Wishing you a Productive 2025, How, I ask?

Wishing you a Productive 2025, they say...

How, I ask...

"If it ain't one thing, it's the other." late visionary Myles Munroe.

Indeed, life never stays at a standstill—one challenge after another, one objective after another. Perhaps this is why many of us feel stuck between places. But how do we get unstuck when life keeps pulling us in different directions?

In my quest for better time management, I stumbled upon a Coursera course on Personal Productivity, Time Management, and Prioritization by Julian Jenkins a Business Mentor & Coach.

Maybe it was the beginning of the year or the fact that the course seemed to go beyond just work and personal life. The instructor, has a subtopic on Work-Life Balance.

What an ambiguous topic, I thought and quickly skimmed through it to decide whether the course was worth my time.

To my surprise, Julian grabbed my attention. As we often find ourselves struggling to balance work and life, Julian demystified this notion:

"Work-life balance refers to the equilibrium between professional responsibilities and your personal life—health, family, leisure, and personal growth. Achieving work-life balance doesn’t necessarily mean an equal distribution of time. Instead, it involves finding a sustainable blend of activities that fulfill our needs, values, and goals."

Just like that, I was hooked, now asking myself: How can this balance be achieved? Realistically, we all have 24 hours in a day, and at least 8 hours of that is often spent working (according to most contracts). But what happens to the remaining 16 hours that we barely account for?

Julian shared some tips on how to account for your 24 hours, and here’s a summary:

• The Foundation: Goal Setting

It all starts with having a vision of what you want your life to look like in the next few years, broken down into yearly targets, goals, and tasks for achieving them. A vision offers a sense of direction, while goals provide a roadmap for achieving that vision.

However, the goals need to be SMART. Let’s say your goal is to save $12M by the end of 2025. Let’s break it down into SMART goals:

Specific: I want to save $12M.

Measurable: $12M.

Actionable: Save $1M a month from my 7th and 9th income streams.

Realistic: The saving will be 20% of the average monthly income.

Time-bound: By the end of the next 12 months.

Now, the $12M goal becomes achievable, as the action points can be further broken down to account for opportunity costs, like taking away 20% from the mentioned income streams, and so on.

• Task Organization

Do you know what tasks need to be done, why they need to be done, when they need to be done, and how they contribute to your overall vision?

Task organization is primarily about sorting and grouping tasks according to their importance and urgency. You can use the Eisenhower Matrix or the ABCDE Method (which ranks tasks based on significance). Alternatively, consider the Ivy Lee Method, which prioritizes tasks based on significance and advocates single-tasking over multitasking.

Let’s revisit our mission: Save $12M USD by the end of 2025.

The tasks here focus on raising the $1M monthly target from income streams 7 and 9.

For example, Income 7 could be from Money Market Funds (MMF) and Income 9 from stocks. Since we don’t control the market, it’s practical to spend more time staying informed about market conditions.

With $10M saved in each income stream and an average performance of 12% (holding all other factors constant), it might be easy to achieve the goal. But in a dynamic market, factors are never constant. To achieve that goal, one might need to spend 15 minutes a day reading news on inflation, industry performance, world economics, etc.

Thus, the task of saving $1M a month now includes 7.5 hours of 15-minute daily reading sessions over the next 30 days. This can be slotted into your morning routine, for instance, while waiting for your coffee.

This 15 minutes, however, competes with other tasks and time slots. Should you catch up with someone while waiting for coffee or focus on reading? This is where prioritization comes in.

There is no right or wrong answer—it all depends on your vision. For someone aiming to network with 12 highly influential people by the end of the year, the 15 minutes might be better spent connecting with someone. For someone wanting to invest more, the 15 minutes could be spent on an information session.

Eisenhower asks us to split tasks into four categories:

Urgent and Important: These tasks must be done first.

Important but not urgent: These tasks can be scheduled.

Not Important but Urgent: These tasks could be delegated.

Not Important and Not Urgent: These tasks can be eliminated.

