”

13. Disturbing unnecessities. Vacation stories, distracting conversations, spam, messaging apps, smoke break and snacks hinder from hitting the jackpot. Business before pleasure!

14. Little helps. We do favors for acquaintances and friends, which do not affect our life objectives and work priorities. You should learn to refuse and reschedule, some deals will be eliminated themselves.

15. Nervous rush. Promiscuity, impatience and bustling result in leaks of vitality and energy. Hold the breath and recall the first rule to diving: “Stop, think, do”.

16.High level of sociability. A few cases require to meet in person, a few causes – unexpected calls. Text via messaging apps or email in case you have time and the code is not red.

17. Forums and networks. Trust internet will survive without you for a while, control your impulses to check the account, get used to login only when you have an incoming message.

18. TV and series. Trilogies fairly win Oscars and unscrupulously kill our time. Waiting for another episode is exhausting, advertisement is annoying, watch TV series at once without unnecessary breaks after season ends.

19. Pirate programs. Banners, pop-up ads, crashing settings, data loss are specific defects of pirate software. Just analyze if it is better to pay a couple of dollars to a developer, work properly and sleep calmly.

20. Computer games. Escape to virtual reality does not relieve – such rest is false. The mind does not distinguish everyday life from fantasies, gaming passions and primitive plots become exhausting. Is your game different? Think over, it is done to be primitive to make you play it constantly.

Do not worry about termination of life, fear of not starting it. Live to the fullest and realize that work is tended to take all the time – devote to it breaks between the rest, fight against time killers, spend time with family and look up to stars.

Author: Oleg Braginsky
Translation: Marina Alexandrova
Source: New Retail