Are you using your time productively?
Why don’t people think twice about spending millions on an organ transplant operation? Why don’t they just settle for one of those 90% off, back alley specials? Besides, with those back alley specials, your loved ones get served Warm Muffins and Coffee and even get to watch the candlelit operation firsthand. So, why splash all that cash (and possibly even go into debt in the process)?
We splash the cash in a heartbeat because our time on earth is something we prefer not to gamble on and therefore time itself is one resource we simply cannot put a price tag on. And it’s something that cannot be reimbursed in any shape or form.
So, don’t spend it on people and things that contribute nothing to your life and especially don’t spend it sitting in front of a TV. Sure. We do need “some” entertainment. But that should always be in light doses, unless you’re heading out to the Movies, Disney or the Moon with your Family.
A THIRD of your time should be invested in your Family. After all, aren’t they the reason you’re spinning your wheels in the first place?
The second third of your time should be invested in solidifying and growing your finances. Last time I checked, Disney were still charging for their tickets. Shocking right?
And the remaining third of your time should be spent on Rest (i.e sleep, downtime, and daydreaming) and Restoration (i.e exercise, sleepwalking and mediation).
So, here’s how you can make TIME your beach:
1. Build a daily routine into your life. – Being “spontaneous” is a surefire way to waste much if it.
2. Always work from a list (even if it’s a 2-minute task)
All the stuff that doesn’t relate to my primary tasks (videos, blogging and communications), I put on my “Saturday to-do list”.
3. Use 75% or more of your time on tasks that are Mission critical (i.e. tasks that matter the most to your bottom line and cannot be done by someone else)
4. Outsource like crazy
Outsource anything that’s not mission critical. So you can outsource the house cleaning, the shopping, the gardening all the way to brushing your teeth.
5. Keep your home and workplace completely clutter free
Start by giving away stuff that you haven’t used in over a year to charities, to pets and to random people you meet in the street.
And keep 75% or more of the floor area and wall space free and clear. If you happen to be renting any of your ceiling space to Spiders and other creatures who walk sideways half the time, ask them to move next door instead.
Lastly, clear up any program and file clutter that you may have accumulated on your PC. Get a free copy of CCleaner to help you with the process.
6. Turn off distractions completely – Turn off your phone and TV, sign out from any of your live messaging services, get your Cat to read a book or a fashion magazine and introduce your Dog to the vivid world of “video gaming”. But, keep a different number exclusively for your Family members, so that they can reach you anytime.
7. Stack and Process tasks – When you turn off your phone and let your voice messages and texts accumulate, you can process all of em in one fell swoop. But be sure to allocate a time slot for you to action and process them in their order of importance. And be sure to discard anything that doesn’t add any value to your Personal or Professional life.
8. Use a water fountain or some soft music to keep you focused – I have some Focus@will music playing in the background, whenever I am doing something on the PC
9. Meditate for 30 minutes each day – As Bruce Lee puts it “Empty your mind. Be shapeless, formless like water”. When your mind is free from debris, your productivity and your ability to manage tasks and time, goes through the roof
10. Eat Healthy and Workout every day – When you eat healthy (ideally fresh produce foods like fruits, vegetables, greens, nuts, seeds, eggs, and milk) then your body doesn’t go through that energy and mood roller coaster rides that it would otherwise. And working out each day just flushes out much of that stress, anxiety, toxins and possibly even hairballs.
A Daily Routine?
Earlier I mentioned the importance of having a daily routine. Sometimes having a daily routine and sticking to a specific list of tasks each day is enough to make your whole life sizzle and dazzle.
So, here’s mine:
The first thing I do as soon as my alarm chirps in the morning, is Thank God very briefly for all the wonderful things he’s done in my life. I thank him specifically for the many times he’s protected me from physical and emotional harm and for bringing out of more “financial furnaces” and “health hiccups” than I can fathom. My morning prayers are very brief . I get “down and detailed” before I knock the lights off at night.
I then get plugged into my portable mp3 (which has a motivational or educational seminar preloaded) and set the Coffee to brew. And while that’s happening I start sipping on 4 full glasses of water.
Then I then grab my banana smoothie (made with fresh milk and honey), head over to the bathroom and sip on it while I do my derma roller thing.
I use a derma roller on Weekdays because my face used to look like an excavation yard not too long ago (due to acne,chickenpox,excess giggling etc). I follow that up with a Facial mask made of Bentonite Clay and Natural Witch Hazel.
And whilst that’s drying, I quickly whip up some egg salad, throw that into a container and throw the ingredients for my upcoming smoothies into 2 more containers.
I then wash off my facial mask and dive right into my workout. As per my workout, I do the Bullworker on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and P90X3 with Bodylastics for the rest of the week. By the way, I do at least two P90X3 sessions each day, because that’s how much stress I have to “flush out” of my system each day). The workout is followed up with a blissful shower and a 30-minute session of the “Mindfulness of Breathing”meditation.
Then I am powered up and ready to kick some hamster butt.
So, I grab my first smoothie and whilst sipping on that, I check my phone messages, emails, social media messages etc and spend 1-3 hours getting through those.
Once that’s done, I move on to working on my videos or my posts. On the weeks I write posts, I don’t work on my videos. And on the weeks I work on my videos, I don’t do posts. So, that’s pretty much what I do for the rest of my working hours. When I turn off the lights in the office, the rest of the day is pretty much my personal and family time. No TV, no other distractions, nothing.
Oh, I nearly forgot to mention. When I have the second smoothie and munch on my salads, I also watch a video seminar of my choosing.
Also, I take 2-5 minutes out of each hour to stretch, do a few pushups and have a glass of water.
Later, I wind down for the day with a warm bath infused with Lavender oil and dead sea salts, followed up with a session of “Life Flow”, some light reading and of course my “down and detailed” session of prayer.
Saturdays are a similar deal, except for the derma roller part and for spending some time to see how my team is getting on with their work. I really don’t do much of the work myself, other than to check if my Personal/Virtual Assistant needs any help with anything because she pretty much manages my whole team for me.
And Sundays? Except for fitting in an hour to workout, everything else is none of your beeswax. In other words, I go completely nuts.
But as soon as the clock strikes midnight and the Chariot turns into a Pumpkin, I am back on my best behavior and ready for 6 solid days of work.
I have to mention that even though I absolutely love my work, I do have a strange allergic reaction to work or anything work related on Sundays. In fact, if you say the word “work” to me on a Sunday, you’ll have me sneezing for hours.
