MAXIMIZE YOUR TIME: PRINCIPLES FOR GREATER RETURNS

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In this blog post you learn about Time Management Principles For Greater Productivity. These are core principles for effective planning and time management that are based on scientific insights.

Some principles and models of thought should be wired in your brain. In the end, your mindset about time will determine your actions and transform your life ultimately. Internalize them, have them in mind, repeat reading them, remember them, e.g. before your planning activity.

Let’s walk through the most important principles:

Time Investment

The first of Time Management Principles For Greater Productivity is to make sure you plan preferably activities that bring “returns”. What do I mean by that? In Finance, there is a difference between an expense and an investment. Expenses you pay and you gain nothing on top of it, the money is gone or “consumed”.

A great investment on the other hand makes you gain more than spent originally. Time can be either invested or spent like an expense. When we grow older, have kids or start a business benefits from the time invested become even more important. Often we even want to make sure we don’t lose something from investing time.

The Principle of Investment

Always weigh the time something costs you and the benefit it gives you. A good friend recently asked me to start playing an old card game again (Magic the Gathering). We used to play it when we were younger. I really like the game, but we both knew: it is a time-waster in our life situation. Do you have a family, other commitments or you have committed to intense goals? Think about your time investments wisely.

Choose these investments carefully. Otherwise you lose a lot actually. Playning this card game again could have been an investment, if I wanted to play or trade professionally and earn money with it. Then it becomes valuable for all other areas in my life. Otherwise not.

If you watch a movie, do it after you have achieved something. That’s a reward and a rest for now. Then it’s not an expense. Then it can be an investment in your relaxation plus a reward that tells your brain “achieving is great”.

But it’s probably more of an expense if you don’t really need a rest. Or if you could use time better and the movie doesn’t provide you with additional valuable information. The difficulty with bad habits is that we are not willing to accept that usually.

Think of it that way: by internalizing the principle of ‘time investment’ you gain control. You have a criteria what is an expense and what is an investment. You have your first tool at hands to gain more time.

This becomes clearer when we look at the consequences. Imagine you postpone other tasks because you watched the movie. You eat potato chips or sweets, which sets your training back. You lack movement or exercise. In Summary, you lose in many ways. If you see these hidden follow-up “costs”, then it would be a clear sign of bad expense. Follow-up costs should be avoided if you want to gain more time.

You don’t get anything back; you only give something away: your health, your future time and you risk future stress. This is not what you want. Still, this doesn’t prevent you from becoming more disciplined yet. But knowing that your time spent competes with other goals is called the principle of “opportunity costs” in economics. Think “what do I lose when I decide for that?”. Bad habits have the characteristic that you only gain something in short term. But you lose more in the long run.

The Rule of Three

Sure, we need rest and entertainment. But be aware about the necessary moderation and balance.

Never “too much” – focus your energies, but stay flexible

Never have “too much” at once. Yes, you gather activities, prioritize them and finish them. But if you don’t make it this week, you do it next week. This is not a call for laissez-faire, but to not freak out if plans do not work out.

If a goal didn’t disappear from your list, this is not the end of the world. Stay cool, stay flexible. But stay aware of the execution process (see later). This is the important part.

In order not to overload yourself with goals for the week or for the day J.D Meier introduced a simple, yet effective rule in his book “Getting Results the Agile Way”. Focus only on the 3 most important tasks (per day, per week, etc.).

If possible, we further divide activities into slices if they are too big for a day. Feasibility is king – and necessary for us to stay motivated. This is because neuroscience tells us that small, but finished tasks help us to remain encouraged. Large and unfinished tasks discourage us and even tend to be postponed/procrastinated in the future.

Besides, 3 is a great amount of goals to focus your energy and effort.

The Rule of Three ideally refers to “outcomes”. So write down the state/condition you want to achieve with your activity. However, I suggest keeping it simple.

When you put routines on a list, it’s sometimes cumbersome to worry about the outcome. For example burning X calories in a sport activity has to be measurable easily. Otherwise it costs you time to make it measurable.

I am also not too strict about the Rule of three. Especially in the beginning, it’s not so easy to plan that way. In the next principle „Big stones first“ I‘ll explain how I handle this.

Time against money and money against time

Maby want to excape the hamster wheel, the so-called “rat race”. It means changing from “working for another one’s goals” to “working for your own goals”. This change can only be successful, if your goals can cover your living costs.

In this case, time is an investment in a “machine”. Why? Similar to a machine, your ‘project’ provides you with another cash flow stream. That’s passive income only after it is finished and works automatically.

Creating this machine is a time investment. But if the machine works and generates cash flow, you can reclaim time working for someone else to some degree.

For example, you work only part-time from that moment on. This is your largest effort and most people fail or give up here. Next, after creating your first ‘machine”, you invest time in either more machines or a larger machine. If that works out, you can switch totally to working for your own dreams.

This process is also called “from time against money” towards “money against time”. From this moment on, you decide where you invest your time. And you invest it in such a way that you define your hourly wage. Or you decide which return on your time is worth it.

Time against money is the rat race. Money against time is financial freedom. The only question is, which machine can you built? You specifically, what are your strenghts?

