TAKE BACK YOUR LIFE – PART 1

My friends, today we’ll be looking at a major problem in people’s life. Which is the ability to take charge of your life in this fast growing world and increasing your productivity at work and at home.

I’m sure most people will agree with me that you have a lot to do and you don’t have enough time. These days, 24 hours is not even enough to get things done.

Well, it is true, but the successful guys (Dangote) do not have longer hours; we all equally have 24 hours but how we use them is what creates the difference in VALUE. It all balls down to how productive you are on daily bases.

Let’s go on a little journey of how you can optimise your time and take back your life.

My examples are going to be work related, but it applies at home too.

My 4 major paradigm to productivity

1. Productivity is not getting all things done, but the right things done (You don’t have to get it all done)
2. I use my calendar to complete what matters most
3. I keep appointments with myself and others
4. I respond proactively

The paradigms above are the key to increasing your productivity. Really look at it, if you do not plan your week/day, you’ll probably spend most of your day doing the less important things. You will also be ambushed with things that you’ve forgotten you were supposed to do, and all of a sudden they start popping up at the hour of the day that your mates are done with their tasks.

There are 7 major believes that limits people’s productivity

1. There is too much information coming at me too fast
2. I get too many interruptions
3. I don’t have the discipline to be organised
4. I have to keep everything because I’m not organised by nature
5. I can’t find what I need, It’s because I take much time to get organised
6. Organisation cramps my freedom and creativity
7. I cannot cope with the current trend

FIG 1.0

Being productive has a lot to do with saving time; the more of your time you save for constructive/important things helps you do more of those things.

DELEGATION:
Some people would want to do everything themselves. One of the great quality of a Productive person is the ability to delegate work and supervise the process.

It is highly recommended that anything someone else around you can do should be delegated to them.

Don’t get trapped with the theory of “Nobody can wash your cloths the way you want them”. There will always be someone who can do it better; even if you have to be the one to teach the person now and rip the result of time saving tomorrow.

SAYING NO:
There is nothing wrong in helping people do their work; but learn to say NO when you have your own work to do.

Some of us don’t know how to turn people down when they come to us for help at the work space; most especially that fine lady in your office. The damage of this is that most times you spend time doing other people’s work and putting your productive time at their mercy.

I know most of us can relate to this back in school. You will be reading your book in the library; then one of the fine girls you admire in class would come and ask for 2 minute of your time to explain a subject to her, most times you spend 1-2 hours helping the girl to understand her studies.

All ladies are trained interrupters, they leverage on that fact that they are the “weaker sex” and use it to get what they want. Most of them know they have nothing to offer to you in return.

FITERING INTERRUPTION
Interruptions is the major time killer of our life and the most dangerous thing, because most of us are not fully cautions of this serial killer.

Six main ways that we get interrupted:

1. Phone
2. E-mail
3. Your Mind
4. Multi-tasking
5. Other People
6. Meeting interruptions

1. Phone (Chime / Calls / Buzz / Pings / BBM / WatsApp)

One of the things that disrupt work is our phones. The calls, messages and chat apps. Some of us think that they have to be on-point with everything that happens on their devices and the internet.

2. Email

Most of us are email checkers, we behave as if the emails will disappear if we do not check them every minute.

3. Your Mind

While you are at work, your mind will keep reminding you of things you have forgotten to do, and because you don’t want to forget, you stop the important things you are doing to attend to the less important things that your mind brings to your fore front.

4. Multi-tasking

Really there is nothing like this, you are only switching tasks, which is more time consuming than when you focus on one item finish it and move to the next step.

5. Other People

While you are at work, you have less control of the people that come at you with their problems, discussion and politics

6. Meeting Interruption

Most organisation have poor meeting scheduling, while you are working, someone will just call you and tell you to join the rest of your colleague in the board room for a meeting that was just fixed.

If you don’t design your own life plan, chances are you’ll fall into someone else’s plan. And guess what they have planned for you? Not much.

HOW TO HANDLE PHONE AND EMAIL INTERRUPTIONS

Unless you are a sales person, customer service; it is advisable to keep your phones away while you are working. It helps you focus on your job and reduces interruption and the flow of your work. I do this a lot.  I keep my phones in my drawer and put in on silent at certain time of the day so I can do uninterrupted work. That is the only way you can make meaning of your day.

I check my emails/pings/chats first thing in the morning between 8-9am, and I get to work. I check again around 1-2pm and about an hour before stepping out of the office.

Bros, I know you will say what if there is an emergency. And I ask you; which emergency? The truth is that, deep down in your heart this emergency you are referring to are usually the unexpected BAD news you want to hear. Why would you be preparing for bad news? Most cases you even get that news when you can do nothing about it.

HOW TO HANDLE YOUR MIND INTERRUPTIONS?

While you are working, and you remember something else you need to do but you don’t want to forget, I’ll advise you write it down in your notepad or sticky note. This won’t take up to 30 seconds of your time, then continue what you are doing.

I use Microsoft Outlook, I just hold Ctrl+Shift+K to open a new task, I write what it is I want to do, set a reminder to the time I would probably want to be reminded about this thing; then I click on “Save & Close button”. That’s it.

HOW TO HANDLE MULTI-TASKING

Really there is nothing like this, you are only switching tasks, which is more time consuming than when you focus on one item finish it and move to the next one.

OTHER PEOPLE

I don’t indulge in discussions when I really have things to do, I use my ears phones; even when I’m not listening to anything. I just have them on and I ignore people.

This takes time when you are just starting, but I have established a communication to everyone one around me not to interrupt me while I’m working. This is important if you really want to be in control of your life.

I know this will not apply to your Bosses, but you would have filtered your contemporaries and reduce the interruption time.

UNSCHEDULE MEETINGS

Try as much as possible not to attend them, if you are working; that’s should be your priorities. For Senior Managers, and Self-employed people, this is a powerful tool. Most meetings end up not having a head way.

If you really add up all the time you use to work and add up the time you were interrupted, you might be shocked to know that you waste 80% and actually work 20%. This is not 80/20 principle, but pure time wasting.

…To be continued. We are just getting started.

Think of it this way: “Speed is irrelevant if you don’t know where you are going”

Author: Lu Abikoye
luabikoye@gmail.com