To start off, what do you think of the following story: Imagine that every morning your bank credits your account with $86.400.

The bank doesn't require any documents, signatures or guarantees. The bank simply deposits this amount into your account for you to spend on that day. However, the bank doesn't allow you to save the money from the day before. You can't make transfers or additional desposits. When the day ends what you haven't spent is lost. You can not save anything. So, what would you do? Would you withdraw the full amount every day? Of course, you would!

This story was read by Patricia Hashuel and I thought it would be a suitable way to start this course. As it is apparent that time is one of those resources that you can not keep or save. You can not accumulate time.

No one has the option to save or spend time. The only option is to spend time or invest it. Therefore, we need to know the most efficient ways to use it.

Throughout life we have something in common with everyone in the world, despite our different social positions, race, etc. We all have 24 hour days. However, how we spend this time depends exclusively on us.

Here is an interesting exercise written by the author K. Gleeson. Answer the following questions, try to be spontaneous and sincere:

• Do you feel that there's never enought time?

• Do you feel that you have lots to do?

• Do you feel overwhelmed with everthing that happens at work?

• Do you often feel that you are burried in mountains of paper?

• Do you wish you had more time to do what you want?

• Do you frequently work overtime, at night or at the weekend to catch up with matters that you can't do during office hours?

• Do you get stressed when you don't achieve what is required?

• Do you find it difficult to focus on improving your life and work in the long term because you are subject to a continuous crisis or an excessive amount of work?

• Do you ask yourself if you are really achieving what you want to do with your life and your work?

• Would you like to obtain better results with the time and effort that you invest in your work?

• Would you like to relax or take holidays more frequently?

Gleeson found that the majority of people responded yes to the survey questions. If you also answered yes, you are going to have a pleasant surprise: you can solve all of these problems. You can achieve what is important to you at work and for you as a person and still have time left over for personal matters, for your family and for other things that you want to carry out.

The author Marc Manzini claims that we are the owners of our productivity in the same way that we are owners of our time. There are techniques that can help us.

This course will introduce you to some of these techniques and how to apply them in your life so that it becomes more productive. We are going to mix different author's ideas and experiences.

We are also going to include additional lessons on how to manage and use the Google Calendar. This is a free resource which can very useful to help organize our lives and take advantage of our time.

 

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