It is becoming increasingly difficult for
Posted: Sun Dec 22, 2024 5:26 am
It is becoming increasingly difficult for us to manage our time, especially for people who work independently, which is (I dare say) 99% of those interested in having a good Personal Brand. I have been worried about time management for some time, especially now that I am teaching at the Externado University. It was necessary to reorganize my time and prioritize my tasks.
The need to organize an agenda is such that we often hire someone to do it. We don't know what to do, whether it's important or urgent, and we almost always end up doing the latter. In addition, we don't have a fixed schedule, like when we're an employee. There comes a point when we feel frustrated because while others rest, we have to keep working. Or when you rest, you keep thinking that you could be using that time to get ahead on that "urgent" proposal that was asked of you. Sometimes we don't know what to do with everything, we feel like we're not going to achieve it, that we won't be able to keep up, we want to rush back to corporate life where you only had to do what the boss asked.
Omar-Gamboa-Timothy-Ferriss-4-Hour-WeekOn a trip I came across a book by Tim Ferris , “The 4-hour work week”, in which he shares several tips that help organize the tasks we do every day. I took some of them from there and tried to organize and explain them in a simple and short way. To make it easier to remember them, they are divided into 4 keys: DEAL.
These are the 4 keys to time management, based on what Tim Ferris proposes.
4 keys to managing time
1. Definition.
Define what you want to do. We often do so many things that we don't know why we do them. We get into a frenetic rhythm and agree to do many tasks, we join any project that is proposed to us because "you never know" if the business of life will come out of it. But life is not about doing a little bit of everything but about doing something very well. That is why we must define very well what we want to do, what we enjoy doing, and define what we are good at. Many times it is the same, because we are good at what we like to do and vice versa. Focus, do what you like, or what you think will be most useful to you. And if you still can't do it, at least do something that brings you closer to it. If you like cooking and want to open a restaurant, don't work in a hair salon. Define what you want to do and start.
Define your goals. If you don’t know where you want to go, any path vietnam email address will do. And you’ll never get there! You need to know. “Being independent,” “being famous,” “being rich,” “being the best in my field” are all very different goals that involve different paths. The important thing is that you know what motivates you. Among the reasons I am most often told for being independent are “I want to travel a lot,” “how great it is to be able to work from home.” Each one involves very different tasks and, definitely, it involves knowing how to manage time very well.
Now, when you know what you want you also know what you don't, which brings us to the next point.
2. Elimination.
Eliminate all the tasks you don't want to, have to, or need to do. How many times have you found yourself doing things you don't enjoy? You start to feel frustrated, short-tempered, and irascible.
Of course, there will always be boring tasks, usually administrative tasks, that take up a lot of time: separating invoices, doing accounting work, paying taxes, unnecessary meetings. That's another important point: Eliminate as many meetings as you can. Nowadays we suffer from meetingitis: We have to see what we present to the client: meeting. We have to define the new template for presentations: meeting. Some meetings cannot be cancelled, they are necessary (and I don't recommend eliminating them altogether either), but I'm sure that at least 70% of them can be done virtually, via Skype or Hangouts, and that way you avoid a lot of travel. Besides, when meetings are in person, the first half hour is spent on "what else, how are things going?"
Now, we have to break a paradigm: Being busy is not the same as being productive. Many times we do things that take up our time but are very unproductive. What I do for a while now is that, when I notice that I have been thinking about something for a long time without making any progress, I think about how willing I am to do that task at that moment. It often happens to me that right now I don't want to do that research for the talk I'm going to give in a few weeks, but I would enjoy writing for the blog, for example. Or I prefer to read about creativity, social networks or entrepreneurship. So I completely forget about research and do the other thing that I do want to do. I will make better use of my time and be more productive. The next day, first thing in the morning, I will start with that research that I put on hold. Be careful, you have to try not to confuse it with procrastination , which is stopping doing what I have to do and I start playing XBOX, or browsing Netflix.
The need to organize an agenda is such that we often hire someone to do it. We don't know what to do, whether it's important or urgent, and we almost always end up doing the latter. In addition, we don't have a fixed schedule, like when we're an employee. There comes a point when we feel frustrated because while others rest, we have to keep working. Or when you rest, you keep thinking that you could be using that time to get ahead on that "urgent" proposal that was asked of you. Sometimes we don't know what to do with everything, we feel like we're not going to achieve it, that we won't be able to keep up, we want to rush back to corporate life where you only had to do what the boss asked.
Omar-Gamboa-Timothy-Ferriss-4-Hour-WeekOn a trip I came across a book by Tim Ferris , “The 4-hour work week”, in which he shares several tips that help organize the tasks we do every day. I took some of them from there and tried to organize and explain them in a simple and short way. To make it easier to remember them, they are divided into 4 keys: DEAL.
These are the 4 keys to time management, based on what Tim Ferris proposes.
4 keys to managing time
1. Definition.
Define what you want to do. We often do so many things that we don't know why we do them. We get into a frenetic rhythm and agree to do many tasks, we join any project that is proposed to us because "you never know" if the business of life will come out of it. But life is not about doing a little bit of everything but about doing something very well. That is why we must define very well what we want to do, what we enjoy doing, and define what we are good at. Many times it is the same, because we are good at what we like to do and vice versa. Focus, do what you like, or what you think will be most useful to you. And if you still can't do it, at least do something that brings you closer to it. If you like cooking and want to open a restaurant, don't work in a hair salon. Define what you want to do and start.
Define your goals. If you don’t know where you want to go, any path vietnam email address will do. And you’ll never get there! You need to know. “Being independent,” “being famous,” “being rich,” “being the best in my field” are all very different goals that involve different paths. The important thing is that you know what motivates you. Among the reasons I am most often told for being independent are “I want to travel a lot,” “how great it is to be able to work from home.” Each one involves very different tasks and, definitely, it involves knowing how to manage time very well.
Now, when you know what you want you also know what you don't, which brings us to the next point.
2. Elimination.
Eliminate all the tasks you don't want to, have to, or need to do. How many times have you found yourself doing things you don't enjoy? You start to feel frustrated, short-tempered, and irascible.
Of course, there will always be boring tasks, usually administrative tasks, that take up a lot of time: separating invoices, doing accounting work, paying taxes, unnecessary meetings. That's another important point: Eliminate as many meetings as you can. Nowadays we suffer from meetingitis: We have to see what we present to the client: meeting. We have to define the new template for presentations: meeting. Some meetings cannot be cancelled, they are necessary (and I don't recommend eliminating them altogether either), but I'm sure that at least 70% of them can be done virtually, via Skype or Hangouts, and that way you avoid a lot of travel. Besides, when meetings are in person, the first half hour is spent on "what else, how are things going?"
Now, we have to break a paradigm: Being busy is not the same as being productive. Many times we do things that take up our time but are very unproductive. What I do for a while now is that, when I notice that I have been thinking about something for a long time without making any progress, I think about how willing I am to do that task at that moment. It often happens to me that right now I don't want to do that research for the talk I'm going to give in a few weeks, but I would enjoy writing for the blog, for example. Or I prefer to read about creativity, social networks or entrepreneurship. So I completely forget about research and do the other thing that I do want to do. I will make better use of my time and be more productive. The next day, first thing in the morning, I will start with that research that I put on hold. Be careful, you have to try not to confuse it with procrastination , which is stopping doing what I have to do and I start playing XBOX, or browsing Netflix.