How I Manage My Time - 10 Time Management Tips

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How I Manage My Time - 10 Time Management Tips

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Transcript
00:00All right, so over the past 10 years,
00:02I have read basically all of the books
00:04around productivity and time management.
00:06And in that time, there are 10 things
00:08that I still use in my life,
00:11genuinely use to help make my time management more efficient.
00:13Let's talk about them in this video.
00:15Tip number one is that we absolutely own all of our time.
00:18Now, this is like a big one.
00:22When I first had this realisation,
00:24my life genuinely changed
00:25because I used to think I don't have time to do stuff.
00:29And I don't know where I read it,
00:30but I came across this like,
00:32probably like a fortune cookie somewhere,
00:33which said something like,
00:35at any given moment,
00:36you are doing what you most want to be doing.
00:39And that was a very empowering thing for me
00:40because I was obviously in need of empowerment.
00:42And it helped me realise
00:43that my time is entirely within my control.
00:45Like right now, I'm filming this video because I want to be.
00:48Earlier today, I spent six hours playing World of Warcraft
00:51because that's what I wanted to do.
00:52I could not have said,
00:53I don't have the time to work out today.
00:54Instead, it was a case of I'm actively choosing
00:56not to make the time to work out today.
00:58And so when it comes to time management,
00:59like step one is always to recognise
01:01that we are always in control of our own time.
01:03Yes, you might have a boss.
01:05Yes, you might have parents telling you what to do,
01:06but fundamentally, you are in control of your own time
01:09and you can choose to do whatever you want with that time.
01:11If you don't have the time to do something,
01:13that something is just not a priority, which is fine,
01:16but don't pretend like the reason you're not doing it
01:17is because you genuinely don't have the time.
01:19Point number two is the title of this book by Derek Sivers,
01:22Hell Yeah or No, What's Worth Doing?
01:24Now, the vibe here, hell yeah or no,
01:26it kind of says it all in the title.
01:28When we're young
01:29and we don't have very many opportunities in our lives,
01:31we should probably say yes
01:32to the majority of things that are coming our way.
01:35But as soon as we get to a point
01:36where we're starting to get more inbound leads,
01:39then we have time available,
01:40we start operating with a hell yeah or no maxim.
01:43And the idea there is something is either a hell yes
01:45or it's a no.
01:47And so if I get an email from someone saying,
01:48hey, do you wanna do this thing?
01:49And I'm thinking, maybe it sounds kind of all right,
01:52then my default position is gonna be no.
01:54If I get an email from someone saying,
01:56hey, do you wanna do this thing?
01:56And I'm like, hell yeah,
01:58then I'm gonna do the thing.
01:59And I'm trying to get better
02:01at using this principle in my life
02:02because even now, my calendar is full of a lot of things
02:06where I'm like, huh, yeah, kind of,
02:08rather than hell yeah, too.
02:09And I always regret doing it when it comes down.
02:11So hell yeah or no,
02:12just like learning to be okay with saying no to stuff
02:14is another really important principle of time management.
02:17Thirdly, there's a tip I picked up from this book
02:18called Make Time by Jake Knapp and John Zeratsky.
02:21And this tip is called the daily highlight.
02:23This is like deviously simple.
02:24Basically, the idea is that every day we decide
02:28this one thing is gonna be my highlight of the day.
02:30This is the only thing I need to get done today.
02:33And on the days where I set a daily highlight
02:35and I try and do this every day,
02:36I always get the thing done
02:37and I'm always really happy at the end of the day.
02:39But if I have a day where I don't set my daily highlight,
02:42then I kind of drown in my to-do list.
02:44And I have this just image in my head of like,
02:46oh yeah, I need to do this and this and this and that.
02:48And it's a lot harder to get stuff done.
02:50Whereas on days where I have the daily highlight,
02:52I have that just one thing that I'm focusing on.
02:54This is the most urgent or the most satisfying
02:56or the most fun thing I have to do today.
02:58And then it just really, really helps
02:59with my time management.
