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A PLAN ON HOW TO USE
YOUR TIME
In
this lesson I am going to show you 10 ways to improve your time, in all
areas of your daily, professional and social life. Wherever you want to
go, you will find these points useful. The majority of the points
summarize what has already been said in this course.
These points have been adapted
from the Modern Bussines Report (MBR), and I hope that you take
advantage of each of the suggestions presented.
1. Always take a small note pad with
you. Buy and use a small diary/notebook, it will
be more useful than you can imagine. In this book you can write down
your goals, tasks and general ideas (perhaps this has happened to you;
you are travelling on a train, bus or any means of transport and you
think of new ideas, but when you get to the office you have already
forgotten them). The act of formalizing your goals and plans reinforce
your commitment to achieve them. Writing them down is the first step.
The way you structure your notebook will be particular to you, as it is
important that you feel comfortable using it. The more defined you have
your notebook, the more freedom you will have to act in accordance to
your aims/goals.
2. Plan monthly goals
When we want to outline a monthly plan, we should always think twice
before starting, as a month is quite a small period of time; however,
if we don't do it this way, in a smaller period it will be difficult to
observe the advances in carrying out our objectives.
3. Only
write down the goals that you really want to achieve.
When you chase goals that you don't feel are yours, you will become
disappointed. For this reason, the MBR establishes that if you don't
achieve your goals, the feeling of failure (or blame as you have not
fulfilled your task) will obstruct the goals that you really want.
Establish goals that you want to reach, although you youself may doubt
your capacity to carry them out. If you are determined to achieve
something, your desire will help you discover means to help you
triumph. Every month, as you plan your goals, the changes that you have
effected in your life the previous month will help you to draw your
course for the following months.
4. Evaluate
the results every month.
It is necessary that you evaluate the results you receive for your
objectives. If at the start, the results are not what you expected,
don't become discouraged because as you advance you will see that the
results will become better and better and you will begin to feel
motivated to continue your goals. When the results are excellent,
congratulate yourself; when the results are inadequate, take another
look at your aims and activities, and if necessary, revise your aims.
5. Every day
plan a few specific activities directed at carrying out your goals. We know that every day you have to fulfill
obligations, but in order to advance with your objectives, try to
include within your daily activities, one or two activities that
contribute to your long term goals. For example, you can
include answering a pending email, making a new contact, visiting a
company or office, etc. They can be small tasks or very ambitious
tasks. What is important is that you try to carry them out everyday.
With time you will see that you can carry out more things in less time.
Try it.
6. Integrate
the concept of evaluation when carrying out all of your new activities.
Constantly carry out abstractions in your daily routine. Pause, analyse
the situation every time you start a new job, ask yourself if you are
the right person to carry out the job and how will you benefit in the
future from investing time into this task. When you examine what you
do, you will realise that some of the activities that you do, don't
connect with what you want to achieve. When you carry out this
exercise, you will realise that often we carry out tasks that consume a
lot of our time and that the tasks are not very relavant to our long
term goals. Therefore, you will notice that there are some tasks that
deserve more time than what we devote to them, and that when we carry
out a redistribution of tasks, we will have more time available for
other things.
7. Use your
watch as little as possible.
Sometimes situations arise when being tied up is not convenient. Often
when we are dealing with an important subject, it is best to allow the
situation to develop naturally. For example, in a meeting where there
are important topics to discuss it is impossible to establish when the
meeting is going to finish, and it is not a good idea to force
conclusions just because there is not enough time. The MBR claims the
following: You need freedom to continue thinking, to continue the task,
or the personal contact, dedicating all the necessary time to develop
the maximum potential of the task. Start by making your time programme
more flexible. Minimalize your daily time commitments. With every topic
that you have to deal with, give each demand an alloted amount of time.
This way, when you feel immersed in an activity which is not
productive, change task and go back to the first task later on.
8. Start to
appreciate the value of every minute.
If you take this advice you will be aware of the richness of every
moment, its opportunities and limitations, with the aim of taking
advantage of the possibilities that it offers - live for today. Avoid
digressing into the past and try to guess everything for the future, if
the present works knowingly, you will notice that your time starts to
be more comfortable.
9. Start to
use your resources to the maximum.If
you find yourself focused on reaching your objectives, add maximum
effort to achieve them. This way by combining your resources with the
present, you will be able to obtain results that not even you thought
were able to achieve. Therefore from now on, start using every minute
to the maximum, link it with your mind, your creativity and achieving
your goals will be right round the corner.
10. Accept
the present as the only time you have available.
Leave the things of the past in the past and
concentrate on the present, on today. Don't be tormented by things you
didn't or did do, forget about what didn't happen, as you can not
change this. But what you can change from now is just focusing
exclusively on the present and from here start to mould new habits for
your new life. The MBR believes: the present is everything you have to
work on, to materialize your dreams and to convert into the person that
you want to be.
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