John - Achieving success through time management

The words we often hear people say are...

- “I never have enough time”

- “I never have time to go to the gym.”

- "I eat dinner as soon as I get home. Then all I can do is curl up in front of the TV and take a nap."

"That's right."

- “I never have enough time for myself, how can I have a family to take care of me ?”

- “I never have enough time to spend with my colleagues, we are all always busy.”

- “I never have time to even read a book, I have so many other priorities.”

- “I never have time to cook, so I just buy pre-cooked food.”

- “I never have time to train my employees, there are always other things to do.”

All of the regrets and grievances mentioned above can be resolved with successful time management.

Time management requires skills and techniques to be practical and effective.

Time management is not about creating time, but about trying to get the most out of it.

As you become more productive and more capable of managing your time, you will have more options.

In your free time, your choices may be to watch TV shows or go out to use the internet.

Or if you go to a restaurant with friends and have a drink, that's your choice.

The problem with such choices is that when you look back on everything you have done, you feel regretful (or regret what you should have done) and wonder, "Would I have done that?"

For example, the following wishes often feel unfulfilled because they don't actually come true:

- “I should have spent more time with the kids.”

- “I should have taken a night class and learned Spanish.”

- “I wanted to be a good manager”

- “I wanted to spend more time with my family to eat together.”

- “I wanted to spend my time taking care of my relatives.”

Chapter 1

Time Management and Your Life Time management is a balancing act to achieve success. Most of us work and earn money to survive. The income we earn, the amount we earn, comes mostly from the days we work.

We feel good about something we've improved, and we get recognition for something we deserve.

We each need to manage our time optimally to achieve our own personal goals and happiness.

Managing your time is managing your life.

You can manage your life by dividing it into 3 important areas...

- Your job,

- Your friends and family,

- You.

Let's start with a question...

If you can improve your time management, you will have more time each day. So how will you spend that time?

Would you read more, learn a language, spend valuable extra time with friends or family, write a novel, or just spend time in bed?

If you have extra time each day, you will find the above problems more easily.

The best thing to do is set your alarm an hour earlier than you usually wake up. Then, you can use the extra hour to do something worthwhile.

A common problem in our lives is the habit of spending too little time on important things. Usually, our daily lives are filled with trivial matters. If we spend too many days without progress, we will end up with a lifetime of setbacks. Therefore, we should use our time wisely and strive to improve each day of our lives.

Time is not flexible, and we cannot stretch or shrink it as we please. Similarly, we cannot accumulate time, so managing and using the extra time we have each day will benefit our lives.

Action Point

Think about the things that are important to you, the things you really want to improve, and then write down your three goals.

(1) The goal of wanting to improve in your workplace/industry,

(2) A goal you want to improve within your family or in your own way,

(3) A goal to improve the things you are involved in or to improve your own life.

- For example, if you want to progress in your job, you should set a goal to get promoted.

- If you want to make progress in your family, you should set a goal to take them to Disneyland.

- If you want to improve your personal life, you should set a goal to learn Spanish.

Write down the 3 goals listed below.

I will tell you about your “3 goals” as an example.

The first time I did this exercise, I was supposed to run a half marathon.

The event I absolutely want to run is the Great North Run in Newcastle.

The first Great North Run was held on 28th June 1981. The race was organised by former Olympic 10,000m bronze medallist and BBC sports commentator Brendan Foster, using modern sports technology.

This race attracts thousands of spectators every year. I wanted to participate in the race at that time. But the problem was that I didn't have a clear goal, so nothing happened as I had hoped. So I want to talk about what it takes to successfully achieve a goal once you have it.

Allocate time to prioritize tasks and work on them.

Each of us has dreams to succeed in everything we set out to do.

However, in our practical lives, we often waste a lot of time on trivial matters that are of little importance.

In fact, you should set aside a limited amount of time each week and use it productively.

Study the statistics for the period below...

First, we will get the total number of hours in a week, which is 7 days in a week x 24 hours in a day = 168 hours.

We work 40 hours a week and spend about an hour a day walking around, so we end up with a total of 45 hours of work per week.

Let's say we sleep 9 hours a day. This gives us a total of 63 hours of sleep per week. (9 x 7 = 63)

So 45 hours + 63 hours = 108 hours (working time + sleeping time)

If we subtract those 108 hours from the 168 hours in a week, we get (168-108 = 60 hours).

Those 60 hours are extra hours during the week that we can spend on other tasks.

If we subtract the time we spend doing our daily chores, such as washing clothes, bathing, changing clothes, eating, shopping, watching TV shows, and reading newspapers online, from the extra 60 hours, we will have to cut a lot of time from the original 60 hours.

According to estimates, Europeans spend an average of 14 hours online per week, 11 hours watching television, and 44 hours reading newspapers and magazines.

Adding up the average hours listed above, we get 29-4 hours (total hours worked per week).

If you subtract 29.4 hours of general work from the extra 60 hours per week, you have 30.6 hours left to achieve your dreams for the week.

What does all this description mean? .... .

The remaining hours are the extra hours for each week that we have to spend productively to achieve our goals in life.

If you want to have more productive time, you need to optimize your time management.