03:00Tip number four for time management is to use a to-do list.
03:03And these days I use a physical to-do list
03:06with this analog by Ugmonk.
03:08It's very nice.
03:09And it's like, you get these like note cards
03:11and then you get this like wooden thing
03:13and you like put the note card in the thing
03:14and it looks like this.
03:15And that means like every morning,
03:16once I figured out what my daily highlight is,
03:18I make a list of the other stuff that I have to do that day.
03:21And I shove it on a list and then I tick them off
03:23and cross them off with physical pen
03:24as I go throughout my day.
03:26It doesn't really matter what system you use
03:27for a to-do list.
03:28But again, there's a general principle of productivity,
03:31which is that our brain is for having ideas,
03:33not for holding them.
03:34And a big part of why we let stuff slip through the cracks
03:37when it comes to managing our time
03:39and managing our productivity
03:40is because we haven't written them down.
03:41And so anytime I need to do something,
03:43I write it down into an app.
03:44These days I use Roam.
03:45But then when I figure out my daily to-do list,
03:47it's all based on this analog system by Ugmonk,
03:50which is very nice.
03:51And it's kind of cool having a physical to-do list
03:54in front of me that I can cross things off of
03:56and it just feels nice.
03:57And yeah, even at work, when I'm working as a doctor,
03:59I use physical to-do lists to manage my patient list,
04:01to manage my list of tasks.
04:03There's something incredibly satisfying
04:04about crossing something off,
04:05which you just don't get when you use an app.
04:07Principle number five for time management
04:08is the concept of time blocking.
04:10Apparently this is something
04:11that Elon Musk does all the time.
04:13And basically the idea there is anytime
04:14we need to do something,
04:15we put a block for it in our calendar.
04:17So I don't like doing this for absolutely everything
04:19because I'm a bit of a waste man.
04:20And I think the more time I spend managing
04:23my productivity system,
04:24the less time I spend actually getting stuff done
04:26and then it's just all completely pointless.
04:27But the one thing that I always schedule into my calendar
04:30at the start of the day is my daily highlight.
04:33So if I've decided my daily highlight
04:35is filming this video,
04:36usually, well, I'll try my best
04:38to schedule it into my calendar
04:40at the time where I know I'm gonna film the video.
04:42If my daily highlight is call my grandma,
04:44I will literally scroll schedule it into my calendar.
04:46If my daily highlight is make changes to my website,
04:48I will schedule it at like for a block in my calendar.
04:51And that's like really nice and reassuring
04:52because it means that that one thing
04:55that I've decided is really, really important
04:55is always gonna get done
04:56because it's always on the schedule.
04:58And then if I need to move it around,
04:59I'll move it around if something comes up,
05:01but at least it's there on the schedule by default.
05:03And this thing where you combine the daily highlight
05:05with time blocking it in the calendar
05:06is just incredibly useful.
05:08Everyone always kind of thinks that like,
05:09oh, but only one thing a day,
05:11don't you have to do more than that?
05:12And yeah, you do kind of have to do more than that
05:14in most of our lives.
05:14But imagine if every single day for the next year,
05:17you could actually do the one thing,
05:20the one most important thing to do that day,
05:22you'd make a hell of a lot of progress
05:23over the course of the year
05:24and it would just be absolutely game changing.
05:25Principle number six is related
05:27to something called Parkinson's law,
05:28which is that work expands to fill the time
05:30that we allocate to it.
05:31So if I have to film a YouTube video in a day
05:33and I give myself the whole day to film that YouTube video,
05:35inevitably it's gonna take all day
05:37to film the YouTube video.
05:38Whereas if I only give myself half an hour or an hour
05:41to film the YouTube video
05:41and I fill my day up with other things,
05:43then inevitably I get the video done
05:45in that small amount of time.
05:46And so the actionable advice here
05:48is to leverage artificial deadlines,
05:50even when it's something like filming a new course,
05:53I'm working on a course for YouTube for beginners
05:55where I kind of film and talk you to everything
05:57about my YouTube video production process.
