Time Management – How To Get More Time In A Day

By The Investor Today

Yes I realize that in writing this, the title is a physical impossibility. However, there certainly are ways to get more of what you actually want done in a day. Most people I know tell me how they are often too busy to do just about anything. I find it ironic that the amount of projects they actually manage is either minimal or none at all. Yet somehow, they are overwhelming frustrated and short on time to do the things that they really want. The problem is not usually due to an actual lack of time but in the organizing of priorities.

The truth of it all is that I have yet to meet anyone who is overwhelming busy for any other reason than chasing the almighty dollar, whether directly or indirectly. In order to get more time, we must find simpler and more efficient ways to generate money without working around the clock. As usual, this time management article turns into another article about your personal financial quest.

If you are not yet familiar with Robert Kiyosaki’s cash flow principles, the key to getting out of the rat race is to generate passive cash flow while working less and not more. Although things like overtime bring you more money today, you’ll always be tied to that job to earn what you want. Once the money is spent, you’ll have to go back to the grind again and again in order to secure your next pay check. This is hardly any different than when your parents used to hold an allowance above your head.

Are you ready to move past just getting an allowance? How does building a fortune sound instead?

Step 1 – Get Clear in What You Want

Yes, here it is again. It is another lecture about goals.

When you have clear concise goals you move towards things that bring you what you want. For instance, a good goal as it relates to time management might be to make $20,000 more than last year while working 10 hours per week less. I’m personally a zero or hero kind of guy, as in do it big or don’t do it at all. However, for most people, incremental changes towards what you want are the most effective. Only you can decide which type of person you are and which type of person you want to be from now on. Make a clear concise goal for the next year about how much you want to make and how much less you’re going to work to get it. Write it down on your fridge, a piece of paper in your wallet, your workstation, beside your bed, your bathroom, inside the car and anywhere else you regularly go. You need to see it everywhere.

Most of the world, possibly including you, is really like a big dog chasing their tail when it comes to making money. There are usually all kinds of actions and activities but very little movement towards any realization for a way out of the rat race. That path is a viscous circle that rarely leads to anywhere but just over broke.

Without goals, You’re leaving it to the world to decide how much you should earn and guess what they’ve got planned for you? Not much. If you have a specific goal to make more money while working less, could you really go and do a thing like work more overtime hours when the opportunity presents itself? It seems strikingly simple that all you of have to do is ask yourself does this bring me closer to what I want, yes or no, and you have will have instant clarity. As with most of life’s truly profound lessons, it is extremely simple. You have to work less and get more and only you decide how much is less and how much is more.

Where does that leave more time at your job? Balance is the key to life and you’re not going to find it by spending all your time at work.

Step 2 – Get a Real Financial Education

The mainstream world tells you continuously that you should go to school and get an education so that you can acquire a good safe and secure job. In truth, there is no such thing as “security” until you have personally secured your fortune. In the corporate world, any number of bean counters can decide that you are no longer worth employing and they can lay you off and eliminate your position at any given moment. Although I cannot deny the value of education, I urge you to learn a different kind of education. Learn to educate yourself in fields that pertain to generating the funds you need to really enjoy life. I don’t mean the cars, houses or money either. I mean educate yourself in money so that you have the time to decide who and what you want to be, do and have instead of having it dictated by some mundane job. My point is that schools teach you very little about actually earning money so it's about time to get started.

If you have a formal education, it will help in your quest for financial education but nothing replaces learning about money and how it really works. As Jim Rohn says, "If they would have offered Wealth 1 and Wealth 2 in school, I’d have taken both classes". A specialty career in anything other than making money is unlikely to bring you more time.

Personally, I am very “anti-job”. However, this particular belief system may not suit you. If this is the case for you, use some strategies to compliment your existing job so that every day of you being there is a choice rather than a necessary evil to earn "just enough". Or rather, free yourself up so that you can choose to spend your time at work for something you’re passionate about. I doubt this is the case now.

There are only really two practical means to earning income more passively – investments and automated businesses. In the beginning, this will take up some of your time to learn these skills as well as getting things automated. However, when reflecting on your goals, you can actually say "yes" in response to the important questions. Will this bring you more passive income while working less? In the short term no, but in the long term yes.

Investments

I recommend that you learn some more principles of real estate investing. It will require you to hone up some skills that may not already have. The basics of real estate can always be summed up into simply finding good deals. It is has never taken good credit or any capital of your own to make money through real estate so quit using either one as an excuse not to get into the field.

Imagine other people going to work so they can pay their rent towards your future. It sounds to me like that’s a lot better than working yourself.

There are many other types of investing that will be musts for you to learn down the road. Generally speaking, they are usually pretty capital intensive. If you are short on time at this point and hence capital, real estate is your best place to begin. Join a local real estate investment club to get some real life people in your personal phone book that are doing exactly what you are attempting to do. All the books and gurus in the world don’t compare to having a real person you can call and ask for an answer.

Automated Business

There are many small business owners who spend countless hours dedicated to their businesses. Although, this is admirable, don’t let this be you. Often, it is as a result of feeling that they need to have everything done their way. If automated business is your path, head to the library and get some books and management and motivating employees. It won't cost you a cent. The key is to have your work and ideas done through others.

It doesn’t actually take much to have a small business. I once put up a few ads that I was looking for babysitters. Upon interviewing and finding a few good ones, I put flyers in mailboxes that I had babysitters available for all hours to meet people’s schedules. I simply charged out the sitters at a higher rate than I paid them. This is how any business makes money. An hour or two of passing out ads twice per week and I could sit at home while others went to work making me money. I had the employees sign a basic agreement that I would always receive royalties for any job they had found so that they couldn’t try and cut me out.

