Chapter 22: Manage your time “There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all.” Peter F. Drucker
Do you work lots of overtime and still don’t have time for everything you need
to do? Are you one of those people that would love to have 28 hours in a day?
Well, unfortunately you also have only 24 hours like everybody else on this
planet. Oh and I’m sorry, I forgot: There is no such thing as time management!
You can’t manage time. What you can do is use your time wisely and manage
your priorities
. Everyone who comes to me and most of my friends say “I don’t have time to_________ (fill in the blank).” The fastest way to gain time
is to watch one hour less of TV every day. That’s 365 hours a year, which equals
28 hours a month! What would you do with seven extra hours a week? Another
trick to gain more time is getting up earlier (
see Chapter 25
).
Set priorities and choose what activities to invest your time in.
Set clear rules about when you are available and when you are not available and don’t let other people steal your time. The funny thing is, the more you value your time,
the more you will have of it, because people will also value your time. If you
allow people to interrupt you all the time, you’re essentially showing them that
your time is not very valuable in which case you will not be able to work
effectively, no matter how many hours you work. Recent studies have found out
that each 5 minute interruption at work costs you 12 minutes, because your brain
needs 7 minutes to refocus! How many interruptions do you have per day? 10?
12? Imagine how much time you can gain back when you decrease the number
of interruptions. Every 3 minute interruption costs you 10 minutes. Let’s say you
get interrupted 12 times in one working day: 2 hours gone! In a month that’s like
having an extra week! Don’t let employees, friends, or clients interrupt you. Set
those clear rules NOW.
Another big time robber is social media and e-mail.
