Getting anything done these days is becoming harder and harder. You have information coming at you from every direction and at times it is hard to decipher what is what and which way to go. One of the best things you can do is slow yourself down, and manage your time into a schedule that fits YOU … not your work.
There are so many ‘schemes’ to do put your life in-order, so I do not want to give you more. Instead, here are two general themes to follow for making your life more manageable. One way is the 40-30-30 rule, the other way is a strict scheduling method. Let me tell you about the 40-30-30 rule first.
40-30-30: The idea is simple: in anything you do 40% is physical and the rest is all mental. Out of that remaining 60%, 30% is experience while the remaining 30% is the willingness to take risks. Now believe it or not, most people are not risk takers. Even those who take ‘risks’ as we know it almost always stay inside their comfort zone and usually never leave. This means that in most of what you do today, 40% will be menial physical (or mental) work and 60% you’ll be running on automatic and not taking risks? Why? Because risks are scary!
And they should be. Risk is change, risk is dangerous! All true, though risk can also be good as it usually is (to a extent of course). Thus, I promise to you that you follow the 40-30-30 rule and change your life. Everyday, set aside a portion of your time to leave your comfort zone. 
Try something new, start a new venture, or even finish something you’ve been meaning to do but never did. The last ones is worth repeating: finish something you have been meaning to [finish] but never did. This is here because a plethora of people procrastinate about … well, a lot of things. There are many reasons why they procrastinate, but it mostly comes down to them being more “comfortable” not doing it. Following 40-30-30, you’ll have little choice but to motivate your butt off the seat and into doing even a little bit of work.
Basic Time Management: Time management is an issue which plagues us all. Whether you have making $7.50 at the local Walmart or $10million at the local bank, time management appear in your life in one form or another. There are lots and lots of books, articles, videos and training material about time management, heck there are even companies whose sole purpose is to time manage, so I’m not going to give you the A-Z’s here. To get going with YOUR life you need to only know the basic math of it all. The 1+1=2 type stuff.
First and foremost: Don’t Panic! Once you start worrying about every little thing, that is when things go wrong. Take some time out to think and collect your thoughts. Only then can you start.
Pick one day and time (I suggest Monday morning) to schedule you’re week/month. To start things off, do not become a Scheduling Czar. Set goals which you want to accomplish during that week, like a todo list.
From there, pick only a few tasks to schedule. Don’t start big. For these tasks, a subset of the ones you picked Monday morning, schedule a specific time and date to do them. For example, if mowing the lawn is a weekly thing and you work all week schedule mowing the lawn for Saturday morning. And always, with few exceptions, mow the lawn then.
That last part is the key! “Always, with few exceptions“. The point here is to make a schedule and stick to it. Yes, some people will be angry at you, yell at you, you might loose out on some things. As Tim Ferris at the Four Hour Work Week points out on his post “The Art Of Letting Bad Things Happen“:
It’s not that I go out of my way to irritate people — not at all — but I recognize one critical fact: oftentimes, in order to do the big things, you have to let the small bad things happen. This is a skill we want to cultivate.
Maybe mowing the lawn isn’t the best example, but the point is don’t get bother with other ‘things’ (assuming they are minor) if what you are doing now will moving you forward in life.
You also don’t have to schedule the big things at first, as I stated earlier, start small. Mowing the lawn, a planned date, even ‘schedule’ the time you are at work or in class. It’s a start. From there, schedule around those important things.
THIS IS KEY AT THIS STEP: If you can’t make your schedule ‘fit’, don’t worry. That is the beauty of starting out. If for example you planned to mow the lawn on Saturday morning, but you instead spent time with the kids … then no worries. Move it to a better time, or just do it as soon as you have a free slot in your schedule. NO BIG DEAL!
Strict Scheduling: This is a bit harder to do. Why? Because you will really annoy people with this, and it’s easy to get distracted. But, by using a very fixed schedule you will have time for whatever you need to get done. You’re days will be planned and you will know what, where, when and why.
In the article on the I Will Teach You To Be Rich blog, the writer is doing more tasks in one day than many of us do in a week and yet has time to be ‘free’ and playing by 5:30pm EACH DAY! Why? Because he scheduled everything into an appropriate time. Most importantly: HE NEVER DEVIATED FROM THE SCHEDULE … EVER!
He mentions in the article, that yes. It did really bother people. In this fast paced world people are used to getting a e-mail response from you ‘now’, but think of it this way: You live your life, not them. Work on your own time table and get things done your way so that you can have a peaceful life. Don’t check your e-mail every 5 minutes, or chat and facebook whenever you can just so you can be “available”. The idea is to be happy, but if you’re stressed out because of too little time, then it’s time to schedule your life tightly.
Here are some other quality reading materials about the subjects:
http://lifehacker.com/5409346/the-403030-rule-preps-you-for-the-game-of-life
http://the99percent.com/tips/6103/the-40-30-30-rule-why-risk-is-worth-it
http://lifehacker.com/5409165/lock-in-a-fixed-schedule-to-keep-work+life-balance
http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2009/11/19/the-403030-rule/
What are your thoughts about this? Let me know in the comments below!
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{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
I don’t agree with the idea that having a locked-in schedule will save your career. In fact, many successful entrepreneurs have argued that their ability to be flexible and constantly adapting to changing situations is what kept them afloat in difficult times and helped them persevere.
Nevertheless, you managed to save the entire article with this: “Work on your own time table and get things done your way.” This little gem you tucked away towards the end of the article should be an essay all on its own.