February 2014. I had left my job nine months earlier, and nobody decided my working hours anymore. In the year before that, I was wasting six to seven hours a day on Facebook. I wrote these seven lines that month to stop it. They are below, word for word.
1. Sleep first
At least 7-8 hours sleep.
Sleep is first on the list because the other tips don’t work without it. When I slept less to finish one more task, I lost more time the next day than I saved.
2. Plan tomorrow tonight
Write down your plan for tomorrow before going to sleep.
Don’t go to sleep if you’re failed to complete the tasks as per your plan.
That second line goes against tip 1. If you follow it, you lose sleep, and then the next day goes badly too. So go to sleep on time, but not before you take two minutes and ask yourself why you didn’t finish:
- Was the plan too big for one day?
- Did something urgent come up?
- Or did you waste time, on Facebook or anything else?
Be honest with your answer. If you accept your mistakes, you can improve the next day. Move the unfinished tasks into tomorrow’s plan, make the plan smaller if it was too big, and then go to sleep.
Writing the plan takes five minutes. In the morning, you don’t waste time deciding what to do first, because you already know.
3. Protect the first half hour
In the morning when you start your work, don’t open emails or Facebook (social media sites) for at least first half an hour.
Keep your desk clean, keep open only essential programs.
In the first half hour of work, nobody else needs your time yet. If you open your email, you give that time to other people. A clean screen works the same way as a clean desk. Every program you leave open can pull your attention away, so close what you don’t need.
4. Read one new thought
Read at least one new thought.
Just one. You don’t need to read a book a week, or start a course and quit after two weeks, which I have done. One new idea a day takes about ten minutes, and over a year it adds up.
5. About the sixteen-hour day
Think once again when you brag that you’re working 16-18 hours a day!
I wrote that in 2014, and then I broke my own rule in 2017. I worked close to twelve hours a day for two and a half months without a single day off. It brought me closer to some of my targets. But I missed the gym, time with friends and a few treks, and I lost weight. I would not recommend it. Know thy limits!
Hours are easy to count, but hours are not the same as work. Many people who say they work sixteen hours are counting the time their laptop was open.
PS: Many people think that they do multitasking, nope you’re just switching from one task to another (except listening songs etc).
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