If there is one unique thing that sets apart world-class leaders and business professionals, they can create time. Yes, you read it right. It is not like they have got a timing generator or something of that sort. It is simply because they are better able when it comes to time management. Time is one such resource that is always scarce, and it requires a great deal of effort to have some control over your time. Often, even the best in the world get overwhelmed with less time and more work. Learning to ace your work with limited time in hand is like managing an agitated horse. All the great leaders and world-class titans have always managed to take time for their personal growth and learning. It is considered to be the safest and the most lucrative investment by most successful people out there. It is often difficult to gain control over the busy schedule and take time for learning.
Time is not something you can “stock up on” for yourself. If you waste it, you will never get it back. Major organizations lose their productivity and business only because they spend resources on getting the most of the existing workforce. They focus on juicing every bit of the time and energy of their employees. Instead of building on the existing resources and training the workforce, organizations focus on swamping the employees with work. In the article below, we will focus on how you can keep learning and update your skillsets by taking time from your busy schedule.
Importance of continuous learning
I don’t know if there is even a need to put it out there that continuous learning is important for your growth and development. Like nutritious food is indispensable for your physical growth, a constant flow of information is important for our mental growth. Heraclitus rightly said, “The only thing that is constant is change.” It holds right now more than any other time. COVID has taught us how all the planning and predictions can fall flat. The only way of dealing with constant change is continuous learning. The following are some reasons why you should totally never stop learning:
1. Staying Relevant
To stay relevant in this technology-driven fast-paced world, you need to update your knowledge constantly. Learn new things that can help you expand your skillset. This way, you won’t be left behind. You will be able to be on top of things with the ever-changing climate. If you fail to keep yourself updated, you won’t be valuable and lose all of your relevance.
2. Add feathers to your hat
Let’s say you are doing certifications of new courses now and then. You automatically beg the certificate and related accolade. You learn the skills that can help you do your job in a better way. This will further make you get endorsements from your colleague and bosses.
3. Keep the fire kindling
When you expose yourself to new ideas regularly, your mind also functions without limits. It helps you think out of the box in innovative ways to a given problem.
4. Brace for unforeseeable future
The habit of learning helps you adapt to unexpected situations. For example, if you lose your job, it would not be much of a difficult task to stay ahead of things and get a new one for yourself (maybe for better). Also, people in the constant habit of learning do not like to stay in their comfort zone. They crave new opportunities.
5. Gives you fresh perspective
Continuous learning helps you change your attitude as well as perspective towards a lot of things. When you learn new things and ideas, the better you can see sides of things that others often happen to miss.
How to take time out for learning
Write down your goals
This one is a little cliched and something that most of us probably have heard of. The simple physical act of jotting down your goals (preferably on a physical paper) makes the goal tangible. Often, we set goals do not realize that the goals that we set in our heads are not rooted in reality, and some parts are intangible. It makes us wonder at places that are not directly related to our goals and waste our time. Our goals have voids that we often fail to see in our heads. Therefore, it is of utmost importance to write your goals down so that you are left with no excuse for not paying due diligence and not waste time.
Focus on Energy Management before Time Management
Energy management forces you to think of the work and plan, keeping the energy investment in mind instead of time management, where time is at the center of everything. Energy Management is about working with high intensity in a short period of time. It helps you accomplish tasks which you’d take days to complete if you are tired or distracted. Therefore, it is important to take a rest and conserve energy. It is really cool to think that you can work for 7-8 hours at a stretch. But it is impossible to work continuously for hours and produce high-quality work, especially when on a deadline.
It is essential to take a downtime and unwind. It is essential to take a break, think creatively, and work effectively. Although it can be a little hard to take a break when in the flow of work, you can set the alarm or schedule a break right in the beginning. You can do anything in break time, go on a walk, have a cup of coffee, or sit and practice deep breathing.
Follow the 2 mins. rule
Never put off a piece of work that can be dealt with in just two minutes or less. Write and send that email, make that call, update your colleagues but do not let these things pile up. If you have a pile of work on your desk, pick up the work that takes exceptionally low time. If you complete it right away, you save a great deal of time returning at it later. Or you will have to schedule those tasks for another time.
