How To Let Your Time Work For You.

Is your time working for you or against you? This is a serious question. Many times we sit back and fritter our time away doing nothing. We fail to schedule our tasks, we fail to make up our minds on what we ought to do and worst still expect the cosmic forces to set things in place for miracles to happen. We fail to do what we set out to do and rush to meet deadlines. In the process, we end up starting all over again or lose out completely on achieving our goals. This is not how we are wired to operate.

Just as you can make your money work for you so also can you make your time work for you. There is a Roman saying that preparation meets opportunities to turn to luck or success. This means for you to be successful, you need to prepare and lay in wait in the corridor of opportunities. Wow. That's all about making your time work for you. Time used positively will likely bring about productive outcomes. Once again, if you prepare and station yourself in the right places you are closer to hitting it big with your time. Let me take it a notch higher: it took you some effort to get to my blog. It was either I directly or indirectly invited you via facebook, friends, acquaintances or through your personal discovery. All I am saying is that it took some actions on your part to explore these contents. Don’t sit back, take action. Make your time work for you.

Learn how to focus on tasks that give your time value. Focus on your major activities and keep track of minor activities that might slow you down towards getting to your goals. Achieving goals set for yourself is a pointer that you are investing your time wisely. If you are the type of person that always wait for the final nod before you move ahead doing your tasks chances are that your are selling yourself short. Guys that get promoted are those that make their time work for them. They take charge of their time.The are always proactive. Always learn how to add value to processes in your organization or in anything you do. It saves everybody a lot of time. Here are three tips to keep your ahead of making your time work for you:

1. Know your direction: Do not rush into anything without giving it a thought. You don’t need to say "yes" to that task if it’s going to affect on your own work. Any activity that will impact negatively on your overall goals and objectives should be totally discarded. Why pile added work that will not take you any where? I can’t imagine you working on any other person's desk when you have files to treat and calls to atted to. It is not just fair on yourself. Learn how to politely say "no". A lot of us keep our goals in the cooler while we are busy helping other people achieve their goals. What an irony. This takes me in to the second tip to making your time work for you.

2. Focus on your goals: Whether your goals are personal or collective just get focused on them. For somebody working in a corporate organization, your major goal is adding value to that organization. Any other contrary goal will lead you nowhere and will make your time work against you. You don’t need to do everything that needs to be done in your office yourself but you need to do what you ought to do while you are focused on your goals. Once again, you need to focus on your goal. You need to mind your own business. Successful people don’t do everything they need to do themselves, they do want needs to be done and get the remaining done through other people. This is a profound statement and interestingly takes me to the third tip.

3. Learn how to delegate: There is great power in delegation. From a company's organograms, it is very clear for an observer to know who does what and who reports to whom they are expected to. This saves unnecessary disruption of the flow of operation. It is impossible to achieve your goals alone, so you have to develop the skills of selecting your team. You don’t need to be a boss to learn the importance of delegating tasks. You can delegate even in your house or among your activities. You can delegate tasks and also responsibilities. You cannot put your clothes in the washing machine in the morning when you are supposed to be at work because it is normal that you do your laundry. Everybody expects you to be clean and presentable, but that does not mean you should do your laundry while you ought to be at work. Why not try the laundry man or schedule the task till later in the day? You need to do what you ought to do when you ought to do it.

Making your time work for you in all you do is a lot of job but it is a job worth doing. I see you on top of your riches.

Kolawole Kehinde is the C.O.O of The Idea Embassy and R.E.E.L Inc and currently lives in Abuja. He can be reached on kolamagic@gmail.com and kolayore@yahoo.com. You can also call him on 2348097705804 for speaking events and seminars on personal development, time management, leadership and marketing business services in the 21^st century.