Can you handle something like this? It’s pretty simple. You don’t need to have a giant storefront and several employees to manage a business. Use your head and you can find all kinds of things just like this. Tutoring is another great and simplistic one or teaching an instrument. If you’re willing to find people who need the service and people provide the service you can get paid to simply link them. A little knowledge about contracts and advertising that can both be found for free at your local library will get you going.

A specialty service is an easy to get an hourly wage through other people’s efforts and can take minimal advertising. A few paper flyers are usually enough. Also, a few online ads at free classified sites work well too. After all, the goal is to work less and not more.

Internet business is another great way to generate funds passively. Often, you don’t even have to have your own product to cash in on the opportunities of the internet. I am currently writing an ebook (shameless plug) on how to start your own internet business from scratch. It will available in due time for those who wish to learn about how to start an internet business the right way.

It’s important that you use your goals as a motivator to get back to asking if each move brings you closer to what you really want. Even when you don’t have the required skills, a little bit of education can make all the difference in your financial rewards at the end of the day. It takes a keen financial mind, which can be trained, to see these kinds of opportunities. Keep working on your financial education.

Step 3 – Eliminate Waste In Your Life

Toyota has become the world’s best car manufacturer by specializing in eliminating wasteful steps from their process. They also know that when they improve a process, there are more improvements to be done. Thus the improvements themselves are never an end but a process themselves. Rome wasn’t built in a day and you don’t need to fix your money problems all in one day in your life. The bottom line though is that you’re going to have get the waste out of your life.

Yes that means giving up television, or at least drastically reducing it. As long as you’re watching television, you’re still the dog chasing its tail. Does going no where really please you? Get your financial life in order first. If you really want to sit around and watch tv all day, let it be after you’ve made your streams of cash.

Most of the world is so fed up with the rest of their life that they spend so much of their time seeking to be entertained. This is just a cover for the deeper problems. Learn to see through the trap. Take out the waste and reclaim your life how you want it. If you had all the money in the world, I just really doubt your first choice would be to sit at home and watch TV.

"Try" is a loser word. Don’t try. Do it. "Try" is used to rationalize why you have given up on solving the problem after you have already accepted failure. You would not use try were there no need to accept failure. Stop settling for anything less than what you thought was your highest thought about you. You’ll find that in going after your real dreams, you’ll be infinitely happier even if you didn’t succeed.

The most wasteful things in your life are tv, partying, socializing/chatting and surfing the internet. None of these things are bad things in and of themselves. In fact, it’s important to celebrate them and use them as a means to have fun. It’s just that when partying becomes a thing to do to escape the Monday to Friday grind, you’ve already lost. Use it because life is a celebration and you have all the success that comes naturally to you. It’s a lot nicer with all the time and money on your hands anyways. For right now, you’re going to have to put some of these things aside to reclaim the time you need to get things in order. Just understand that there is a huge difference between savoring your accomplishments and trying to forget your miseries.

Some of the richest real estate investors I know, don't own TVs... strange but true.

Spend an hour per day building a business to generate profits like real estate or spend time learning about how to build a business that will passively bring you income. Ideally, both are in your best interest. Rome wasn’t built in a day and you’re probably not going to quit all your TV watching just yet. However, this is your life. Be willing to make the sacrifices where you see that they need to be done.

Step 4 – Eat Healthy

It may sound crazy that eating healthy applies to time management. The truth is though, you’re probably sleeping 1-3 hours more per day than you need to because your body is in such a state of unrest. Furthermore, while you are awake you might feel more lethargic and unmotivated than you should. Nowadays, most foods are loaded with so many chemicals used in their production that they bog down the whole body. Eat some fresh organic fruits and vegetables from time to time. You’ll notice you never feel tired after eating them. One to three hours more per day that you’re not sleeping goes a long way if you’re struggling to find time. Healthy people simply don’t feel the need to sleep that much.

All that “fast” food is costing you in a lot of other places. If you haven’t already seen it, I highly recommend watching the movie "Supersize Me". The gentleman in the movie eats nothing but McDonald’s food for 30 days. Besides gaining an unbelievable 25+ pounds in 30 days, his body becomes so riddled with toxins that it effects his health in every possible negative way. If you’re sleeping too much and still feeling tired, get back your health and you’ll be infinitely more productive with the time that you do have.

Step 5 – Plan

Of course, nothing major has ever been accomplished without a realistic plan. If you want to make $20,000 more than last year, have an idea today what it takes. It is nearly $2000/month and nearly $400/week if you break it down to shorter term goals.  Set some actions to see that happen. Ideally you should know the major tasks you’re going to have to complete in the next day, week and month to get there. Spend 20 minutes per day planning tomorrow’s important tasks. At the very least you should know what must be accomplished tomorrow. In the beginning, your tasks can simply be to brainstorm to find those ideas that you can put into action. Like Toyota, it is not necessary that you solve the big problems in one shot. Simply plug away at the small stuff that leads you towards the big goal. You’ll realize there are no big problems, just a series of small problems that seem big when lumped together.

Quit letting the small things get in the way of your plan. When you’re working, shut the phone and the TV off. There’s no point in working at all unless you accomplish something. Let results be your new reality. If you are doing so now, stop making excuses in your life.

Yoda said it best – “Do or do not, there is no try”.

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Matthew David

"The Investor Today"