5 awesome time management methods that prosperous people use

Napoleon Bonaparte said:
“Allow time for reflection; but when the time comes to act, stop thinking and get down to business. ”
This great lesson will come in handy for us in our struggle with ourselves , which we have to lead when we know what we should do, but cannot seem to resist the urge to delay the beginning . About how to deal with this, will tell Larry Kim .

Perhaps we are postponing the start for an hour. Or for a day. Or even for a few weeks. But by itself, nothing is being done.

Procrastination is a terrible killer of productivity. However, there are people who manage to cope with their inner laziness (we already talked about how to turn off internal criticism here) and, if necessary, leave it in the past. How do they do it?
How incredibly prosperous people shut up a voice whispering to them: "Everything is fine, you can always do it later"?

1. They know the value of deferred remuneration.

Our culture is built mainly on momentary pleasures. We tend to take on those things for which the reward can be obtained easily and quickly.

Highly productive people are well aware of the fruits of their efforts, and more often seek to bring long-term goals to the end. They split large business into smaller ones in order to experience the joy of victory more often. As James Dean said , “Remuneration is about the process, not the results.”

Start encouraging yourself for perseverance. Take the time to celebrate long-term achievements. So you will stop postponing tasks with a flexible deadline or those of them for the solution of which you need to take several steps.

2. Their ideas about the time spent are more realistic.

It seems to you that the task will take 3 hours to complete. But you do not have a “window” of this size. And you want to postpone the matter until the moment when it appears.

Forget about what you need 3 hours - it may take only 90 minutes to work. Successful people just get down to business, no matter how much time they have, and see what happens.

They try not to panic, not to think that “it takes an eternity!”, And methodically destroy the fortress. They spend the time available to them, and each time taking up work, they are approaching its completion.

And that’s enough for them.

3. They ignore their inner perfectionist

Yes, your internal perfectionist and procrastinator are bosom friends. The perfectionist constantly pulls you behind the floor, helpfully reminding you that you are not doing well enough ... and here you can do better ... Because of him, every task seems even worse than it really is, and you lose all desire to take up it right now .

Give up defeatism. To silence your perfectionist, you don’t need to do the job poorly or underperform. Just learn to calm yourself with the phrase: "I will do everything in my power, and that will be enough."

Take a look at Siren Williams: Her success is extremely high, and she has many accomplishments. But at the same time, she, like everyone else, is constantly struggling with her inner perfectionist. “I'm completely insatiable,” she says. “I think there are many more things that I could do better.”

But this does not prevent her from competing with others. She is able to take risks, ignoring an internal destructive whisper, and this is enough for her to go forward.

4. They excellently prioritize

First of all, do you solve the simplest tasks from your list for the day? This tactic is seductive, because it allows us to get to the desired momentary reward and feel the taste of victory, which, in our opinion, will inspire us in the fight against more complex tasks.

Only usually this does not happen.

The most prosperous people first take on the most complex and important tasks to get them out of the way.

5. They are not ahead of the curve.

Oh, these are phrases with the help of which you can persuade yourself to postpone some business:

“What if I get it bad?” “And if the authorities don’t like it?” “And if I hang on this for a long time?”

You are not there in the future.

Successful people do first and only then begin to worry about the results. In the words of Roger Babson : “Remember: neither success nor defeat can be considered the final.”

Do not transfer your fears to projects. Most likely, your fears will not be justified. Stop thinking about them and do better work.

PS We recommend another useful article on the topic of self- development - How successful people cope with procrastination .

The author of the translation is Vyacheslav Davidenko, founder of the companyTESTutor .