Time is your most precious asset. Are you being productive with the time that you have?
If you are someone who struggles with managing your time, you're not alone. Life can get hectic.
When we are insanely busy, it's easy to fall into the trap of saying, “I've got too much to do and not enough time to do it.” This mental block prevents people from accomplishing much of anything.
Inside this blog, Tatiana and I share with you the productivity hacks that allow us to get more done in less time.
If you're ready to stop procrastinating and start getting productive, read on…
Watch the video below:
(Click here to watch on YouTube)
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Do you use your time wisely?
Time is finite, meaning that you can never get more of it. What matters is what you do with the time that you have. We always do whatever we are committed to — if you're committed enough, you will dedicate the time to doing it.
If you're not taking action towards something that you want on a given day, it's because you're not making it important enough. Thus, the issue isn't so much time management as it is priority management.
Managing your priorities means directing time towards tasks that are important and contribute towards your long-term mission, goals, and values. However, before you can focus on what is truly important to you, you need to identify where your zone of productivity is.
On a given day, when do you have the most energy and willpower?
There is a great book called The Willpower Instinct, which states that we have a certain amount of willpower that gets depleted throughout the day. When you have lower willpower, you will tend to fall into the trap of laziness.
I have always believed that the secret to one's success is found in the daily routine. Thus, the best way to strengthen your willpower is to create an empowering morning ritual. The better we train our willpower, the better equipped we are to achieve great things.
When you don't have a plan for your day, you fall into other people's plans. This is a recipe for disaster. If the first thing you do when you wake up is to check your emails and scroll on social media, naturally you'll feel overwhelmed and distracted. In the words of Richard Whately, “Lose an hour in the morning, and you will be all day hunting for it.”
This is why Tatiana and I wake up every day at 5 am and do our morning ritual before anything else.
We make sure that we take the time to nurture our mind, body, and spirit. This includes things like praying, reading, journaling, exercising, meditating, and practicing gratitude.
Our ritual sets the tone for our entire day, ensuring that we experience optimal productivity. As a result, we are better able to focus and prioritize our time so that our day doesn't control us.
If you don't show up for yourself, everything else suffers. Are you a morning person or a night person? That will help you determine when you should commit time to work on whatever it is that you prioritize.
When it comes to actually starting your workday, Tatiana and I believe in being intentional about what it is that you want to achieve. It's easy to keep checking things off of your to-do list and mindlessly performing tasks.
At the end of a workday, have you ever looked at your list and thought, “How did I manage to accomplish nothing even though I still worked for four hours on this task?” This is why it's imperative that you set an intention and write it down. When you see it in front of you, it will feel more manageable to achieve.
Having an intention gives you a sense of direction. There are a lot of things that disguise themselves as important, but they're merely urgent.
For example, emails are urgent, but not important.
As online business owners, Tatiana and I have a lot of emails in our inbox. When we receive an email, we feel like we need to respond to it right away. However, we've learned that our focus needs to be geared towards the things that will move the needle forward in our businesses. Emails can wait.
When it comes to accomplishing challenging tasks, we recommend that you eat the frog first in the morning.
This is a concept that was coined by Brian Tracy. Think of the ‘frog' as the thing that is on your to-do list that you have zero motivation to accomplish. Thus, ‘”eating the frog” means to do it first thing in the morning before you start working on anything else.
You need to understand that you're never going to accomplish everything on your list at the end of the day. Your list is always going to grow. All y0u need to do is focus on the most important thing(s) that needs to be accomplished on a given day. The important things are anything that creates income or sales in your business.
There is a great book called The One Thing which states that, if you do ONE thing every single day, five days a week, over time you will accomplish so much more than most people.
Lastly, as an entrepreneur, you must accept the reality that you can't do everything in your business. When you have an opportunity to outsource tasks, like customer support and social media management, do it! Upwork is a great platform that connects freelancers and business owners.
You can find highly qualified people from all over the world. Tatiana and I have hired a lot of people from this platform and have had great results from doing so. Outsourcing helps you spend more time focusing on your business, instead of in your business. This is the holy grail of time management.
This is how successful people manage their time.
Everyone has the same amount of time on a given day. Get real with yourself… are you using the time that you have wisely? In the words of Peter Drucker, “Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed.”
As an entrepreneur, I can honestly say that nothing in business is as valuable as time. Learning how to prioritize the time that you have is a game-changer. When you make it a priority to master your time, you master every area of your life.
Are you ready to build a successful business doing what you love? CLICK HERE to take my FREE 60-minute quiz to find out which online business model is the best for you to start your online business!