Dear Segun,
You have been off the radar for a while. I hope all is well. Let me guess! You may have found the world of an entrepreneur more disruptive than the routine of your former day job. Now, you would have come to discover that there are no guaranteed pay cheques at the end of the month, just as am sure you have also discovered the calm sense of being in control of your day and time.
However, that independence also confronts you with the next hurdle in the life of an entrepreneur which is time management. The lesson you must learn here is that time is a valuable asset, perhaps one of the most valuable assets in life and business. There is also always a reason to spend time on the wrong things, or on the right things at the wrong time. That engaging chat on the social media, that interesting cut on the television, that leisurely happy meal, and the seductively sweet reverie often ending in a pleasant nap are all items eating away on your time, but at the end of the day you are left without excuse for failing to deliver on your projects.
This is what the MAP said on time management: “The average person will spend in his lifetime eating for five years, in a car for five years, in the bathroom for five years, on the phone for two years and asleep for twenty-three years. In other words, if you live up to eighty years, you will spend half of your lifetime engaged in activities that contribute to less than 10% of your final outcome in life. There are two things you can start doing today. First, you can regain five years of your lifetime simply by cutting down a little of the time you spend daily on these activities. Secondly you can transform your attitude towards these activities. For instance, you can get a Walkman or CD player so that you can play the word of God or intellectual stuff whilst you eat, drive or bath. Half of your time will be spent unproductively if you don’t make some serious and very necessary adjustments today”.
For whatever its worth, I thought I should drop a few hints that others have found useful in their journey towards financial freedom. The first thing is that you must plan your day and how you spend your time. In this regard it should be a documented plan for the week, month, quarter or the year, in order to track your progress.
Now a plan is no good if it is just about the big picture. Yes, I know you want to carve out a niche for your business but what are the details for achieving this end? Even more importantly how can these details be reduced into daily steps? As one great mentor said, “you cannot change your future if you don’t change the things you do every day.
The year is still young and will present many more opportunities, but what you do with your time will position you either many steps closer to your dream or far away from ever realizing those goals.