Mikael Rieck is the author of more than hundred articles on topics of how to make money both online and offline. He has been online since 1999 and has always had a passion for money making opportunities and teaching others how to make a profit.Being Effective Produces the Free Time We All Want
Today’s post is inspired by a post I read over at Dumb Little Man about how to use time wisely. Lauren lists a few simple things that you can do (or stop doing) to use your time in a better way. I fully agree with Lauren’s points but that is not what I want to talk about.
Instead it was the finishing quote from Benjamin Franklin that made me think. He said:
“Dost thou love life? Then waste not time; for time is the stuff that life is made of.”
First of all I think that it is a very powerful statement but secondly it made me think about one of the true benefits of being effective and productive with your time. I’m not going to lie to you and say that I am a super human when it comes to being productive and effective because I’m not. I too waste time on occasion but I try to plan my time and get things done in a way that is as effective as possible.
Being effective and productive with your time can mean a lot of different things to people and I don’t know what it means to you. To me it means to do what you have planned in as little time as possible without decreasing the quality of the work.
I don’t know how your situation is but I personally love what I do and I can keep doing it for days without getting tired of it.
But it doesn’t mean that I don’t want to be effective and get things done because I also love not working. Having a lot of free time that I can spend with family and friends are just as great as working and I wouldn’t want to do just one or the other.
If you’re one of the many people that don’t really like what you’re doing on your job or in your business then being effective and productive will only benefit you even more. The faster you get things done the more free time you’ll get for the most part. I know that some will argue that if you have a job you’ll just be presented with more work to do but I will also argue that if you’re both effective and productive (delivering high quality work) then you’re more likely to be able to run your own show at work because you’re employer will see that you’re one of his/her best employees.
What if you’re not effective?
If you don’t feel that you’re being effective to the level that you would expect or want then I would like to encourage you to start working at it. As Jefferson said if you’re wasting time you’re wasting your life and I highly doubt that you would want to waste your life. I know I wouldn’t!
So does this mean that I spend time on learning how to be more effective, more productive and get more things done in less time? Absolutely! I read books, attend seminars and do a lot of different things to systemize and structure my work (some of it by leveraging the option to outsource) and in return I get more time to do other things like spending time with friends and family.
Are you wasting time or are you being effective and productive?
To Your Success,
Mikael
3 Responses so far
Manshu
May 4th, 2009
11:17 pm
I am fairly sure that I could do a lot more with my time. One way I have found of being more effective is to block out email. I usually try and check emails three or four times a day and respond to them immediately. This way I am not looking constantly at the Inbox and getting my attention diverted.
Mikael
May 5th, 2009
7:09 am
Hi Manshu, stop checking emails is definitely a good way to not waste time. So is not checking your stats (adsense, affiliate, trafic etc) all the time.
If you’re spending a lot of time answering the phone it could also be a great idea to start having phone hours and then turning it off the rest of the time.
Mark Sierra at MeAndMyDrum.com
May 11th, 2009
5:08 am
Oh man, this rings so true with me. I’ve had trouble focusing on things because I have so many irons in the fire. But keeping to a list of to-dos definitely helps.
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