If you want some tips on how to steal time and gain an extra 1.5 hours out of each and every day, read on…..
Let’s look at some of the best ways to make the most out of the time that you have. If you follow the following rules, you will have plenty of extra time on your hands at the end of the day.
How To Steal Time
Get Up Early
Studies have proven that successful people get up early. There seems to be a direct relationship between how early executives rise and how far they go up the corporate ladder.
Getting up early and using that extra, undisturbed time well is the single most important thing you can do to get a step up on everyone else who is trying to climb the same ladder.
An hour’s worth of productivity early in the morning is usually worth two hours of afternoon or evening work.
Navigate Your Phone Conversations
Phone conversations can be wasteful and emotionally draining. Although they are a necessary part of doing business for most people, they should be managed carefully and you should aim to keep your phone calls down to less than 30 minutes a day. This is one of the best ways I can recommend on how to steal time.
Except for emergencies, I make all my phone calls once a day. You can do this by informing callers (either through a voice mail or your personal assistant) that you return phone calls at a certain (specified) hour. Stick to that. By bunching the calls together, you will be much better at keeping them short.
Whenever possible head off a lengthy phone conversation by sending out a preliminary email outlining what needs to be discussed. Sometimes this even eliminates the need to speak in person.
Take Control Of Your Email
On a typical day, I can get up to 100 work-related emails, some of which have documents attached. I do this a lot quicker than I used to.
I read and answer emails only twice a day and I never read them until I’ve accomplished at least one important thing on my task list.
Another thing that helps cut downtime is never getting involved in email conversations/arguments between people. In most cases I let them discuss it between themselves and try not to get involved.
Reduce The Amount Of Time You Spend On Personal Maintenance
This one might not be a popular choice for you, but you can save 30 to 45 minutes a day by spending less time on the following:
Coffee and/or smoke breaks. These are classic time wasters. If you care about your health, you shouldn’t be smoking at all or drinking more than about two to three cups of coffee a day.
To save time, drink your coffee at your desk and cut out those cigarettes completely.
Personal phone calls and emails. Do your socializing after work hours. If you must handle a personal phone call or email keep it short. Don’t spend more than a minute or two on it. There is no reason to spend time on personal correspondence during your working hours.
Interruptions. When people walk into your office to have a chat, smile and ask them when they’d like to schedule an appointment ‘to talk about it’ and how many minutes you think they will require.
If you do this a few times, interruptions will slow down to a trickle.
Learn To Say No
For me this is was and still is one of the most difficult tasks. It has taken me a long time to learn to say no, and I still haven’t perfected this art yet.
You can’t expect to find and keep extra time in your life if you continue to fill up the time you have doing work that accomplished other people’s goals.
The next time someone asks you to do something, ask yourself ‘is this a job that advances my goals?’ If the answer is not, try to see if there is any benefit you get from doing the job. If there are none, figure out what the best way to say ‘no’ is and do it.
Now that you have all this extra time that you have stolen, you can take that time to make your life exactly what it should be – your own!
Please comment below if you have any other ideas on how to steal time.
