The Sunday Feed
Making the most of your time.
If you want to live a good life, make the most of your time because time is all you have! — Bruce Lee
Well, I am not here to say what is time well spent and what is not. However, if you are like me trying to grow a start-up then like me, you might be going to bed thinking, “Wish I could have done more today!”
Like any aspiring businessman or woman, I am always pushing my brain to the limit trying to find how to get the most from each day and this is what I found could be helpful.
1.Have a Plan for the next day: Planning is like a steering wheel of a car. It will only go in the direction the wheels are pointing. While you might not have realised, driving is an example of a plan we use without much thought.
Thanks to the navigator, someone is planning for us in territories we are not familiar. Wish we had an app for everything! A plan for the day essentially translates into the road you will be travelling from dawn to dusk and the things you will do in between.
2. Mute all the distractions: Well to be honest, I cannot totally do that but I try my best. I make it a point to keep my phone on silent and not keep social media sites open on the computer. And if people do call, I inform them right at the start that I am doing something but I will not abandon being polite if it is going to cost me just a few minutes.
I have realised that ever since Yahoo has started sending news, it has become a major nuisance. What more, it loves to send bad news in your inbox. Wonder why it thinks people have nothing better to do but read about atrocities committed on the planet. Grow up Yahoo!
3. Multitasking: It is an extension of a man’s character. Over the years I have seen that humans have become greedy in everything. They just want more. The same goes with performing tasks. They want to do more at a time.
Well that is not a bad trait. But if you want t do more, you need to do less so that you can finish the job faster and do more rather than committing hundreds of mistakes and spending time to come back and correct it.
Do you remember how when you were small, you use to race with a spoon and a marble in it where you had to stop the marble from falling off. Multitasking is like running with 2 spoons simultaneously.
4. Learn from the Champions: There is one thing I could never do is become a morning person. But I have seen that more than 90% of great achievers always get up before the sun rises. And they are able to achieve a great deal in the first few hours.
Well, I am a person who likes flexibility so I equate my late working hours to the early hours of a morning person. Pardon my manners but sometime I do come up with my own rules if it suits me!
5. Maintain a diary: Some things never run out of fashion. A bespoke suit and a personal diary will always be quite sort after if you admire style.
The reason most people give up a diary is because when they start they go too much in detail just like people joining the gym after putting on heaps of kilos in Christmas and then run out of steam.
Maintain a diary but don’t be severe on yourself. Use it as a speedometer so that you can work at an optimum speed.
6. Avoid unnecessary meetings: Well things have changed after the pandemic, which means people have no reason to not attend a Zoom meeting because they aren’t going anywhere in any case.
Many senior people do not have a well outlined job role and they often use meetings to fill in the time. If you happen to have a boss like this, it is time you fire the boss after getting a better job.
7. Delegate: There are 2 reasons why people want to do everything themselves. Either they want to save money or they do not trust their subordinates. Both of the options are a bad decision because you will end up delegating it when you realise that you have made a complete mess of it. Not to mention the time and money you will end up wasting trying to do it yourself.
8. Complete unfinished jobs: Apart from being a businessman, I am also a singer/songwriter. I have written and composed more than 30 songs. That puts me in the top 1% of the artist in terms of released work.
I am by no means saying I am very good and you should drop everything and go and look at my work but I have managed to make a portfolio of sorts because I do only one song at a time and finish it in a month. Audio and Video!
Well, I have been releasing a song on Valentine’s Day for the past 3 years, and I am working on one right now to keep up with traditions. I am hoping to release it on the 12th February or even before if I can.
John Khalkho CEO: Dolores Education
Photo: Sarah Chai