Is time managable??

Do you have less time than Li Ka Shing each day?

I suspect your answer to this question is, “No.” You have 24 hours a day just like Li Ka Shing. So do everyone around you. Not a minute more, not a minute less. And even when you do have millions of dollars in the bank, you still have 24 hours only. The difference between you and Li Ka Shing, Bill Gates, Warren Buffett, Richard Branson is what you choose to do with the 24 hours that you have. And this is obvious from the results that are produced.

You may be thinking, “But Li Ka Shing is rich and I am not!” Well, yes, you are right. He is the wealthiest man in Hong Kong and, perhaps, Asia. But guess what? He did not start off that way. He did not get his wealth through an inheritance. Other than not having money, he had no education. But he knew how to make full use of his time to achieve his goals.

The good news is that you have a choice. You have complete freedom to choose what you want to do every moment of each day. But know this: What you choose to do with your time will directly affect the type of results you produce in your career and your life.

Here are 10 tips to help you manage your time (and life) better this year!

1. Be clear about what you want to be, what you want to do, and what you want to have in 2008. List all of them out. This is the most difficult part as most people do not know what they want for themselves. If this is the case for you, then it is even more important for you to spend some time to think through them. If you have no goals in life or your career, then there is no basis for prioritising and deciding what’s the best use of your time.

1. What you do each day must contribute to or bring you closer to the list you created in number 1 above.

1. Always have a list of items (your daily to-do list) you want to accomplish the next day the night before.

1. Prioritize your to-do list by using the ABCDE system.

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  • Mark an “A” beside tasks which are very important and must be completed as soon as possible. Not doing so will have serious consequences.
  • Mark a “B” beside tasks which should be done but as important as “A” tasks. You should not do any “B” task if there are “A” tasks outstanding.
  • Mark a “C” beside tasks which are nice to do but there are no consequences whether you do them or not. You should not do “C” tasks if there are “B” tasks outstanding.
  • Mark a “D” beside tasks which can be done by someone else. Delegates these tasks to people who are more suited to perform them.
  • Marked an “E” beside tasks which can be eliminated. These tasks are unimportant, not urgent, low/no value and should be deleted.

1. Resolve to work on and complete the important items (i.e. “A” tasks) during the first half of each morning (i.e. before 12pm or a time that you set for yourself).

1. Batch your phone calls to a specific time in the afternoon. Ensure you have a voice mail system installed for your phone so that anybody calling you can leave a message. Not answering phone calls when it rings will not kill you but it is important to return them. Schedule a time each day, say, 2pm to 3pm, to return phone calls.

1. Batch emails to a specific time in the afternoon. Email is the number 1 time distraction today especially for people who use Blackberries! It is absolutely not necessary to read and respond to emails as and when they come in. Again, nobody has died because they did not respond to emails immediately and you certainly will not. To ease the process, you can let people know that you have a specific time for emails each day. Schedule a time each day, say, 4pm to 5pm during which you will only read and respond to emails.

1. Do not entertain time wasters. There will be people coming along to chit-chat. If you have not completed the important items on your to-do list, do not allow your time to be wasted. Just tell them, “Hey, I’m in the middle of something right now. Is there anything urgent I can help you with?” Encourage people to get to the point when they call you on the mobile phone or ask them to make an appointment with you to discuss further or simply send you an email.

1. Be very focused on completing the items on your to-do list and if other items or ideas come along, write them down in your notebook or work journal so that you can review them later.

1. Always ask yourself, “What is the best use of my time now?” Now the best use of your time can only be achieved IF YOU KNOW WHAT IT IS YOU WANT. If you don’t want what you want in your career and life, then it really doesn’t matter how you use your time.