Big Stones First

This concept says the following: “plan important things first, the small one’s can be organized more easily around them“. Imagine having a glass vessel. You want to fill it with a certain amount of sand, pebbles and some big stones. Then it will be impossible to fill that glass by starting with the sand or the pebbles . 

You have to begin with the big stones and turn the order around. Then it works out as the smaller parts make their way around the bigger ones. The same is true with organizing our life: the big stones are planned first. They are the really important goals for you. 

Do not have too many big stones in your weekly achievement plan. Your duration for a weekly big stone can differ from time to time of course, depending on your capacities. Then have a few “pebble”-goals in it. In my case a pebble might be something that can take me 15-30 minutes. It’s some effort to do them, but it’s manageable.

The rest are “sand”-goals and can be really many. They arise daily and are put on a digital, spontaneous „To-do list“ for really small activities. Shoppings, calls, messages to someone, requests, etc. I‘ll explain this more in detail in my post on Achievement Plans.

Big stones refer to activities from your defined important life areas from the pre-planning. I think I must create a separate post on this… Anyway, for me, they are often the ones with the highest duration.

Pareto

Always ask for the main levers of a task. This requires real practice, I can tell you. At first just take this as food for thought over and over again.

The Pareto rule asks for the 20% of activities that solve 80% of the problem/topic. You should focus on them first. Further prioritized, 4% of your effort can already solve 64% of the problem/topic, and 0.8% solve 51% of the problem/topic.

Ideally, we would determine goals in our achievement list that make the most impact.

To be able to do that, we need practice. When we regularly prioritize, we learn to tackle most of the issues occupying us (80%) with only a few activities. For perfection (100%) you negotiate on scope, time and budget with yourself or at work with customers, colleagues, supervisors.

Achievement plans: Use all types of goals and include routines

Would you call the items on a list “topics”, “tasks”, “activities”, “actions” or “goals”? Well, don’t overcomplicate, it can even mean all the same.

I like to call them “goals”. Because as soon as I write them on my list, it is a goal I want to achieve. The goal to complete the task or activity of ironing, find out a contact person, prepare an Excel Model, etc.. I speak about an “activity” when I want to plan it, but it‘s not yet on my list.

The activities I plan come either from my pre-planning, spontaneously or they are remaining from previous achievement plans. If you want to implement this successful tool, discover Achieve More: How To Plan, Execute And Stick To Your Plan.

Bear in mind that regular activities like sports, piano playing, reading, etc. can become goals on your achievement plan. I do this in order to build continuous habits to learn, have the physical and mental energy, etc..  

PDCA (Plan-Do-Check-Act)

For the execution of the achievement plan system a general principle is important. It stems from the Lean Management Philosophy. It’s called “PDCA-Cycle”, standing for: Plan-Do-Check-Act.

The “P” reflects the planning process as described above. “Do” are your daily actions trying to achieve (cross) these goals from your list. “Check” is a review or reflection on what you have achieved compared to what you wanted to achieve. Lastly, “Act” refers to the act upon the review, i.e. adapting activities and goals.

If necessary, the original plan is adapted based on what you achieved and what’s still to do.

This concept is very powerful for every routine or habit you want to establish. If you want to know more about it, contact me.

Time Value of compounding Efforts

Just as money can earn interest over time, so can your efforts. Engage in activities that compound over time. Like skill development or building relationships. They can yield greater returns in the long run, similar to investing in stocks.

Deep Work vs. Shallow Work

In his book “Deep work“ the author Cal Newport emphasizes the difference between deep work and shallow work. Deep work are focused, cognitively demanding tasks. Shallow work are logistical tasks that can be performed with minimal focus.

Prioritizing deep work can lead to higher quality outcomes and more significant long-term returns. Deep Work from Cal Newport is recommended if you feel constant connectivity and distractions hold you back. From what? From producing high-quality, innovative, and efficient work.

Time Affluence vs. Time Poverty

Time affluence is when you feel you have enough time to pursue activities you enjoy. Research shows that individuals who perceive themselves as time affluent report higher well-being. Cultivating a mindset of time abundance can lead to better life satisfaction and productivity. Instead, people who always feel they don’t have enough time, will not have enough time. Don’t overload your life. Set focus with clarity and live your life to the fullest.

Energy Management Over Time Management

Focusing on when you are most productive (your energy cycles) can yield better returns than strictly managing time. Aligning tasks with your natural energy levels enhances efficiency and effectiveness. Also focus your energies (see “rule-of-three”) on fewer goals at once only. Never have too many goals similarly that you have to care about. Also, recover and stay focussed by using Micro-Recovery Routines.

Rest and Downtime enhance Productivity and Effectivity

It sounds counter-intuitive, but intentionally scheduling downtime and rest can significantly enhance overall productivity. Studies suggest that breaks can improve focus and creativity, leading to more substantial returns on your work.

Taking time to meditate or reflect provides you with a better overview about the situation or your whole life. It leads to more effective results and therefore supports the Pareto Principle massively!

The Future Self Concept

Thinking about how current time investments affect your future self can help prioritize tasks. Visualize the long-term impact of decisions. This leads to more strategic time allocation, ensuring that present actions align with future goals.

Comment below, which idea you liked most. What are your experiences?