24/7 Time Management E-Book

Tim Reichel

• Herausgeber: Studienscheiss Verlag
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2022

Seitenzahl: 168

Beschreibung

Too busy to enjoy your life? 24 hours, 7 days a week, we muddle through life. Work, family, friends, hobbies. I bet you feel like the rest of humanity: You're pretty busy trying to get your daily life together. There is hardly any time left for special moments, desires, or life dreams. But that's about to change! No time for time management You know why your to-do list is endless and your calendar is filled to burst: Your time management is poor. You'd like to change your situation — but ironically, you just don't have the time. This book is your salvation! Invest a little time in reading it and you will get a high return. It's a time management book for those who don't have time to read a time management book. 24+7 timesavers for more productivity and focus This is not just another guidebook, but a modern toolbox. You'll get only what you really need: 24 concrete methods and 7 sustainable principles that will help you improve your time management immediately and at the same time achieve long-term effects for your whole life. 7 time management principles Learn the 7 core principles on which successful time management is based. These timeless concepts have been used for hundreds of years and followed by the greatest personalities in human history. In any book, seminar, or video course on the subject, these 7 principles can be found: -Set goals -Define priorities -Make plans -Generate focus -Work efficiently -Establish habits -Never give up 24 time management methods You will also learn 24 time management methods that will help you organize your professional and private life. These are the best-known and most effective techniques currently available. Some of them are among the basics of time management; others are so modern that they draw on the results of behavioral research, giving you a serious competitive advantage. 24 practical tools await you which you can try out at will and use according to your personal preference: -Eat-that-frog method -Pareto effect -SMART formula -Focus question -Salami slicing tactics -ABC-analysis -Eisenhower matrix -ALPEN method -Getting things done -Performance curve -Planning levels -Parkinson's law -Time boxing -Task chunking -Pomodoro technique -Single tasking -Two-minute rule -Speed reading -Time balance model -KonMari method -Not-to-do list -VIP list -Journaling -Non-zero days Less theory, more practice To keep the whole thing from being dry theory, you'll get examples and best practice instructions for uncomplicated application at every opportunity. Each time management technique is condensed into four pages and divided into efficient sections. In addition, you'll receive exercises for each chapter so that you can directly apply what you have read. So, you can get started right away and make the most of this guide. Concentrated and focused work Concentrated action is the basis for productive work, but even the sharpest focus won't help you if you use it incorrectly. That's why you'll learn, not only how to overcome distractions as well as procrastination, but also how to set smart priorities and make plans in this book. More time, less stress, and a better life! Time management is not boring or complicated. If you get it right, it's fun and a natural rhythm that guides you reliably through your day. It's the only way to take back control of your life, reduce your stress, and end up with more free time. This is how you achieve a healthy work-life balance. This book will change your life - it's your path to a stress-free, successful, and happy future.

Leseprobe

24/7 Time Management

The definitive time management book for those who don’t have time to read time management books (principles, methods and examples for quick wins and lasting improvements)

Dr. Tim Reichel

For You

24/7 Time Management: The definitive time management book for those who don’t have time to read time management books (principles, methods and examples for quick wins and lasting improvements) by Dr. Tim Reichel

First published in Germany in 2019 by Studienscheiss GmbH

Oppenhoffallee 143, 52066 Aachen, Germany

Contact: [email protected]

Local Court Aachen, HRB 19105

VAT: DE295455486

© 2022 Tim Reichel

All rights reserved. The contents of this book are protected by copyright. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of the publisher.

1st Edition, November 2022

ISBN: 978-3-98597-082-7 Print (Paperback)

ISBN: 978-3-98597-083-4 E-Book (PDF)

ISBN: 978-3-98597-084-1 E-Book (EPUB)

ISBN: 978-3-98597-085-8 Audio (audio book)

The German National Library has registered this publication in the German National Bibliography; detailed bibliographic data is available at www.dnb.de.

Translation: Annika Mattes, Brühl

Copy Editing: Delia Hansen, Piet Retief

Redaction: Hannah Dautzenberg, Aachen

Proofreading: Paula Gebauer, Berlin

Cover Design: Melanie Schwarz, Aachen

Production: Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates

Printed in Germany

Table of Contents

Start

No time for time management

24+7 Timesavers

How this book is going to help you

Principles

Principles for your time management

#1 Set goals

#2 Define priorities

#3 Make plans

#4 Generate focus

#5 Work efficiently

#6 Establish habits

#7 Never give up

Summary

Methods

Methods for your time management

#1 Eat-that-frog method

#2 Pareto effect

#3 SMART formula

#4 Focus question

#5 Salami slicing tactics

#6 ABC analysis

#7 Eisenhower matrix

#8 ALPEN method

#9 Getting things done

#10 Performance curve

#11 Planning levels

#12 Parkinson’s law

#13 Time boxing

#14 Task chunking

# 15 Pomodoro technique

#16 Single-tasking

#17 Two-minute rule

#18 Speed reading

#19 Time balance model

#20 KonMari method

#21 Not-to-do list

#22 VIP list

#23 Journaling

#24 Non-zero days

Summary

Training plan

End

About the book

Acknowledgement

Literature

About the author

Workbook

____________________

Start

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No time for time management

24/7 — 24 hours, 7 days a week we muddle through life. Work, family, friends, hobbies. Some exercise once in a while, or a special event for a little feel-good in between. Occasionally, an important moment occurs; every now and then we move up to the next level or pass through a small valley. Overall, however, you feel like the rest of humanity: You’re pretty busy with managing your everyday life. Your daily tasks need to be done, obligations await you, and you constantly face new challenges. There is rarely time to take a breather. Usually, no time at all. Of course, you have desires and dreams — but when are you supposed to have time for those? After all, the next bill has to be paid and the kitchen wall won’t paint itself.

