Time Management
“It doesn’t matter where you come from.
What matters is your destination.”
The ability to manage time is as important to your success
or failure as other habits at work.
Time is an indispensable or substituted resource.
Time is the most valuable asset
that you cannot save
and once lost it can never be regained.
Everything you do takes time,
and of course,
if you know how to use your time effectively,
you will be more successful
and have a more fulfilling life.
Time management is crucial
for maximum personal health
and effectiveness.
Your level of control over your time
and life is a key determinant of your peace,
harmony,
and happiness.
Feeling out of control over time
is a major cause of stress,
anxiety,
and depression.
The better you manage and control your time,
the more you can enjoy life’s moments,
have more energy,
sleep better,
and get more done.
By applying ideas
and with the methods in this book,
you’ll be able to save an extra two hours
of productive work each day,
doubling your work efficiency or productivity.
These methods have been successfully applied
by thousands of leaders in all fields,
and it will certainly work in your life
as well if you get your hands on the four Ds below.
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The Four Ds of Effectiveness
The first D is Desire:
You must have a strong
and burning desire to control your time
and achieve maximum efficiency.
The second D is Decisiveness:
You must stick to applying effective time management techniques
until they become your daily routine.
The third D represents determination:
You must persevere in the face of temptations to give up
until you become an effective time manager.
Your wish will further strengthen this determination.
And finally, the most important factor for success in life,
the last D, is Discipline:
You have to train yourself
to make time management a lifelong habit.
Effective discipline is the willingness
to make yourself pay the price
and do what you know you should do at the right time
and in the right place.
This is a very important factor for success.
The benefits of being an excellent time manager are enormous.
That is the quality that distinguishes the winners from the losers.
All successful people in life use time effectively
while losers always see time as a limitless resource.
One of the most important principles
for success in life is simply
“forming positive habits and sticking to them”.
In this book,
you will learn how to form these positive habits
and let them guide you.
The book will bring to you 21 important solutions
for effective time management that nearly everyone
who has achieved high productivity in work
and life has discovered
and applied them successfully.
Remember that time management is synonymous
with life management.
Achieving time management
and personal effectiveness comes from appreciating
every moment of your life.
***********************
Take advantage of everything you have right away
Always tell yourself,
“My life is precious and important;
I cherish every moment of life.
I will make good use of this time to make the most of it.”
The good news is that time management is a skill at work,
and any skill can be learned.
Time management is like riding a bike,
typing or playing a sport.
It consists of a series of methods,
strategies and techniques.
It is a skill that you can learn,
practice and master with determination and practice.
***********************
Chapter 01. Psychology of time management
“I discovered that wealth is a kind of perception
and that anyone can perceive it
by thinking like a rich person.”– Andrew Young
The way you think and feel about yourself
is a key factor in determining the quality of your life.
The emotional source of your personality is your self-esteem
or “how much you like yourself”.
Your self-esteem is largely determined by how you utilize your life
and time to your fullest potential,
which is inversely proportional to your work performance.
The other side of the coin of self-esteem
– “belief in your abilities”
– is the level of competence,
ability,
and effectiveness you feel for yourself,
helping you solve problems,
get things done
and achieve goals.
The more competent and effective you feel,
the higher your self-esteem,
which means more ability
and productivity.
Each element supports and reinforces the other.
Effective time managers feel optimistic,
confident,
and in control of their lives.
*********************
The Law of Control
The psychology of time management is based on a simple principle
called the Law of Control.
This law states that
how satisfied you are with yourself
depends on how much control you have over your own life,
and vice versa.
Psychologists like to tell the difference
between the ability to focus inner control,
when you feel you are in control of your destiny,
and the ability to focus external control,
when you feel you are being controlled influenced by external factors.
When you focus on external control,
you feel overwhelmed by your superiors and bills,
as well as the pressures of work and your responsibilities.
You feel like you have too much to do with too little time
and don’t really have control over your time and life.
