Tag Archives: Time management

Personal development

Be distracted: The new secret to gaining back your focus.

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After church, one day, I was so worried about how distracting social media has made life tough for me.

It goes like this:

I wake up. I get my phone.

After a while, I get the silent noise of a chat. And I tell myself, let’s check it.

You know that fell right?

Your heart just tells you, hmmm… we will be here for the next two hours.

But your hands are like don’t worry. We will leave as soon as possible.

This leaves as soon as possible is coming up after you’ve spent an hour plus.

What a heck! You hold your head.

And guess what?

You’ve not checked the most important things for that day.

“Now what do I do, ?” you ask yourself.

Well, let’s check it now yourself lies again to you.

And boom! another dropping time goes off.

My dear, 🚫 it.

It’s time to get distracted so that you can be focused.

We cannot live without social media as it were.

Yes, that’s where we live. That’s its address.

Your Facebook page is becoming more important than the rent you’re paying for your physical shop.

And you know it.

So instead of shouting and crying and feeling bad, you know what I’ve decided to do?

I will create time to be distracted.

Period.

And it’s helped me.

So, I come online by 8 am. Still trying to stabilize it.

Stay till 9 am.

And then leave.

Wait until noon or so and do another distraction.

Why does it work?

It works because my head knows that it will on social media so that rush gets down.

Though in the beginning, it’s not easy. But as you try it out, you’ll see that your time becomes more productive and not wasted.

Can you try it?

Just be distracted.

Book Review, Career Development, Personal development

FRIDAY BOOK REVIEW WITH CHUKS | MANAGE YOUR DAY TO DAY: Build Your Routine, Find Your Focus and Sharpen Your Creative Mind by Jocelyn K. Glei

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Going through this book gives a broader perspective of the time management framework.

I’m in Enugu (Coal City, Nigeria) but I also understand that the vibe in Lagos is on a higher level. Several times, I ask myself,“Do you want to be a local player or a global player? “

This alone gets me thinking and more importantly for 2020, I’m having a whole new structure for my time. Why? I want to be a global player and this book has helped shown me how.

Can we ride and see it?

The POINTS?!

  • Do your most productive work early in the day and reactive works later in the day.
  • Learn to organize your workspace to inspire work. Like set a particular music or set the tables in a manner that tells your mind it’s time to work.
  • Learn to block out time daily when no one will disturb you no matter what. (I’m personally learning this… So, from 8am till 11am, it’s hard to catch me free.)
  • Schedule time for creative thinking. This can be different from work. It can be early in the morning before dashing out for work.
  • Don’t allow perfectionism eat you up. This has nothing to do not going for the best. However, use all you’ve got to deliver the best you can while knowing when to submit a work and move on to the next.

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  • Much of what we are taught about multitasking is scam. Studies have shown that the tasks that we can multitask effectively are those that are highly automatic like walking and talking… dancing and singing… While in the activities that require our conscious mind, what we do is task switching. And task switching is highly unproductive. The alternative? Finish a task and move or break a task into bits of finishes so you can take breaks at those times.
  • Learn to build renewal into your work day. As you do your work, find time to rest. (This disturbs me the most. The average African employee and employer sees rest as waste of time. We are the least present at vacations. We don’t rest yet the economic systems speak of who is ahead.)
  • One of the authors, Lori Deschene says this about the social media thing:

  • Keep your long term vision or goals in front of you so that it helps when you prioritize your day.
  • Place huge value on your imaginations than on technology.
  • What if you do things everyday at certain times just to play, for fun?

QUOTES!

“I don’t wait for moods. You accomplish nothing if you do that. Your mind must know it has got to get down to work.” Earl S. Buck

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Aristotle

“It’s not the load that breaks you down. It’s the way you carry it.” Lena Horne

(I melted when I saw this quote directly above. If you did physics in school, you’ll grab it faster.)

“Tell me to what you pay attention and I will tell you who you are.” Jose Ortega

“The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say no to almost everything.” Warren Buffet

“You can do anything but not everything.” David Allen

(Wow! My head is telling that the reason for this is that our time and energy is limited.)

“Look at the word responsibility – RESPONSE-ABILITY – the ability to choose your response.” Stephen Covey

“Your mind will answer most questions if you learn to relax and wait for the answer.” William S. Burroughs

“Creativity is not a talent. It is a way of operating.” John Cleese

(While I agree with the last line of this quote, I disagree with the first line. What do you think?)

