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How to control your time and life

As a consultant in time planning and life goals, I have created a new system, which is helping millions of people to use every minute of their lives more effectively immediately-in order to better control their lives.

Why learn to control time (1)

Time is life, irreversible and irreplaceable. To waste time is to waste life, and once you grasp time well, you can control your life and exert its value to the extreme.

I am not an expert in the organization of Time and Action. I'm not telling people how to reduce unnecessary actions, complete the work at hand in the shortest time and the most meticulous process, so as to minimize those unnecessary actions. Doing so means that you must carefully consider each action in advance and then simplify it into a series of mechanical behaviors. This will only make your life boring. It can even be said that this extreme behavior of "watching your watch" will make every activity of human beings boring, because there is no need to think at all.

In contrast, the system I created encourages people to think more about their behavior. If you follow my advice, you may start to think more about how to use your time. You don't have to work so hard. You can also do more things you have long wanted to do and enjoy life better.

So never call me an efficiency expert. What I care about is efficiency. An efficient person will choose the most important task from all possible tasks and complete it in the most effective way. On how to use time, it is more important to make the right choice than to finish the work at hand faster and better. Efficiency is a good thing in itself. But in my opinion, efficiency is far more important than benefit.

Some of the techniques I talked about in the book may surprise you. For example, suppose you have to go to the dentist in ten minutes. If you are like most people, you may try to kill someone this time. But I can tell you how to use these ten minutes to start a job you have been putting off-such as redecorating your house or analyzing your production cost. At the same time, I will help you completely get rid of the habit of procrastination and maintain high morale throughout the work until the work is completed.

In this book, you will learn some experiences of my clients, my family and myself in using these skills. You will see that my system is not as rigid, mechanical and inflexible as many people think. Not at all! In fact, you will find these techniques very interesting and you will be happy to try to apply them. These techniques will bring you immediate results, and this effect will last forever.

My system has successfully helped many people, such as A.T. &; T., BankofAmerica, IBM, Lever Brothers, StandardOilCompanyofCalifornia, etc. It has also helped many regional organizations and federal agencies. Those who are busy all day, for example, singer NeilDiamond, feminist and writer GloriaSteinem, designer MiltonGlaser, executive director of Sierra Club, WilliamBall, commander-in-chief of American Conservatory of Music, MikeMurphy, president of Esalen, and MichaelButler, producer of Hair, etc. And thousands of executives, professionals, entrepreneurs, housewives, students, all of them.

I have full confidence in my system, because it has successfully helped me control my life. Belief can also help you control your life and get what you really want from it. I don't need to teach you how to become the president of your company, or help you better coordinate the conflict between your professional role and your family role. Of course, you can achieve these goals through this system-if they are really your goals. But this system can also help you become a more efficient college student, chess player, candle maker or international athlete. Everything depends entirely on you.

Also: there is no such thing as "no time" in this world. If you are like many people, you are too busy to finish your work, please remember that there are many people in this world who are busier than you, but as a result, they have finished more work. These people have less time than you. They have just learned to make better use of their time! Using time effectively is a skill that everyone can master-just like driving a car, in this book, I provide you with all the tools you need to master this skill. I'll show you a set of reasonable and practical methods to help you master time better, instead of being a slave to time, so that you can achieve your goals in life.

In a word, nothing in this world is more important to you than time. Everyone has the same time. Each of us only has 168 hours a week. I can't give you any more time But I can help you use your time more effectively.

When you have to face two conflicting goals and make a decision, remember that you can adjust your priorities at any time. You just need to write your goals on paper, not on marble.

If you don't want to give one goal (such as going back to school) a higher priority, or give another goal (such as spending more time with your family) a lower priority, then you can consider putting both goals in the same important position. Even if you spend two hours more on one goal than the other, you can still tell yourself that the two goals are in the same position. Even if two goals contradict each other or need to be completed in the same time period, you can calmly give up one of them-only temporarily, of course. Wait until next week, or next year, you can choose to pay more attention to this goal.

You must face this challenge. You must determine what is really important and set your priorities accordingly. In order to filter these goals, I suggest you use the list of three goals you have prepared.

How to sort

Take out your list of life goals and choose the three most important life goals in one minute. List the most important of these three goals as-1. The second most important column is A-2. Followed by a-3. Do the same screening in the three-year goal list and the half-year goal list.

So far, you have selected nine goals from three lists. In order to further select the three most important goals, you need to take out a clean piece of paper and write on it: "My three most important long-term goals are ..." Then write down these three goals in turn: A- 1, A-2 and A-3.

Well, now that you have finished the preliminary statement of your life goals, you have also roughly defined what you want from life.

