Ways to free your time

You have heard a lot of people telling you on how to be productive, like speed up tasks, multi-task, disregard distractions or being efficient. Here’s my two cents worth on what works for me big time :

1.       One goal at a time

Many of you, like me, have a lot of goals at a time. We think of many things that we want to do and our numerous ambitions that we’d like to get accomplished. If you are like me, I’m the kind of person who thinks I lack time in doing all that I want to do. And now that I’m nearing the dreaded 3-0, I’d like to them all. BUT.. gurus say that we have to drop one of our goals or put them aside for later. We have to focus on one goal at a time so we can accomplish lots. I don’t know about you but I definitely agree on this.

2.       Do you really want COMMITMENT?

I’m not saying this because I don’t want to commit. I just don’t want to get myself tied up to something that I may not be interested in in a few weeks, months or years. I say this, drop a commitment if this is the case! Its better to drop it than be forced to do it and do it without passion.

3.       Trust and delegate

Yes, I know the feeling of being a perfectionist that you’re forgetting to delegate. In formal terms, this is autocratic leadership. But recently, I’ve learned that if you do not learn to trust, you’ll be sorry in the end. Delegate the ones that are time-consuming but can be done by an associate. Then you can spend your time in other important tasks.

4.       Just say NO

Many of us have this tendency in saying YES to everything, whether it be a commitment, a function, an event, a project or a task. What we don’t know is that these “little” things turn out to be tedious and require a lot of our time and energy. Also, if you keep saying YES, its more likely that you end up with less free time and less quality time for your family or for yourself.

5.       Be happy

You have to be happy before you can make yourself successful. Do things that make you happy and not forced activities. Do otherwise, and you’ll end up being stressed and drained without accomplishing much.

So, what can you do today to free up your time?