Schedule wisely
It would be best if you found your rhythm. Some are morning people and wake up with a blast of energy. Others feel a sudden surge of energy when the sun starts to set. You need to know what suits you the best. Accordingly, make a plan and schedule things based on that. This way, you will be able to schedule the most important or gratifying work in your peak hours and other important stuff that is not that important for the other part.
Create your own deadlines
We are aware that we often tend to procrastinate a lot. When we are given a project, we think of the latest possible time to start the work. Instead, if you start imposing deadlines on your own self, you will be amazed to see the results.
If you abide by the deadline, you will note your progress with time and eventually be more productive. It also nudges you to complete work in time and not falling for the trap of thinking “it can be done later.”
Turn off your notification
According to a study, most people get interrupted by their colleagues turning up at their table almost every hour. Over the top of it, “Digital Distraction” is a no joke. It would help if you made it a point to turn off all your notifications from your personal emails and social networks. Try not to open your browser or touch your phone. Once you do all this, you will see a significant change in yourself towards being more productive.
Pick work wisely
Never waste your time doing things that you do not intend to be excellent at. If you happen to stumble at such a piece of work, try and delegate it to someone else. Finally, when you find something that can help you master something, make sure you gather the right skills and make it happen.
Most people make mistakes when they overestimate their potential. They take up voluntary projects and tasks without paying heed because they already have their hands full. From a distance, it may seem right that you are taking the initiative and taking up tasks while pleasing people by not saying ‘no.’ This can sometimes fall back on the person.
It is just impossible to do everything at once and please all the people out there. It is important to protect your rights if all it takes from you is to say “NO” wherever necessary. When you know that you have to say ‘No’ to someone, find common ground where you both can have a win-win.
Stop multitasking
There have been multiple pieces of research in place, proving that humans can not multi-task well. Albeit, we boast about this particular skill of multitasking a lot in our job interviews, but the truth is we are never good at true multi-tasking.
A plethora of research on this matter suggests that by focusing on just one thing alone, you will be able to siphon all your energy to that one task. You will be shocked to see how much work you can get done each day, the increase in the quality of output you are generating, and how well you can communicate overall.
Have a Mentor
A lot of people fail to see the need to have a mentor in their lives. Here is an analogy to explain why you should have a mentor. Having a mentor is like a cup of coffee that you have first thing in the morning. You know you will eventually wake up, but your coffee lets you hit the stride much faster. From my personal experience, having a mentor will help you learn much more and gain multiple learning opportunities than you would otherwise.
For example, a mentor can introduce you to a colleague who has an internship opportunity. In any other situation, that particular internship would have been a long shot. To sum up, a mentor can accelerate your growth and your journey on your career path.
Remember the 80/20 principle
This rule states that most of your outputs/ rewards come from a small number of inputs. It is about being smart about choosing the right input that fetches the maximum output. You need to constantly focus on minimizing the relatively less productive 80 percent of the inputs. Practically, you are not supposed to cut off everything that is not highly rewarding. Some things need to be done regardless of how trivial they are. This principle should highlight the areas that contribute little, and hence you can evaluate and strike them off. Here are a few suggestions:
- Cut all the technological distractions like checking your WhatsApp (and other social media notification) and emails now and then. Instead, focus on the projects that you are currently working on. You can check your email in a fixed dedicated time slot in your low productivity hours.
- Learn to say no to people if you have things on your own plate. It is essential to realize and understand what the other person is asking from you. Suppose you think that the other person will not contribute any value to you against your commitment. Probably it is best to say NO.
- Instead of focusing on the core concepts, we often get engrossed with minor details and insignificant aspects. It is essential to study things from a 1000 ft view and then make the decision whether knowing about it in greater detail will help or not.
Parkinson’s Law
Parkinson’s law says that “work will automatically expand to fill the time that is available for its completion.” This one thing is a big downside of solely focusing on working and not getting things off your list. You must focus and pay attention to finishing the projects you have on your plate. Give yourself a strict timeline to follow and get done with the work in hand. It is also important to develop and cultivate the desire to strike off things from your to-do list.