When receiving individual clients, I often spend a lot of time discussing their life goal statements with them. This kind of discussion may last about two weeks, and we usually revise it six or seven times before we can finally write a life goal that truly represents the needs of customers. You can also try to revise your life goals repeatedly, and you will find it really helpful.

Just as a professional photographer will shoot a shot repeatedly until the ideal effect is achieved, you can also achieve the clearest effect by repeatedly modifying your life goals. So I suggest you repeat today's exercise tomorrow and compare the two results. I can assure you that you will never get exactly the same result, and you will probably add some new information in the second revision. This is how the human brain works.

Since the statement of life goals is not immutable, it should be updated in stages. The best time to reassess your goal statement every year is your birthday. Even if you set yourself a great goal list last year, the situation will be different this year, so last year's goal list may not necessarily represent your goal idea this year. As you grow up, your goal list should be updated in time.

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* Chapter 6 begins now.

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Don't be afraid to list some activities for fear of taking responsibility. No one will force you to carry out the contents of the list. When setting priorities, we can judge whether to implement an activity according to the time and energy required for each activity. But even those seemingly impossible dreams may help you.

Plan well.

Life goal statement exercises can help you see your ideal future more clearly, thus helping you bring the future to the present. The second job of time planning can help you decide what specific actions to take to achieve your long-term goals.

In order to make long-term planning and goal setting, you must first make a series of short-term planning, which requires you to determine some specific activities. You can complete an activity. And these activities are the steps in the process of achieving your goals. For example, your goal is financial security. To achieve this goal, you can choose to deposit $65,438+00 every day, or you can discuss your investment plan with your investment adviser. These are the concrete actions you have taken to achieve your goals.

Once you plan your short-term and long-term goals, your goals and activities will fit well. Most (if not all) activities in short-term planning will help you realize your long-term planning.

How to list activities according to your A-level goals (1)

If you want to achieve some abstract goals, such as happiness, success or financial independence, you may need to take many different actions. For example, if you want to have a good night, I can assure you that there are at least 25 or 50 ways to achieve this goal (without making you fat or doing anything illegal). This is true for any goal, no matter how big or small it is.

In order to determine what actions you should take to achieve your A-level goals, you must (1) list all possible activities for each A-level goal; (2) Establish the corresponding priority order so as to select the most effective activity at present.

When listing activities, we must try our best to expand our imagination. Write as many answers as possible as soon as possible-this is the best way to use your imagination. It can give full play to your intuition. Not only that, you may have new ideas when you are under great pressure. Speed makes you unconsciously break through those self-restraint factors-because they don't even have time to work. In the process of listing activities, a key factor is to keep writing. Never let the pen tip leave the paper, or you are wasting your time.

Don't try to make any comments on your ideas. You are not responsible for anyone on the list. If you want to hide something, you are deceiving yourself. Never label any activity as "good", "bad" or "frivolous"-at least don't evaluate it when enumerating. Remember, when you revise these decisions later, you can completely delete those unimportant activities.

And don't limit yourself by worrying that you can't finish an activity. Because after careful analysis, you are likely to find that those activities that seem difficult to complete at first glance are actually not that difficult. In any case, don't make any judgment when making a list.

If you feel that there is nothing to list, you can try to repeat the previous exercises, such as modifying the contents listed above, adding new information, expanding, supplementing the contents, adding details and so on. The key is to keep writing.

Suppose your goal is to become a professional climber. You can list all the peaks you want to climb, including those that seem impossible, such as Mount Everest. Maybe you just want to conquer the peaks in North America? Maybe European-Asian? You can break down these activities by category, and then break them down further … until they are broken down into the most specific activities. The key is to keep writing.

Although I encourage you to list as many activities as possible without thinking, I also want to remind you: never confuse goals with activities. Remember, activities are concrete actions that can be carried out. Your goal may be to live a healthier life. Specific activities may include: no dessert tonight, exercise three times this week, and no smoking for 24 hours.

All right, you can make a list. Take out three blank sheets of paper and write down the three A-level goals selected in front of you on three sheets of paper. We will break down your goal into some executable activities. Keep in mind the above suggestions and list as many activities as possible that will help achieve the first A-level goal within three minutes. Then list the corresponding activities of the other two A-level goals in the same way. Then you can go back and everyone can spend at least three minutes to modify the contents of each list-you can add new activities, delete some items, integrate some items together, and even propose some new activities.

Let's take a high school student as an example. His goal is to become a professional softball player, which is his A-level goal. But he also wants to go to college, which is another A-level goal. And his third A-level goal is even more urgent: he wants to be the main pitcher of the college softball team. Obviously, the third goal is the most urgent. In order to achieve this goal, he must keep in shape all winter, run a mile every day and go to the gym three times a week. Only in this way can he get ready when spring comes. In order to be admitted to the softball team of the university he applied for (such as the University of Southern California, where the softball team is the best), he must study hard. Besides, he will take an important math exam this week. In addition, it is also an A-level activity for him to try his best to play this Champions League.

