Most time management advice on the Internet and in books comes from professional writers. If your job is anything other than writing for a living, a lot of their advice is worthless.
My primary job is to build businesses. Though sometimes I want to, I can’t sit alone in a room for weeks and be productive. I need to work with others to achieve my goals. I’m sure you do too.
We can actually build more wealth with others than alone. Here’s how:
Tip 1: Build or Acquire Assets
If the number of hours you work determines how much money you make, your wealth potential is always going to be limited. The way out is to acquire or build assets that grow in value beyond the time you put in.
My preference is to build, acquire, and invest in businesses. Good companies produce cash flow and appreciate in value over time.
Regardless of the cause, the biggest difference in the current circumstances of rich people versus poor people is rich people own more wealth-producing assets.
If you put 75% of every dollar you make into good assets, such as cash-producing businesses, you are nearly guaranteed to be wealthy in a decade or two.
Tip 2: Do Less to Do More
We only have 24 hours in a day. Eight hours are used for sleep and another two are used for daily maintenance such as eating and grooming. This leaves us with 14 hours per day to create everything we want in life.
To achieve anything meaningful we have to cut out what doesn’t support our bigger goals.
I’d love to workout and play sports five hours a day. However, beyond an hour or two a day to stay healthy and happy, more time in physical activity hurts progress toward my bigger goals.
We can do almost anything we want, we just can’t do everything we want right now. We have to choose.
Before we add more to our plates to achieve our goals, let’s first examine what can be removed.
Tip 3: Remove Distractions
This tip the professional writers get right. To do good work, we need to limit distractions. Multitasking on meaningful tasks doesn’t work. We need to focus.
Find a time and place every day in which you can do quiet, focused work on your most important tasks. For me, it’s in the morning. I wake up around 6AM, feed our dog, grab coffee, meditate for a few minutes, and then spend at least two hours in solitary work.
I use this time to think, plan, and create. When it’s time to work with my partners and team members, I’m better able to guide their work because I’ve spent time planning beforehand.
A Valuable Lesson Beyond Time Management
Unfortunately, like most things in life, the best approach to time management isn’t on one extreme or another – it would be easier if it was.
We can’t spend all of our time locked alone in a room creating, unless we’re professional writers.
We also can’t spend all of our time chatting with others, drowning in digital communications, and wasting the day away in excessive meetings.
The best approach is the middle path. To use our time the best to produce wealth, we need time alone and time spent to use the resources of others to produce even greater wealth.