05:59And this doesn't really have a deadline,
06:00like I could literally do it whenever I want,
06:01I don't have to do it,
06:02it's purely optional project,
06:04but I've set myself the goal that,
06:05okay, you know what,
06:06I'm gonna film all of this course next weekend.
06:08And I blocked out time in my calendar next weekend
06:10to film the course.
06:11And that's an artificial deadline,
06:13which means the course is gonna get done.
06:14Whereas if I just had it in my mind or in my to-do list
06:17without a deadline, without a schedule,
06:20it would just inevitably never ever get done.
06:22Point number seven is one I've started applying recently,
06:24and that is having protected time.
06:26When you are an entrepreneur
06:27and you're like working for yourself
06:28and all that kind of stuff,
06:29you end up basically being able
06:30to set whatever schedule you want.
06:32But like if you're like me and you like making connections
06:35and making friends with people all around the internet,
06:38you get to a point where your day is filled
06:40with lots and lots of Zoom calls.
06:42And I realised that for me,
06:43I need to keep my mornings completely free
06:45of any obligations or any Zoom calls.
06:47And this has been an absolute game changer
06:48because in the morning,
06:49that means I can wake up whenever I want,
06:51usually it's half past eight these days.
06:52And it means that for a solid like four hours at least,
06:55I've got uninterrupted time
06:57where I can do whatever I want.
06:58So these days I'm working on writing my book,
07:00and so the morning is my protected time for writing.
07:02But even on days where I'm not working on the book,
07:04it's just genuinely so nice to have that like time slot
07:07where I can think about the business
07:09or plan some more videos
07:10or do the things that help move me forward
07:13in my work career.
07:14And sometimes if I'm not really feeling it,
07:16I'll just decide, you know what,
07:17I'm gonna use this protected time
07:19to play World of Warcraft
07:20or to just kind of relax and read a book on the sofa.
07:22So if you're interested in better ways
07:23to managing your time,
07:24I would recommend figuring out
07:26what your protected time is gonna be,
07:28time that is just for you and you alone
07:30or World of Warcraft,
07:31and not for anyone else
07:32where no one is allowed to book something in your schedule.
07:34All right, principle number eight is delegation.
07:36Now this one is a little bit weird
07:38because normally when you say the word delegate,
07:40people imagine that,
07:41oh, well, I can't afford to delegate something,
07:43I don't have enough money to delegate to hire someone.
07:46And sure, that's probably true,
07:49but the way that I think of it,
07:50even when this YouTube channel wasn't successful
07:52was that like, what is actually the dollar value of my time?
07:56How much is my time actually worth?
07:58And when it came to running my business,
07:59I decided that, okay, my time is worth 20 pounds an hour
08:02or $25 an hour.
08:03And that means that anything I'm doing
08:05that I don't enjoy,
08:06that I can outsource to someone
08:07that I can delegate for less than $25 an hour,
08:09I absolutely should do that.
08:11And that principle of delegation
08:12has encouraged me to get a cleaner,
08:14which has been great
08:15because now we have someone
08:15who comes in to clean the house every other week,
08:17which means I don't have to do it myself.
08:19And back in the day,
08:20when I was building my businesses from the ground up
08:21and there was lots of things that needed to be done,
08:23like data entry or things like that,
08:25I was able to delegate those to freelancers
08:27in like the Philippines or in Bangladesh or in India
08:29through upwork.com or fiverr.com
08:31and like paying them like $7 an hour
08:33is an amazing like wage for someone
08:35for work in the Philippines.
08:37But it was fantastic for me
08:38because it freed up my time to do things
08:40that were adding more value to the business
08:42and to my life than doing data entry, for example.
08:44And so whatever your circumstances are,
08:46I'd encourage you to think about
08:48what is the dollar value of your time
08:50and potentially, if you want,
08:52can you delegate stuff that's cheaper than that
08:55to other people potentially.
08:56Tip number nine for time management
08:58is to try and automate scheduling as much as possible.
