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In my workshops with people from around the world, I always say that to become successful, you must do what successful people do.  One of the obvious themes amongst those who are winning their games in life is that they are able to achieve so much with their days.  How is it that a few seem to achieve an enormous amount of work whilst the majority remain frustrated by their lack of achievement?  Why is it that a few seem to be able to fit in work, family, sports and friends with ease, whilst many fail to even cope on one of these aspects alone? 

An equalling factor amongst us all is that we are all given 24 hours in any given day (though at times you are sure some have 36 hours in their days)

How do these magicians of time achieve what they set out to do?  What is it that they do?

They use the art of effective time management.  Let me share with you six tips to help you become more effective with your time.  Apply these tips and you will see the difference in your results.

Be aware of your time

Successful people are aware of their time.  The question you must first reflect on is: how are you spending your hours?  For the next week, get your diary and note exactly how you are spending your time.  Split your time in segments of 30 minutes using an alarm timer on your watch or mobile phone.  Take notes of what you have done during each period.  You will become aware and amazed as to how you are spending your time.  Once you become consciously aware then you learn to protect your time from being wasted.

Plan in advance

Successful people plan their months, weeks, days and hours in advance.  By planning in advance they save themselves wasting idle time not knowing what to do next.  They reduce the amount of time they spend frustrated and overwhelmed because they simply follow a list of pre-planned events.

80/20 Principle - busy vs. productive

I am always teaching the difference between being busy and being productive.  So many people are caught up being busy.  Being busy is being robbed of your time with no return.  Being productive is utilising your time to achieve your goals.

Most people live under stress.  They are over worked, overwhelmed and feel under rewarded.  This is because they put too much energy into tasks that generate little value towards their desired end result.  In many instances, only 20 per cent of your work is getting 80 per cent of your results.  With that in mind, figure out what 20 per cent of your day to day work gives you 80 per cent of your bottom line.  Focus on that.

Prioritise, eliminate, systemise and delegate

What can I eliminate?  Elimination is fun and yet difficult.  Fun because you will remove the clutter from your life.  Difficult because you will not be used to having so much free time once you correctly apply this method.

What can I systemise? Of the tasks that remain, what can be systemised?  For example, could you have an auto responder setup on your email to confirm the receipt of emails on behalf of you, rather than have you reply to every single one of them?

What can I delegate? What tasks do not require your level of expertise?  What can you delegate that will not be affected if you have someone else do it.  If it is making customer service calls or getting the cleaning done around the house, could you have someone else take care of that whilst you focus on what you do best to achieve maximum results.

What can I prioritise? With the tasks you have left to do, prioritise everything you do and ask yourself what actions you need to take to get the results you desire.  Prioritise them in order and get working on them.  Spend your time working on high value activities before attending to low value activities.

You must ask yourself, what is worth doing?  What can I cut back on?  How can I remove the clutter that is bogging me down?  What should I focus my attention on?  Working on your best 20 per cent should see you increase your results dramatically.

Get the worst out of the way first

It is easy to remain in the cycle of being busy because it is a habit and an easy thing to do so.  The tasks that result in us being productive are the tasks we tend to put off.  If you are fearful of something, or are feeling like you are putting off an important action, then you must do it first.  Get it out of the way.

I remember this incidence when I was working a morning shift at McDonalds.  I resented cleaning and changing the oil vats.  With a grim face, I would mope around, waste as much time as possible, drag out the whole process and really show to every how much I disliked it.  This led to many things not getting done and, as a person who was working towards becoming a shift manager, this action was affecting me in a negative way.  The branch manager simply told me, “This is something that needs to be done.  If you don’t like it, simply get it out the way quickly to get to what you enjoy doing.”  I have found this advice to apply in every aspect of life.

Drop your excuses

Be true to yourself.  Ask yourself, “to achieve what my heart desires, am I taking the actions that I need to be taking?”  If you are not, you can make an active stance and do something about it.  You already know people who achieve so much in the same 24 hours that you live.  The proof is already there.  Successful people take action.  Use the knowledge to start achieving more.

So, in closing, remember to be assertive with your time.  Respect your time for others to respect it.  Protect your time for others to protect it.  Do what only really matters.

Do the above and you will be well on you way to achieving more in your life.  Here is to you, winning your game in life.

Kevin Abdulrahman is the author of the book Winning The Game Of Life.