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TIME is important to every leader as much as money to their lives. In most instances, we are paid for the value we put in an hour.
If I could ask a brutal question: How much do you get paid per hour? That could be the measure of the value you have put to your time!
In my personal life I have since realised that greatness is achieved using time wisely. There is a principle called, the law of accumulated effort.
This means you don’t need to do one great thing for you to be successful, but your stick to those small quality daily rituals that add up to your habits then eventually to your results.
The law of cause and effect gives us more optimism in that to every effort there is an effect. In other terms the level of your life now is a direct result of what you put in it yesterday.
The more you spend your time in quality activities, the more you will increase your results, effectiveness, efficacy and your net worth. There is one thing that is so predictable, its success and failure. I have seen that work in my personal life, especially in how I have used my time. I have leant not only to spend my time but to invest in it.
As pointed in my previous article, there are two things you do with your time.
You either sell your time and get a salary (as an employee) or buy time from other people (as an employer).
Time is life, don’t sell it cheap. So in this article I will tackle the issue on how you can sell your time at a prized rate.
Plan: Make a to-do list. Don’t allow yourself as a leader to enter a new day without planning for it. To start off, buy a diary where you write a list of items, goals and objectives of your day.
You will accomplish more by doing that. In this list, there should be activities that will enrich your thought-line, your spirituality, and put more flavor to your life’s purpose.
Such things include the time you allocate to reading quality books and listening to tapes. This is for personal development. Secondly, make a list that will help you increase and improve time for the family.
Lastly, in the list there are activities that increase the quality of your work. Remember, we are paid for both quality and quantity of our work.
All the above should be adding value to your passion The list helps you to order you life, focus, remember and prioritise.
One thing that could make this list unpalatable to do is to choose a life that you are not passionate about.
This is one of destiny killer. You will forever live your life frustrated and getting short-lived excitement only when you get your paycheck. This life is too short not to enjoy it.
Do you know that most people are married to jobs they hate so much they only do them because it gives them a salary?
Prioritise: Arrange the list- In the list that you have made, you need order items according to the order of importance and urgency. You can do this in a three step format.
l The top of the list should be items that are important and urgent.
l The following list should be of things that are important but not urgent.
l Lastly, it should be things that not important and not urgent. You should be weary of destiny killers. Those are things that seeming come as urgent but they are not important. If it’s not important and not urgent don’t waste your time on it.
Time and opportunity are equal to all — Solomon says; “I saw under the sun that the race is not to the swift, or the battle to the strong, or bread to the wise, or riches to the discerning, or favor to the skillful; rather, time and chance happen to all of them” (Ecclesiastes 9: 11). Sam Adeyemi usually says “When preparation meets opportunity success is inevitable”.
There is nothing as bad as missing an opportunity because you are not prepared for it. The best is to invest more of your time preparing and time and opportunity will come.
Time wasters: A destiny is not fulfilled because you spend your life doing wrong things; time wasting. In this time of technology there are so many things that want our attention. These include the social media (Facebook, twitter, whatsApp and othe instant messaging platforms), emails, games and television.
Most people could be spending more time on those than they would do for their destiny. One person once said, when you are always watching television you are watching other people doing their work.
Work on your dream so much more, that people would want to watch you do your work.
My mentor and coach, Judge Dube once said “cheep talk is expensive” It wastes your time and money. Frankly some friends have to chucked out your life without even negotiating for their stay.
Procrastination: The best time to accomplish your dream is to start working now. Procrastination has this seemingly good promise but in reality it is robbing us of a life time.
It says, you will do it tomorrow. There is still more time. You are still so young. Next year could be ideal year. When I get to 40, that’s when I will start focusing.
Those are all lies only robbing you of your precious life. I have spoken to old people that will regret the reason why they waited until they became that old.
If asked what they would do if they were given a second chance to live their lives again, they say they would not wait for tomorrow to have the work done.
Parting point: Everyone has equal time, but why does it seem others achieve more than others? They have mastered the importance of time. They have understood the power of pain (in working) in order to have pleasure.
They pay now and play later. They set goals and put deadlines to them.
They have understood the difference between being busy and being effective. They don’t only work harder but they work smarter.
l Jonah Nyoni is an author, success coach, leadership trainer and public relations consultant.
Tel: 0772 581 918. Email: jonah@classicmail.co.zacesslife.co.zw
