Guess What? You are Getting Older by the Day! (Time Management Techniques)

Few days ago, I stumbled on a cassette containing the message I preached in the early 2000s. I looked at my picture on the cover of the cassette and was shocked. “You mean this was me?” I looked at my hair then and now and wondered what happened to my hair. I was so young that I can’t understand what happened overnight. That was when the topic of todays discussion popped up on my mind.

I discovered few years ago that some people grow old but still behave like teenagers. Nigerian median age is 17.9 years. Close to 80 million Nigerians are below 20 years old. Most of the people who banter and spend a whole day on social media are below 20 years old. The danger is that some of them may never grow up. Some of them will be 40 years old and still think and behave like 17 years old because they failed to make the jump from youth to adult.

That is why people sit comfortably on various streets discussing irrelevant topics by 11AM. That is why an adult will pay you a visit by 8AM for the sake of unimportant bantering and chatting. That is why a lot of people grow old and still depend on their aged parents. They still get angry that their mother or father did not give them the money they requested. I am talking about 30 years old men and women.

While you are going from prophet to seers looking for who vowed to kill you, time is ticking. While you are going from one deliverance to another believing that poverty can be cast out, time is ticking. While you are idling away in the church daily, time is ticking. While you are playing around, time is ticking.

Tomorrow, the Enemy of Success

Many books that would have been transforming lives today were killed by tomorrow. Many inventions that would have made life easy for humanity are buried at the cemetery because of the advice of tomorrow. Many potential political leaders died unknown because they made tomorrow their number one adviser.

What do I mean?

I mean, the popular phrase known as “I will do it tomorrow.” When will you write your book? I will write it someday. When will you go to the studio to produce your album? I will start tomorrow. When will you get married? I will do something about it from tomorrow. When will you aspire for political leadership considering your leadership capacity? Maybe next year.

You must understand that we have just one day in this life. That day is called today! Guess what? Today is the tomorrow you talked about yesterday! Your actions today will determine how your future will become.

In my book, Twelve Pillars of Financial Success, I stated that the major capital God gives to everyone who is alive on earth right now is time. Everybody gets equal share of time daily. The same 24 hours God gave to beggars today is what He also gave to billionaires like Mike Adenuga and Peter Obi. How each person manages his own share will determine his rating.

If you sleep for 12 hours every day, it simply means that half of your entire lifetime was buried on your bed. If you watch television for 6 hours daily, it simply means that you spend 2,190 hours out of your own annual share of 8,760 hours watching television. That is why you may never be rich.

If you want to know why people are poor, just check their time management skill. There is perhaps no area of your life in which self-discipline is more important than in the way you manage your time. Time management is a core discipline that largely determines the quality of your life.

Time Management is the Accurate Management of Your Life.

It is the management of your life rather than of time or circumstances. Time is perishable. Time cannot be saved. Time is irreplaceable. Time is irretrievable. Once it is gone or wasted, you can never get it back. Time is indispensable, especially for accomplishment of any kind.

All achievement, all results, all success requires time. The fact is that you cannot save time; you can only spend it differently. You can only reallocate your time usage from areas of low value to areas of high value.

Time Management is the Ability to Choose the Sequence of Events.

By exerting your self-discipline with regard to time, you can choose what to do first, second, and not at all. And you are always free to choose. You require tremendous self-discipline to overcome the procrastination and delay that holds most people back from great success. That’s why a great man said that, “Procrastination is the thief of dreams.”

Some things you do are five times and even ten times more valuable than other things, even though they take the same number of minutes and hours. The most important things you do, the top 20 percent are usually big, difficult and daunting.

In contrast, the 80 percent of things you do that make little or no difference are usually fun, easy, and enjoyable. You can tell the value that something has to you by the amount of your time you invest in it.

The essence of time management is for you to discipline yourself to set clear priorities and then stick to those priorities. You must consciously and deliberately select the most valuable and important thing that you could be doing at any given time, and then discipline yourself to work solely on that task.

What are the Consequences?

One of the most important words in developing the discipline of time management is “consequences.” Something is more important to the degree that it has serious potential consequences for completion or non-completion. A task or activity is unimportant to the degree that it does not matter if it is done or not.

Apply the 80/20 Principle.

To properly plan the day, divide your task using the 80/20 strategy. It simply means that 20 percent of your daily activities will generate 80 percent of your income or profit; while 80 percent of what you do daily generate 20 percent of your income. So, a wise planner will find the top 20 percent of his daily activities and focus on them first.

Let’s assume that there are ten things on your list. Two to three of them should be the most important activities of the day. Once you get to the office in the morning, channel all your energy to those first three activities no matter the distractions. Don’t do others until you finish the top three. If you have staff, you can even delegate the rest to them and stay with what matters most.

Once you have begun work on your most important task, you must discipline yourself to concentrate single-mindedly, with one hundred percent of your time and attention, until that task is completed.

It takes tremendous self-discipline to select your most important task and then to start on that task rather than doing something else. But once you begin to work on it, you will start to feel a flow of energy that motivates and propels you to keep doing it.

Time Management Techniques.

There is a simple time management system that you can use to overcome procrastination. It requires self-discipline, willpower and personal organization. Before you begin each day, start by making a list of everything you will do that day.

I am sure you’ll like to learn the right Time Management Techniques in order to succeed in your profession.

So, sign up for our Productivity Strategies Coaching right away. For more information, chat with me on WhatsApp or Telegram right now via 08064143363.