Avoid Time Wasters That Cost You a Billionaire's Life Style
Good morning, Successful People!
Are you feeling motivated this morning? I certainly hope so. I know that I am!
When students start taking courses with me, most choose to have me help them review how they spend their time to make some better choices.
I ask them to start by writing down everything they do in detail and how long it takes, 24 hours a day, for 14 days. They then summarize how much time is spent in various activities. The results are often shocking. It's like seeing a stranger's life rather than your own.
Students next decide what they want their priorities to be and how much time they want to spend each week on those priorities. Often, these priorities include more time with family and friends, creative activities and of course their studies with me.
Although no two people find the same lessons, here are some typical ones:
1. Too much time spent sleeping -- some people are in bed 11 hours a day!
2. Too much television -- the count that people admit to can exceed 30 hours a week. That's like another full-time job.
3. Too much commuting -- many are spending over 10 hours a week in this state of suspended animation.
4. Too many meetings that serve little purpose -- this may take up 20 working hours a week.
5. Too much time at home and work doing tasks that others could and should do. My favorite is picking up after teenagers. Have the teenagers learn to pick up after themselves!
From there, many people begin to realize that they have poorly scheduled their day. For instance, a morning person who has lots of energy then may be only working on routine matters rather than important ones. Other people may need quiet to concentrate on creative tasks ... but don't provide themselves with that environment. Others go for endless stretches without breaks and feel tired and bored. A five minute break every half hour or so can make an enormous difference.
Finally, people are only doing one task at a time. For instance, they read books for their courses at home. They don't do anything while they commute. They do writing just for fun. Instead, a student could listen to audio tapes of course books while commuting and dictate drafts of papers and ideas for work at the same time. In some cases, job-related activities can be the source of case histories for course studies so that some 9-5 time can be applied to student work.
By the time they are done, most people are able to free up 20-30 hours a week to do more of what they really want to do. That's almost like getting an extra 20 years of life while you are in your prime!
Could a billionaire do better? I doubt it.
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N.B. As you can tell, I'm experimenting with color. Let me know what you like and what I should change about my use of color. Many thanks to Linda Grace for her suggestions which I am following!
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Live Spiritually Better than a Billionaire at http://livespirituallybetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/,
http://2000percentsolutions.blogspot.com/,
Enjoy Mansions Better than a Billionaire at http://enjoymansionsbetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/,
Enjoy Football Better than a Billionaire at http://enjoyfootballbetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/ and
Be a World Hero Better than a Billionaire at http://beaworldherobetterthanabillionaire.blogspot.com/.
I offer individual on-line tutorials and in-person seminars on living better than a billionaire on five dollars extra a day, creating 2,000 percent solutions (20 times the results with the same effort), developing more profitable business models and designing strategies that work regardless of the business environment. For information, contact me at ultimatecompetitiveadvantage@yahoo.com.
I am available to you as a speaker on these subjects. You can find my background at http://livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars.blogspot.com/2005_08_30_livebetterthanabillionaireon5dollars_archive.html/.
May God bless you.
Donald W. Mitchell, Your Dream Concierge
Copyright 2005 Donald W. Mitchell