Previously on 24 ...

We all have 24 hours a day. Whether you are a college student, someone loafing by the beach all summer, an investment banker working 18 hours a day, a politician, a doctor, a businessman running a small company, a businessmen running a conglomerate of companies, the prime minister of any nation or Jack Bauer (especially if you are Jack Bauer) - you still have only 24 hours.

How can someone do so much when he has exactly the same amount of time as we do? How can we 'buy' more time? Too often, we give the excuse of 'no time'. That's right, I'm guilty of it too. This post is to rant about some 'time-buying/ time-creating' tips:

• Less is more. That's right. Do less to achieve more. What do you need to quit to achieve your goals.
• Plan your schedule. Try fixing 70-80% of your schedule.
• Have a 'to-do' lists - how much time is wasted forgetting things? forgetting to buy this, pay for that, get this? and we stress ourselves reminding ourselves. Let the list worry for you and enjoy your day, knowing you won't forget things and you won't waste time going back to the store.
• Get help/ delegate in areas that you are dispensable and focus on areas you are indispensable. A CEO/ Prime minister gets a driver, a PA, a cleaner, a tea lady to do those dispensable tasks for him.
• Use technology (but not mastered by it)
• Pay bills online, use auto debit.
• Buy groceries in bulk. Instead of shopping every week, can you stretch it to 2?
• Plan your driving route. Know your destination. Get a GPS (I need one :)
• Listen to messages, self development audios, parenting CDs, talk interviews, favourite music (instead of aimless tunes) during traffic jams (instead of 'wasting 1 hour in traffic'; you are actually attending a 1 hour "course"). Alternatively, you could sing on top of your lungs to release stress.
• Plan uninterrupted slots of time - to relax, to read, to think, to spend quality time with love ones, to do assignment, to study (an hour of 'real study' is worth 3 hours of 'study + IMs + facebooks + music + sms). a non-interrupted 2 hour relaxing time with family is worth an afternoon spend with family but with work/ calls/ errands at the same time.
• Plan meetings night/ day - try to pack similar kinds of meetings together. E.g. Tuesday morning purely administrative meetings and Wednesday is leadership meetings.
• I would rather have 2 meetings a night than 1 meeting in 2 nights (dinner + after dinner meeting). Then, I have additional night off.
• Inform your time frame when setting up a meeting. E.g. Let's meet at 730pm; but i gotta go by 9pm. Less chance people pushing your meeting later and manage expectation.
• Always carry a book in your car/ bag. There's always waiting time in the bus stop, for appointments, waiting for your turn in doctor/ bank etc.
• Part of working smart may be working hard, but working hard is not necessarily working smart. Work smart.
• Some people I know only check emails certain times of day. Say once early morning, then after lunch and focus the rest of the day on priority tasks.
• Plan for rest and leisure. And don't be apologetic for it.
• Ask for help. Surround yourselves with experts. You may take 3 hours trying to read up on something to understand when you could call up an expert who could explain it to you in 15 minutes. Leverage.
• Read. Someone's 20-30 years of life experience will only costs you RM 50 and 4-5 hours.
• Distinguish what's urgent and important. Sometimes it's hard to tell.
• Learn skills to be more effective. E.g. typing with 10 fingers is faster (and more cooler) than typing with 2.
• Learn to say 'no' to false expectations/ obligations.
• Wake up an hour earlier than usual.
• Acknowledge that your time belongs to God and we should be a good steward. Life is short. Ask Him to teach you about time. From wasting time to spending time to INVESTING time. We should not ask "how can I spend my time?" but "how can i invest my time?"
• Raise people to be able to do what you can do (and do it better)

That's it for now. I am learning to be a good steward of my time. Let me know if you can add to this list, so that I can learn from you and through your tips, I can 'create more time' so that I could invest more time.