How do some people get so much done? They must have extra time in their lives!
No, actually, no one days. Everyone has the same exact numbers of hours each day. Although, some people have much better time management execution than others.
Knowing how to use our time wisely takes skill, practice, and execution. I have a friend, Chad, who says he never has “time to kill” because he always finds a way to productively use his time. If we think about that, that makes sense. A hour “to kill” per day becomes seven hours per week. A few minutes here and there become significant over time.
Usually the hardest step is the first. When confronted with multiple tasks, find the one that needs to be done the most, or the quickest, and start. Every journey begins with a single step. Procrastinating and putting things off only wastes time and manifests in our minds that we “have to start to work on it.”
“If you want something done, give it to a busy person.” We’ve surely all read that motivational quote about busy people getting work done. But it’s true, people who are busy are experts at productivity. They’ve mastered accomplishing tasks. They know how to squeeze every moment out of their days. On the other hand, people with lots of free time have lots of free time for a reason. They’re usually not busy because they choose not to be.
“I’m busy” is the adult version of “my dog ate my homework”. Very few people legitimately don’t have time to get something done, to accomplish a goal, to schedule a meeting with an interested party. As with nearly everything in life, if something’s important enough we find a way to get it done. Once we decide to do it, it gets done.
Look at how productive people spend their time. Don’t look at kind-of-productive people, but those people who’ve transcended industries. If we want to be really efficient with our time we find the best people at it, not the people kind of good. When feeling unproductive and unaccomplished remember da Vinci had only the same amount of time each day as we do.
