Only a few people you know may be managing their time wisely. If you are NOT one of them, it means that you are allowing others to control your time. Your coworkers may seek your help to meet their deadlines, or your spouse or other family members may need your time to finish some of the tasks they don’t want to do. There may also be people who want you to participate in their gossip sessions.
If you agree to these requests, you may not have time for yourself. This does not mean that you should not respect the needs of your family members, co-workers or others. But if you try to agree to attend to all of those needs, you may not have time to meet all of those needs as well.
Alan Lakein in his book “How to Control Your Time and Life” says that since it is impossible for us to have more than 24 hours a day, we must find ways to use our time wisely. Many famous and successful people, including former US President Bill Clinton and George Washington, the first US President, used, knowingly or unknowingly, the key principles laid out by Laken to be successful in their lives. The principles Laken establishes in his book revolve around the need to categorize your life goals into short, medium, and long-term goals and list them according to their importance.
Craig Ballantyne, the famous fitness expert, says, “You don’t find time for what matters in life. You make time. There is a huge difference in these two ways of thinking about time management.” Almost all successful people have mastered the “make time” way. The main strategy they adopt is that they use their mornings with a purpose because they are aware that the morning hours are “magic hours”.
James Thomas Flexner, author of a book on George Washington, describes Washington’s daily routine as “solid.” Washington’s daily routine begins at dawn. Not only that, he used to be very punctual and insisted that everyone around him should also be punctual. At the height of the war, Washington used to work at least 16 hours a day.
George Washington, Bill Clinton, Craig Ballantyne, and all successful people manage their time wisely. Are the days of successful people longer? The days of all of us are the same length. Craig Ballantyne suggests the 3-C formula to manage our time wisely. He says, “Control your mornings, Conquer the chaos of your afternoons, Focus on what really matters in your afternoons.”
To be more precise, if you finish all the important tasks in the morning, you can easily succeed in the next two steps. This will accelerate their growth.