Master Your Time: 7 Deadly Traps Exposed
Time ticks away. You can waste or use time to achieve a goal. Learn about seven deadly traps to help you gain back your time.
Time is valuable. Every second can be wisely used to reach a goal or wasted. These are seven deadly traps exposed to help you master your time.
Allowing An Unproductive Morning To Ruin Your Entire Day
It can be easy to ruin a day. All it can take is having a bad morning. A bad day can also come from being unproductive.
You may feel bad that you are behind schedule. Now, you are worried since there is no way that you can finish everything that needs to get done on your schedule for the day.
That is a sign that you have become a productivity perfectionist. I was one, too. I would make a to-do list for the longest time but never accomplish it. I found I was giving myself too many tasks.
I now have two to three tasks to finish each day. I work to complete as much as possible. Whatever is left over, I can always begin the next day.
Solution: Four Quarters Method
The four-quarters method works by splitting each day into four parts. The morning is from 5 am to 9 am. Late morning is from 10 am to 1 pm. The afternoon is from 2 pm to 7 pm. Night time is from 7 pm to 4 am.
Focusing On Sunk Costs
Sunk costs are something that has been done in the past that contributes to how you act or what you believe today. It is a cost that is lost. Whatever it may be, the sunk cost is no longer relevant to decision-making that affects your future.
An example would be a person attending college to earn a specific degree. Even though they later discover that they have no interest in that degree, they spend the rest of their life working in that field. The person allowed the degree to dictate the rest of their life.
When you focus on the sunk cost, you only look at the past. That applies both professionally, in relationships, and dating.
There is no perfect career. There is no perfect company to work for. There is no soulmate. There is no ideal person to date and marry. There are no flawless friends.
Everything has a flaw. We all make mistakes. Everyone has a past.
The past holds you back. Focus on your future.
Solution: Embrace The Future
Embrace the future by acknowledging all the open paths available to you. There are many different ways that your life can play out. You have free will.
To figure out how to make the most of your future:
Discover your strengths
Understand your weaknesses
Know what you are passionate about
Find a way to solve a problem
Find a way to make money from what you enjoy doing
Never Setting Clear Priorities
“If the ladder is not leaning aginst the right wall, every step just gets us to the wrong place faster.” - Stephen Covey
Working toward the wrong things is the greatest waste of attention, time, and energy.
Focusing on the wrong priorities takes your attention, which could be better directed elsewhere. Having unclear priorities wastes valuable time that could be channeled somewhere else. Misdirecting energy results in hours of effort being gone that could have been better focused on a productive goal.
Solution: Set Clear Goals
Set clear short-term, medium-term, long-term, and lifetime goals. Short-term goals can be from one day to a year. Medium-term goals last two to five years. Long-term goals can take a decade or more to complete.
For lifetime goals, use Warren Buffett’s 5/25 rule. His rule works like this:
Write down the top 25 goals that you want to accomplish
Circle your top five
Avoid the other 20 goals since they are now major distractions
Focus all of your attention, time, and energy on achieving your top five life goals
Calendar Is Mightier Than The To-Do List
The calendar is mightier than the to-do list. Putting tasks on your calendar makes you prioritize them over other tasks. A to-do list is simply a list of tasks. A calendar makes you set deadlines to finish a task.
Solution: Time Blocking
Use your calendar more. Block out your day with tasks and projects that need to be done on your favorite calendar app or a physical calendar. Find what works best for you.
Assign a time slot for each task based on its priority. Review how well you stuck to completing the daily tasks that you time blocked at the end of the day.
Set final due dates for big goals on your calendar. This will help you to stick to completing the goal better.
Not Using Parkinson’s Law
Work often takes longer than necessary to complete. Force yourself to have less time to finish tasks and projects. Having less time makes you focus more on accomplishing a task or project.
Solution: Create Artificial Deadlines
Announce on social media the project you are working on
Set a timer for each task
If you fail to meet the deadline, pay your friend who thought you could not finish a project on time
Penalize yourself if you do not meet a deadline
Reward yourself when you complete a task or project
Always Saying Yes
Telling people yes too often costs you time, attention, and opportunities. Learning to tell people no and turn down opportunities is a vital life skill.
When your default is no, you control your time. When your default is yes, other people manage your time.
Solution: Start To Say No More
No is a powerful word. Begin to use it more often. Saying no gives you control over your time, energy, and attention. It makes you figure out what is important to you.
Prioritize the things that are most valuable to you. Work to complete those. Do not be afraid to tell people no.
Related - The Hidden Power Of Learning To Say No
Multi-Tasking
Multi-tasking is a fiction. People like to tell themselves what they can do. Multi-tasking is merely switching tasks. Task-switching shifts attention from one task you are working on to another. Switching between tasks wastes attention, energy, and focus.
Solution: Focus On One Task At A Time
Focus on one task at a time. Doing this gives each task one hundred percent of your attention, time, and energy. Once you finish one task, move on to the next one.
Secure Single’s Algorithm recommends:
Summary
Stop wasting and getting baited into traps that take away your time. Time is a valuable asset. Learn to leverage time to reach your goals.
Why not become a secure single?
What is your biggest time management struggle?
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