“Inspiration is for amateurs, the rest of us just show up and get to work.” Chuck Close

“The artist who aims at perfection in everything achieves it in nothing.” Eugene Delacroix

(Hmmm… I think this doesn’t mean don’t strive for excellence.)

“Creation is in part merely the business of foregoing the great and small distractions.” E. B. White

The Questions?!

The primary question this book poses for me is this: Do I have control over my time? Have I scheduled my most important tasks for the day on the most important times of the day?

Check the 12 points I mentioned above and gauge it with your life.

2020 is coming soon…! The website of the editor of this book jkglei.com/

Career Development, Personal development

How to Get Started with Your 2020 Goals: Lessons on Time Management and Goal Setting from Myles Munroe.

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One of the greatest men that have taught me the importance of planning is Myles Munroe. He digs deep into it and shares personal experiences not just theories.

Before I get to plan my year, I listen to his videos and get my mind attuned to what should be a plan for the new year.

I know folks who don’t believe in goals and planning especially in our continent flooded with a mindset that’s emotionally driven.

Yet, we see it that no one becomes an influence and a true success without goals and planning – written or not.

And I think that as a Nicheployee, you’ll need this to have a better 2020. So, what would Myles say?

Continue reading How to Get Started with Your 2020 Goals: Lessons on Time Management and Goal Setting from Myles Munroe. →

Book Review, Personal development

FRIDAY BOOK REVIEW WITH CHUKS | FIRST THINGS FIRST BY STEPHEN R. COVEY.

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Just few days to HAPPY New Year and so what?

After seeing the movie, Invictus, I got a better understanding of the life of His Excellency, Nelson Mandela (Madiba).

He understood how First Things First work so well that he showed his attention was on the unity of the nation of SA and nothing else.

That was a compelling vision that drove him until his death. He was so influential he could call Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II by her first name.

2020 is just barely 26 days from now and I want to ask: Do you have your goals ready? What will direct your life more in 2020? What happened in 2019 that you regret so well about? What do you want to see change in 2020?

Stephen Covey had to mention this about the lives of many:

The truth is this: we want to do lots of things and that time is not there. Few know how to keep what’s major major and what’s minor minor.

In our usual brief style, we’ll see the book FIRST THINGS FIRST in 12 Points, 12 Quotes and 12 Questions.

THE POINTS (This time, I’ll do it in 12 words)

Have a vision which controls your goals and review your life periodically.

THE QUOTES

“The Enemy of the best is the good.

Anything less than a conscious commitment to the important is an unconscious commitment to the unimportant.

Doing more things faster is no substitute for doing the right things.

Where there’s no gardener, there’s no garden.

It’s easy to say no when there’s a deeper yes burning inside.

Quality of life depends on what happens in the space between stimulus and response.

As long as you live, keep learning how to live.

Anytime we think the problem is out there, that thought is the problem.

It is that a meaningful life is not a matter of speed or efficiency. It’s much more a matter of what you do and why you do it, than how fast you get it done.

More important than how fast you’re going, is where you’re headed. Goals that are connected to our inner life have the power of passion and principle.

The wisdom literature of thousands of years of history repeatedly validates the reality that the greatest fulfillment in improving ourselves comes in our empowerment to more effectively reach out and help others. Quality of life is inside-out.

THE QUESTIONS

1. What is your life’s vision?

2. Do you have a long term goal? (It mustn’t be 20 years or 30. It can be 5 or 10).

3. If you do, can you review it today or soon before 2020 comes on?

4. Can you also write down from that long term goal things you’ll accomplish in 2020?

5. If you don’t have a long term goal, can you get a materiel or this book to help you with that?

6. Does your goals include these areas of life – finance, spiritual, career/business, relationship and health?

7. What areas, as an employee, will you want to grow personally in 2020?

8. Are there books you’ll like to study in 2020?

9. What if you buy a course for 2020 or download certain videos from YouTube in 2020?

10. Do you have names of three people you’ll like to meet in 2020 and maybe those you’ll news to spend less time with?

11. When you die, what would you want to be remembered for?

12. What will you begin to do in 2020 to move in that direction?

First Things First is an important read for a time like this. Remember, your life outcomes will be as a result of your decisions.

Get on it and begin to create 2020 now!