DO LESS THINGS! #ProductivitySeries

“You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great” – Zig Ziglar

This time we’ll discuss about the ever-constant problem of time-management.

Some common questions might be:

How to plan your time efficiently and stick to it? How to include important things and the relaxation time?
How to organize your tasks so you get more things done?
Are there any tools/techniques? Pomodoro method, calendars, bullet journals, etc?
HOW TO STOP PROCRASTINATING!? Aka. wasting your time on meaningless stuff.
A ton of articles have already been written on the subject and they are at the tip of your finger-tips. So what I will do instead is focus on something different.

My counter-intuitive advice is: In order to be more productive, DO LESS THINGS.

I can already hear you: “What do you mean do less things? The reason I came here is because I want to learn how to do more things in a shorter amount of time.”

The reason we don’t have the time to take a walk and relax, enjoy nature and recharge is because you spent those 20 minutes watching the latest episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver on Youtube, check those posts on Instagram or simply get lost on the Facebook wall and random conversations.

It doesn’t matter if I will give you tools to organize yourself and techniques on how to increase your output, if the self-control is not there. Being true to yourself and ask yourself “Am I using technology right now to serve me better, or is technology using me and I’m hooked?”

And I know it’s tough to do it from personal experience – these people are experts at what they do. They make a living from having us look at their content when we should be focused on something else. Internet addiction is simply an increasing trend that we must accept and deal with.Billedresultat for procrastination

A trick I like to use is that I procrastinate the things that would make me procrastinate. So if I see an interesting video on Youtube I add it to my “Watch later” playlist, and then I never do watch it. Why? Because it wasn’t really that important. It was just an impulsive desire.

It actually requires selfishness on your part to take the time you need to complete the tasks that are important and still have some relaxation time for yourself.

You did not watch the latest video and won’t be able to join in the conversation with interesting input, you didn’t reply all your messages and checked your friend’s last post etc.

Trust me, the world is not going to burn. As a friend was saying: “The sun is still going to rise in the morning”.

The important thing is that you’ve used the time given to complete the FEW, IMPORTANT things, and then also take some time to undertake an activity that makes you happy. You’ll feel proud for doing the best you could within the constraints you had – and that’s all that matters.

Next, we can talk about how to plan your time, tools that facilitate it, and a bunch of techniques that do work, once you have the basics in place.

Time management is tricky because it reveals other things – such as your personal identity, purpose (or lack of), ability to concentrate, self-control, addictions, lack of balance etc. But that’s the beautiful thing, that one “simple” thing can project us on the road to self-improvement and mastery.

Now get out there, screw everything else for today and do something that matters! 😉

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Let me know if you would like us to continue together on this road by up-voting the post.

Citius, Altius, Fortius.

Leonard Burcă