As you can read in my post from last week, here, I am planning on being a lot more active especially that I have to work on plenty of projects that require a big chunk of my time. To accomplish that, I have to manage my time a lot better than I used to do before. I am going to make some changes in my lifestyle, and because I think they will positively impact my productivity a lot, I am going to share them all with you because it might give you a hand of help too. You can check out my previous post here, where I’m talking about tools that help me manage my time and are going to go hand in hand with the methods I will mention in this post.

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Throughout the last couple of years, I have come across plenty of strategies that helped me understand time better and that improved my productivity. The ones I am going to mention are those that worked the best for me, so keep in mind, since we’re different people, they may or may not work for you too, but I advise you to give them a try for the 30 days and see how everything is going.

Time Thieves

To correctly understand what time is and how to manage it, you first have to learn about what time thieves are. You are not necessarily wasting time because you have poor management, but often you are doing it because you knowingly or unknowingly let other things from your environment steal it from you. You can’t let those thieves take away your time, your life and your success, you will have to identify and metaphorically kill them.

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Ok, so a time thief is something or somebody that steals your time. For example, you go on Facebook to reply some messages, and the next thing you know is that you’re watching funny cat videos that add no value to your life, that’s why I unfollowed everybody there, so my feed stays empty. Or my other example, I used to go on YouTube for music but I was always getting lured into watching psychology clips that were eating up a lot of my time, so I had to kill that behavior. The best way to diminish such a negative behavior is by blocking those sites as shown in my other time management post because otherwise, it would take you a lot of will to do it on your own.

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Also, there’s a more sensible kind of time thieves, and those are people. I bet you all have at least one friend or relative that each time you meet them, they like to talk nonsense, basic shit and not just that they are adding no value to your life but they are filling your head with insecurities and negative vibes, stealing your time. You may not be able to get rid of them, but you can at least minimize the time you spend together or spend time only doing meaningful things.

If you master this step correctly, it will give you so much more free time but don’t expect to see tremendous results overnight, it takes time and patience, but if you turn it into a behavior, 30 days from now, your life will look so much better.

Have a schedule

I knew about this strategy, but due to the nature of my work, for a very long time, I thought that I don’t have to apply it in my life, until next week when I had a realization. As I, you need a schedule for the day because plenty of shiny things will try to steal your attention and otherwise you will give it to them. If you have a plan and know where you have to be and for how long you can’t fit any distractions in there, no shiny thing can steal your attention that way.

This is a strategy I am still trying to master since I started practicing it again only for the last couple of days but I can already see its benefits. Sticking to a schedule may seem hard at first, but after a while, it becomes a muscle, and everything gets easier. If you’re one of those people that love their freedom and thinks a schedule is an impediment, I want to tell you that it is not. You are the one making the schedule the way you desire; you are not making it to limit your freedom but to manage your time better.

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If you’re just starting out with this strategy, scheduling your whole day and sticking to it is going to be impossible and you will only get frustrated. Until you build that muscle, I advise you to schedule your next four to six hours and after you dominated that fraction of your day, schedule the next four to six hours until you get better and better at it.

Also, I want to drop a bonus tip to give you the most value for taking the time and reading this post. When you’re planning your day and assigning time blocks to each task try to cut that time block in half and see if you accomplish it that way because people are often undervaluing themselves.

Conclusion

These tips, strategies will help you guard your time better because everybody is trying to attempt stealing it, hundred billion dollar business are built based on your time because it is damn precious. You have no idea how precious your time is, way valuable than money and that is a belief shared amongst all of the top billionaires in the world.

_{Photo by Martin Shreder on Unsplash}

If you’re able to save up a couple of minutes, hours using these methods, I advise you to invest the spare time into your hobbies, into starting that business or project you always wanted, but you kept on postponing it. Alternatively, if you have too much free time and don’t know what to do with it, invest it all in Steem because it might pay you back tremendously in the future, start posting and commenting more, engaging with the community and making friends.

Now go out there and dominate your fucking day.