INTRODUCTION

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Yesterday, my little brother came back from school, looking a little down and depressed which I noticed and then asked him what the matter was. He told me there was an argument in their class and some of his classmates claimed he, who was the best in his class, wasn’t the most brilliant and didn’t worth all the praise. I asked why and he told me that one of his classmates, Jimmy by name, most times had the highest scores in their exams, but he always had the highest total score (that is, the summation of the exam scores and test scores).

For example, out of 40 marks for continuous assessment test, my brother may score 38, while Jimmy may be on the 25 mark. On the other hand with respect to examination on a total scale of 60, my brother may score 52, while for Jimmy is 56. At the end, my brother would have the highest total score (i.e 90) while Jimmy only had the highest score in their exams (i.e 56), which prompted the argument that Jimmy was better because his classmates saw that Jimmy mostly got the highest scores in their exams.

I simply laughed and told my brother that the most successful people in a field sometimes aren’t the most brilliant or skillful people in that field but people who do things or carry out activities that they know would guarantee success in the long run.

Jimmy’s success in his exams was due to the fact that he prepared well for it, after having realized that his planning for the term was not the best. He would have come out the best if he had channeled the same energy and strategy he used in writing his exams to his approach to tests and assignments that would have boosted his score for the term. So he tried to make up for it.

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Time is the only thing that cannot be recovered. Through planning, my brother always did well as he got high scores in his tests and assignments as well as his exams, which helped him to be the best among his peers. Jimmy lacks proper planning and time management, and it has hindered his overall success.

This was the inspiration behind this write up. Now enjoy the read, let’s tour!

THE TRUTH ABOUT PLANNING AND TIME MANAGEMENT REVEALED

Lexicographically, a “plan” is a set of intended actions through which one expects to achieve a goal. “Management” is the judicious use of the means to accomplish an end. Hence the compound word “time management” is therefore the judicious use of time; the process of exercising adequate control of time with respect to activities with the aim of maximizing productivity, effectiveness and efficiency.

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“Planning and time management” is a characteristic that defines successful people. It’s a perquisite to success. As discussed earlier, we were able to see that it’s the bridge between those who are successful and those who are not.
We are going to look at the different ways in which one can increase ones level of productivity and chances of achieving success through effective time management. I was able to painstakingly outline some giant steps to materializing this subject.

Here is a list of them.

• IDENTIFY YOUR GOALS
  
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Firstly, you have to know what you want and different things to be done to achieve them. A brilliant student that doesn’t aim to be the best academically is not going to take the steps to achieve excellence in his academics. Identifying what you want is the clarity of goal because it helps you stay focused. Having a clear picture of what you want in your mind is the first step to the attainment of success.

• WRITE DOWN YOUR GOALS

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Next, it pays to write down these goals of yours. Studies have proved that people who write down their goals at the start of each day or year tend to achieve more of these goals than others who just keep them in mind. Ticking specific tasks off your list gives a positive feeling and this momentum would help you to finish the other tasks on your list.

Writing down should also go hand in hand with the long-term perspective. You should discipline yourself to perform activities at a certain time that will end up in you ticking one of the important activities off your list. Brian Tracy in his book “eat that frog”, said: if you’re to eat two frogs, eat the uglier one first. This translates to you doing the most challenging, most important of your tasks first before doing the less important ones.

A goal must be attainable and challenging.

• THINKING LONG TERM

The long-term thinking also helps to keep you from doing little unimportant things that might seem fun in the short term but are detrimental in the long term. Pareto’s principle says that emphasis should be placed on the significant few than the insignificant many.

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Discipline yourself to avoid the unimportant short term thrills and go to work on things that would be beneficial to you in the long term. Concentration also helps to give you a sense of straightforwardness and maturity among your peers.
There must exist a scale of preference. One way to keep concentration is to keep these three questions in mind at all times

1. What are the activities that have the highest importance in my life right now?
2. What can I and only I do, that if done right, will make a huge difference?
3. What is the most valuable use of my time right now?

The answer to the 1st question should be the one at the top of your list of goals and the one you should be working towards always. The 2nd is a matter of personal skill and talent, whatever you can do that can’t be done by anyone else the same way, never fail to develop your personal skills, make a spot for it on your list. The 3rd is the most important, as without doing the most important things you can do with your time at a particular moment you fail to achieve your long-term goals.

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Keep these sets of questions in mind at all times and if your answer is different from what you’re doing at the particular time, you know what to do.

• HAVE HOBBIES

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Doing the things you love to do also help to build your self esteem, make sure they’re done at the right time always, but make sure to always do them. As they give you a sense of achievement when done right and subsequently, give more confidence in other areas of your life. Notice I added “when done right”, so make sure to always improve yourself in this aspect.