09:01Now that we're in the world of like Zoom calls
09:02and like chatting to people over the internet
09:04basically every day,
09:05I found I was wasting a lot of time
09:06in scheduling back and forth
09:08where I'd be like,
09:09hey, I wanna talk to you,
09:09but like, are you free this time, Pacific time,
09:11this time, Eastern time,
09:12this time, British standard time,
09:13all this kind of stuff.
09:15And we'd go back and forth with emails
09:16for like a solid 10 days before anything would get done.
09:19But then I discovered an app called Calendly
09:20and Calendly is great.
09:21It's free for like the free version
09:23I pay for the pro version these days,
09:25not sponsoring this video or anything like that.
09:26Unfortunately, Calendly, if you're watching this,
09:28let me know.
09:29But the idea behind Calendly
09:30is you can literally send someone a link
09:31and it has like all of your availability
09:33and they can just book a slot in your calendar.
09:35Now this feels a little bit weird to do initially.
09:37It feels like a bit of a power move that,
09:38hey, book a slot on my calendar.
09:40But anytime I get a Calendly link from someone,
09:43I'm like, oh my God, I'm so grateful
09:44because this has literally saved me 20 minutes of my life,
09:46time that I'm never gonna get back
09:48in not having to worry about scheduling
09:50back and forth emails.
09:51Even sometimes these days,
09:52when it comes to like catching up with friends,
09:53I just send them a Calendly link and I'm like,
09:55look, say, hey man, I'm really sorry.
09:56But like, you know, here's a Calendly link.
09:58I know we're never gonna talk
09:59because the schedules are never gonna align.
10:01But if there's a time that works for you,
10:02click on this link.
10:03And he books a time and we have a call.
10:04And it's nice because I've caught up
10:05with so many more friends in the last few months
10:07through using Calendly links
10:08than I did in the last like three years
10:11of having to schedule back and forth
10:13with WhatsApp messages.
10:14And finally, principle number 10 for time management.
10:16And this is something I've only recently started
10:17to appreciate, which is that like,
10:18when you're like a productivity nerd
10:20and you're interested in like efficiency
10:21and getting more done,
10:22it's very easy for us to get to the end of the day
10:24and to just feel chronically dissatisfied
10:27with what we've accomplished.
10:29Like at the end of the day, it's like,
10:30oh, well, I filmed one video today,
10:32but I could have filmed five videos.
10:33What's wrong with me?
10:34I'm such a waste man and kind of internally
10:36beating ourselves up about this.
10:37But one thing I've started to kind of tell myself recently
10:39is that I can choose to be satisfied at the end of the day.
10:42At the end of this day, I'll have filmed this video.
10:44I was planning to film three more videos,
10:45but I didn't get around to doing those.
10:47That's fine, I filmed one.
10:48I can choose to be satisfied with what I've done.
10:51And that's all good.
10:52And like, it doesn't change how much work I've done
10:55by me beating myself up about it.
10:57It just makes me feel bad.
10:58And therefore, I can choose to feel good
10:59with how I've managed my time.
11:01If you're interested in more strategies
11:02on how to manage your time,
11:03I actually have three whole online courses
11:05themed around productivity and time management
11:07that are hosted on Skillshare.
11:09No, they're not sponsoring this video,
11:10but if you hit the link in the video description,
11:11there'll be a link that gives you a free trial
11:14to Skillshare where you can check out
11:15my three classes on productivity.
11:16One of them is about the fundamentals of productivity.
11:18One of them is about the productivity equation,
11:20which is my personal mental model for productivity.
11:22And the third one is one that I released very recently,
11:24like last week, around productivity for creators
11:26and how we manage our time doing this like creative,
11:29high side hustle entrepreneur type stuff.
11:31So check that out with the links in the video description.
11:33And if you want more tips for time management
11:35and general productivity,
11:36you should check out my book review
11:37and summary of the book, Make Time,
11:38which is one of my favorite productivity books of all time.
11:40And that will be linked right over there.
11:42So thank you so much for watching.
11:43Have a great day and I'll see you in the next video.
11:45Bye-bye.