Using the ABCDE technique, tasks are labeled as A, B, C, D, or E based on significance.

A: Very important and should be done urgently.

B: Critical, but can be scheduled.

C: Insignificant and can wait or be delegated.

D: Delegate to focus on A, B, and C.

E: Eliminate.

The Ivy Lee method can be used in conjunction with the first two techniques. Once you have identified your important, urgent, and significant tasks, prioritize them by numbering them 1, 2, 3, etc. You can only move on to item 2 after completing item 1, and so on. Also, remember the Pareto Principle: Focus on the 20% of actions that yield 80% of the results.

• Time Management

This is particularly challenging in my part of the world. Event start times often take this into consideration. For example, if an event is set for 10 a.m., it is scheduled for 9 a.m. to accommodate latecomers. This issue is more prevalent among younger generations. People often arrive late to work, meetings or events without realizing the impact this has on others' time.

For instance, I have a friend who always carries a book to kill time while waiting for latecomers, and another who is always on time but feels no remorse leaving early to attend other scheduled events. Though I must say, the later typically they miss out on the good parts.

What if we all planned for traffic and made it a point to arrive on time? There are techniques to make time management an active part of our lives:

Time Management Matrix: Helps you prioritize tasks effectively.

Pomodoro Technique: This method breaks work into intervals, separated by short breaks to maintain sustained focus and productivity. It’s recommended to work for 25 minutes, take a break, and after four cycles, take a longer break.

Time Blocking: This technique allocates specific time slots for tasks. Time blocking supports single-tasking over multitasking. Start by listing all tasks and grouping similar ones to reduce context switching. Time blocking helps you focus on one type of task at a time, reducing distractions and enhancing productivity.

Tips:

Consider your energy levels—schedule high-focus tasks when you're most alert.

Schedule buffer time to allow for flexibility.

Use tools like digital calendars and task management apps.

Delegate and outsource when possible to improve efficiency.

Planning for Success

Many organizations have a vision, mission, and goals to align their staff. But how many of us have a personal strategy to drive our own lives? We often contribute to the strategic alignment of businesses, yet we lack a strategy for our own success, which leads to failure.

Unless your vision is broken down into short-term and long-term plans, and further narrowed down into weekly and daily activities, your vision remains just a dream.

Managing Distractions

I once commuted on public transport, and the person sitting next to me spent the entire hour on their phone or tablet. I couldn’t help but wonder how much we miss when we're hooked on one thing. Maybe they were reading, researching, or being productive, but all I saw were frequent giggles and scrolling up and down the screen.

I hope that’s not you during focus time, work hours, or meetings. I recall a mentor who once asked me, "Noel, were you expecting a call during our meeting? If so, please notify the person you're meeting. Otherwise, keep your phone off the table." It seemed harsh at first, but it was much-needed truth.

Small distractions—like having your phone on the table or leaving notifications on—can be very disruptive. Are you the type of person who responds to every notification during work hours or meetings? If so, distractions could be significantly reducing your productivity.

Research suggests that it can take up to 23 minutes to return to a task after a distraction. This increases the likelihood of errors and disrupts thought processes.

To manage distractions, try these strategies:

Set clear boundaries.

Take regular breaks.

Turn off notifications during focus time and schedule times to engage with your phone.

Practice mindfulness and meditation.

Keep your desk organized.

Use quiet rooms for focus work.

Work during your most productive hours.

Prioritize single-tasking over multitasking.

Maintain a healthy diet and engage in physical activities.

Disconnect from technology and take mental detox breaks- take a walk, cook, read a book during such hours to relax your mind and boost creativity.

Rest well.

By setting SMART goals and focusing on effective time management, task organization, and managing distractions, you can be present—whether at work or at home—and achieve a healthy work-life balance.

My favorite book says "There is a time for everything under the sun", and the lists different seasons we all experience.

Now truly intentional and with much vigor, Wishing you A Productive 2025!!!