• INCREASING YOUR PRODUCTIVITY

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The above points are all matters of the mind. After outlining your goals and developing the mindset to help you stay in line with these goals, the goals are not achieved until action is taken. Getting to work should be easier once you have adjusted your mindset and pointed out the most important activities at the time.

One way to work well is to develop the feeling of urgency; this can be achieved by setting time frames or deadlines for your activities.

Maintaining the balance between the ongoing activity and other outside matters is not an option. Put the pressure on yourself to meet up with your appointed deadline and cut off all other activities. Adopt the mindset of “working throughout the time you set for work”, chatting on whatsapp with your loved ones gives a feeling of happiness. So put the pressure of yourself to maintain focus and finish in the time frame so you can go and do that or any other thing that gives you a feeling of joy.

Instead of interrupting the ongoing activity, be like the tight rope walker who must always maintain balance when working or fall off. Also put your all into what you’re doing, remember “the sun’s rays don’t burn until when brought into focus”.

• PROPER PLANNING PREVENTS POOR PERFORMANCE

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Proper preparation before starting the task also helps to boost your motivation. For instance, as a student when you have planned to read a calculation course, and just before, you remember that you don’t have a calculator, this factor weakens your motivation and you might not end up reading the course again. Maybe until the day before your test or exam when you have no choice, then you start reading all through the night, this is an evidence of poor time management.

Prepare yourself well before starting, get all the necessary materials for the task. This also helps to keep you from deviating and to keep to your deadline. Ensure your deadlines are realistic, and keep at the task until it is 100% complete, discipline yourself to always do this with each task.

POOR PERFORMANCE AND IT’S EFFECT

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Poor performance or lack of visible results can also be a reason for procrastination, an example is when you’ve been working out for two weeks and haven’t noticed any changes in your physique, you tend to lose motivation to continue the programme or to start on time, if you choose to continue.

One way to combat this is to remember the long-term goal. The result might not be evident now but since you know your long-term goal you’d keep to it because you’re confident the results would show in the future.

Also to improve your performance you should also look to develop your skills always, don’t be stagnant, and always seek to improve yourself in ways that can help your long-term goals. Step out of your comfort zone.

For example, as a Steemian, you can outline the number of posts you want to have by the end of the year, and determine the number of posts you want to have at the end of each week or day. But you might not meet up because of some factors. If it’s the issue of speed with respect to typing, you can improve your typing skills and learn to type faster, as this would make you more productive.

As Pat Riley said “if you’re not getting better, you’re only getting worse”.

Once you see you’re not performing well in an area, task yourself to improve in that area, always remain positive. Successful people always maintain a high level of optimism. In the occurrence of failure, ask yourself “what lesson can I learn from this?” always take responsibility for your actions and try to get better.

An instance is the example I gave on working out, to improve, you can search for ways to perform the exercises better. Go online and search for healthy diets to find out things you’ve been eating that has hindered your progress. Og Mandino says “the only certain means of success is to render more and better service than is expected of you, no matter what your task may be”.

Furthermore, one way to start a task easily, if you have trouble doing it, is to break it into different parts and do one at a time, for instance, to begin a write-up, your first step might be to write your ideas down. After that, the next step might be to take out your laptop or computer, and so on. Follow the steps one at a time until the goal is complete.
A Chinese man was once asked how he would eat an elephant if he were asked to and he replied, “One bite at a time”.

Follow these golden principles and you’ll get more tasks done than before.

• KNOW YOUR CONSTRAINTS

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Lastly, also identify the major constraints in your environment that can prevent you from meeting up with your goals. I guess I’ll write a topic soon on “woe unto the Samson who doesn’t know his Delilah”.

Try to think of this when making your list as it prevents you from encountering any setbacks along the line, as these can reduce your momentum. A constraint maybe the unavailability of a library in your immediate environment when your goal is to carry out a research. You can write down the solution for this which might involve you travelling out to the nearest community, or you using the internet.

There are different constraints that might be an embargo in your desire to achieve a particular goal. They might be personal, social, or economical. So include the different ways to bypass these constraints in your list and they will not be a problem for you.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion, this piece of writing is to improve your productivity and to teach you how to properly manage your time. It all starts with your mindset, so before putting this in motion, ensure your mindset is in the right place.

Look at your friends, choose the right friends to help your mind. In his autobiography, “The long walk to freedom”, Nelson Mandela showed that he never had an eye for politics. But in the course of associating with good and ambitious politicians and freedom fighters, they helped mold him and he later became one of the most remembered politicians in the world.

Make friends with productive people who can push you to set good long term goals for yourself. Make sure to put into action whatever you’ve learnt from this, as knowledge is wasted without subsequent action.

Thanks for reading.

I am @gracehills