Most of what you do for hours is just a series of reactions
and responses to external events.
There is a huge difference between proactive
and targeted action and an immediate response
or response to external pressure.
It is also the difference between feelings of optimism
and self-control in life and feelings of pessimism,
stress and pressure.
To be at your best,
you must have control over important areas
of your work and personal life.
Do what you can,
with what you have,
where you are. ― Theodore Roosevelt
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Your thoughts and feelings
In psychological terms,
each person has a self-concept
– an internal management program
that governs their behavior in all important areas of their lives.
People with a higher concept of time management will be more organized
and efficient.
They have good control over their life and work.
Your self-concept includes all of your ideas,
images,
and especially your beliefs about yourself,
especially how you spend your time.
Some people believe that
they are very organized and productive
while others feel constantly overwhelmed
by the demands of others
and external factors.
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Belief becomes reality
How confident do you have in yourself
and your ability to manage your time?
Do you consider yourself an extremely effective time manager?
Do you believe that you have the ability to work effectively
and have good control over work and life?
Whatever your beliefs,
if you consider yourself an excellent time manager,
you will naturally act in accordance with that belief.
Because your self-concept makes you constantly strive
to achieve harmony between the way you think about
and the way you behave,
if you believe that you know how to manage your time,
you will use your time more effectively fruit.
You can take time management courses,
read books, and practice various methods,
but if you consider yourself a poor time manager,
nothing will help you.
If you have a habit of being late to appointments,
or believe you are a disorganized person,
those habits will automatically become your behavior.
If you don’t change your beliefs about how effective you are,
your time management won’t change either.
**********************
Make decision
How can you build positive new beliefs about yourself
and your personal effectiveness?
Fortunately, this is not difficult.
You just need to apply 4 factors:
desire,
assertiveness,
determination and discipline.
More importantly,
you need to be determined to build a specific time management habit,
like arriving early for every appointment going forward.
Every change in your life will come
when you decide to do something differently.
And deciding to become an excellent time manager is an important first step.
*********************
Program your mind
Once you’ve decided to become a productive person,
you can apply a variety of self-programming techniques.
The first technique is to change the way the inner dialogue works.
95% of your emotions
and the actions that follow them are determined
by how you talk to yourself most of the time.
Tell yourself:
“I am a good organizer and
high frustration“.
Whenever you feel overwhelmed by work,
take a break and tell yourself,
“I am a highly organized and productive person.”
Continually affirm to yourself,
“I am an excellent time manager.”
If someone asks how you spend your time,
tell them,
“I am an excellent time manager.”
Whenever you say,
“I am a good organizer”,
your subconscious will take these words as a command
and begin to encourage
and push you to become a real good organizer
through his actions.
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Imagine what you want to be
The second way to change your behavior is to visualize yourself
as an excellent time manager.
See yourself as an efficient,
well-organized and in control of your life.
Remember that the person you “see” on the inside
is the person you will “be” on the outside.
If you were a highly organized and productive person,
how would you change your behavior?
What would change in the way you behave today?
Paint a picture of yourself with the central character being someone
who is calm,
confident,
high-performing,
more relaxed,
and can complete a large amount of work in a short time.
Imagine what it would be like to be a highly productive person.
Is his desk clean and tidy?
Does the person appear comfortable?
Clearly think of yourself as someone who can control time and life.
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Act on assumptions
The third way to program yourself is to act like
you’re an effective time manager.
Think of yourself as an organized person in everything.
If you were already an excellent time manager,
how would you act?
What would you do differently?
In terms of time and personal productivity,
how does the way you do things differ from where you are now?
Interestingly,
even if you don’t think of yourself
as a productive time user today,
but you do consider it to be,
these actions build up feelings of personal effectiveness.
You can actually change your actions,
habits,
and behaviors by acting on the “what if” assumption.
The big money is not in the buying
and the selling,
but in the waiting. ― Charlie Munger