Another typical example comes from a woman who started working again. Her three children have gone to school, and she has begun to have some free time. She has been married for twelve years. Before getting married, she was a nurse. In order to achieve her A-level goal (to start work again), she must complete a series of A-level activities: attend some necessary courses, learn about the latest progress in the medical and nursing industry, communicate with other nurses, ensure that she has all the conditions to return to work, and constantly look for opportunities that meet her conditions.

I once met a college student who was about to graduate. His long-term goal is to have a good salary and live a happy life. But he must first achieve a relatively short goal: to choose a suitable career. To do this, he must first find a job. Therefore, the A-level activities he needs to complete at present include: deciding which industry he needs to know, communicating with employees in industries he is interested in, preparing resumes, preparing cover letters, choosing from numerous career opportunities, and arranging time for interviews.

How to list activities according to your high-level goals (2)

One of my clients always feels that he has wasted too much time. He told me, "I don't like my present job. I am an insurance salesman, but what I really like is doing public relations. I am busy looking for opportunities every day. Every time I have coffee or lunch, I am busy with my contacts and tell them that I want to work in the public relations industry. "

But I found that in the past two months, he only talked to five people. In other words, although he is busy looking for new opportunities every day, the scope of his search is still limited to a very small circle. In other words, he has not made any new progress. In fact, common sense tells us that if you want to find a job in a highly competitive industry like public relations, job seekers should contact at least 50 people every month. When he finds that the people he just met won't give him any help, he should try to meet more people-this should be his A-level activity at this time.

Delete those unimportant jobs.

When you carefully list all possible A-level activities, you will find that you have too many things to do, but your time is far from enough. At this time, you should prioritize your activities: if you need to create and imagine when listing activities, you need to completely return to reality now. To do this, you first need to find out those unimportant activities and stop them immediately.

Pick up the list of activities you just listed, carefully analyze each activity and ask yourself: Should I spend at least five minutes on this activity in the next seven days (of course, some activities may not take that long)? If your answer is "no", I suggest you cancel this activity immediately.

When you tick off an activity, you don't have to give a specific reason: you may just don't like it, or you may not get the necessary help, or you think it is too difficult, or you are too busy ... whatever the reason, as long as you feel that you can't invest the necessary time in an activity, you can immediately write it off.

If you finally find that you have checked almost all the activities, I suggest you start from the beginning and re-list four activities that you think are meaningful or that you are willing to invest your time in.

Don't be reluctant to delete something just because it is important (such as finding a new job). If you don't want to deal with it now, tick it off at once-after all, you can wait until next week to arrange it-don't let your work pile up.

After modifying three A-level activity lists, you can summarize the results of the three lists into one task list. This list may contain more than a dozen activities, all of which are important to you, and you are willing to invest time in completing them in the next week. Next, you should start setting priorities for all activities. Write A- 1 after the most important activity, and write A-2, A-3 and A-4 after other activities. After determining the order, you can determine the deadline of each activity and start to arrange the specific time to complete the activity. When arranging time, you must carefully consider when you must be assigned to a new task. If you have to set aside three days a week to go to night school, there are actually only two nights at your disposal on the working day. Suppose your task now is to have dinner with friends. What day are you going to arrange? If your task is to start reading War and Peace, when are you going to start? Is it on the way to work by car? Once a decision is made, record it immediately.

Pick a priority and do it right away!

How can I get closer to my life goals? Every day is a new opportunity. From now on, choose at least one of your A-level activities and do it immediately. You will find yourself one step closer to your goal in life easily.

When you first choose A-level activities, you must pay attention to those that are relatively short and easy to achieve. If you choose a more difficult activity, I suggest you break it down into smaller parts, and then start with the simplest part, or the part that involves the least problems, or the part that you value most.

Once you choose an activity, the focus of your day will be clear. In the next 16 hour or so, you can always find a few minutes to get yourself closer to your life goal. Let's start now!

Chapter five and this chapter are the most basic and important parts of time management. I have listed the main contents of these two chapters here to help readers review: (1) List possible long-term goals; (2) Start work immediately, determine the priority of the target and confirm the A-level target; (3) list the activities that may be needed to achieve the A-level goal; (4) Establish the priority of activities and determine A-level activities; (5) Arrange the specific timetable for completing the A-level activities; (6) Complete the corresponding activities according to the schedule.

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* Chapter VII The Role of Timetable

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You still need time to complete routine tasks: getting up, reading newspapers, checking emails, attending regular work meetings, keeping the office area clean and tidy, watching TV, washing dishes, driving the children ... The number of these tasks depends entirely on your position in your organization, family and social circle.

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