And so, your life just trickles along.

What a pity!

A tragic pity. What’s the reason behind it? Actually, you know it very well. You know why you’re stressed-out and have trouble sleeping. You know why your to-do list is bursting at the seams and your calendar has been overflowing for quite some time. It’s not just a vague idea — you know the solution: You have poor time management. If what you do every day could be called time management at all. In principle, you know the way out and would love to change your situation, but ironically you don’t have the time for it.

You don’t have time for time management.

At this point, I can reassure you: You aren’t alone. No one has enough time. However, some of us simply use this little time better than others. As if by magic, these people have greater success at work, more free time, and a happier life. All at the same time. They get more things done than the rest of us and are as relaxed as if they just had a three-weeks’ vacation in the Caribbean. Do you want to be one of them? Then let’s take a short mental excursion:

A person is ambling along through the forest and discovers a lumberjack chopping a huge pile of wood. But the lumberjack is making terribly slow progress. He struggles because his axe is blunt and takes an incredibly long time for each piece of wood. The walker asks the man why he doesn’t sharpen his axe first. The exhausted lumberjack points to the log pile still in front of him and answers: “No time for that — there is too much to do, I have to chop wood.”

Apart from the fact that you shouldn’t annoy stressed people holding an axe in their hand with wise-ass questions, this well-known metaphor illustrates that if you have to deal with a scarce resource, it’s worthwhile to optimize its use. It doesn’t matter whether it’s time, money, or an axe. To make progress in life and improve your skills, you have to invest in yourself and the tools you’re using. If you aren’t willing to do that, you won’t make any headway and you will never reach your full potential.

Hence, what does a good lumberjack do when he has ten hours to chop wood? He sharpens his axe for nine hours. Only then does he start chopping wood. That means: If you want to work efficiently and live happily, you should tweak your technique. If you don’t have enough time and feel stressed, you should use some of your time to structure managing yourself. You have to improve your time management — only then you will have more time for the pleasant things in life.

This book will help you do just that.

24+7 Timesavers

You aren’t looking at some run-of-the-mill guidebook that repeats the same phrases over and over again. You don’t have time for that. You need quick solutions that you can apply straight away. Preferably with sustainable approaches, so that your time management improves in the long run.

This is precisely the kind of book I have written for you.

It’s a time management book for anyone who doesn’t have time to read a time management book. It sounds strange, but I really mean it. Because most books that deal with this subject have a serious defect in design: They’re inefficient. These kinds of books often lack a clear structure, are full of useless ramblings and don’t boil it down to the essence. You have to work out the valuable content yourself in tiresome detail and then figure out how to apply it to your personal situation. That is anything but timesaving.

Here you get what you really need: 24 concrete methods and 7 sustainable principles that help you to improve your time management straight away and simultaneously achieve long-term effects for your life. To this end, I have read and analyzed just about every time management book available and got to the bottom line. This book is the result. It includes the core principles on which successful time management is based.

These are basic concepts that have been used for hundreds of years and have helped millions of people. If you take these principles into consideration in your daily life, your mindset, way of working and evaluation of time will change fundamentally — and permanently. Besides, I will show you 24 methods that you’re able to use to improve your time management instantly.

We are talking about the most famous and most effective techniques available these days. Some of them are classic; others are so modern that they draw on current studies and offer you a methodological advantage in knowledge. However, you won’t get any theory from my book — only concrete measures that you can follow step by step. Altogether, these are your 24+7 timesavers that provide you with maximum benefit in almost no time at all. You can look them up quickly and easily and follow the corresponding instructions. Without a lot of hassle, effort, or time-consuming rehashing of what you read.

But why should you believe me?

Because I’m living proof that time management can work. Not only have I spent years professionally studying various time and self-management methods — I use them myself, day after day. Thus, I know how valuable and precious these techniques are. It’s only thanks to practical time management that I, besides my work as a full-time scientist, have been able to found two companies, author 20 books, write my PhD thesis, and pursue volunteer work — without sacrificing my social life or health. I have great friends, time for my family, I’m a triple godfather, go on vacation regularly, and still have some time left for fun hobbies. Fine, maybe I could take care of tax documents a little sooner and clean up my garage more often, but let’s not quibble.

What I really wanted to say: I know how time management works. Even if you don’t really have time for it or have other things on your mind. With the right strategies, it’s still possible. In this book, I pass on my knowledge to you. Even more: I will show you how you’re able to set up a successful and stress-free system for yourself, to enable you to better manage your time, use it in a cleverer way, and fill it with pleasant things.

How this book is going to help you

Time management isn’t boring or complicated. If you address yourself to the task the right way, it’s fun and acts as a very natural rhythm that reliably leads you through life. Even if you have had little or no experience with self-organization, you will make quick progress with a smart strategy. No matter if you still go to school, are studying, starting your career, or already know what life is all about: You always have the opportunity to optimize your time — this book will assist you to do so.

In fact, in this book I will show you how to improve your time management from scratch. You will learn how to organize your daily routine (hence, spend less time working but still become more successful than ever before). As a result, you regain control over your life, reduce your stress level, and end up with more leisure time at your disposal at a higher quality level.

Sounds too good to be true, right?

There’s just one little snag to it: You have to do something to achieve it. If you just read this book, sit back afterwards, and do nothing, not much is going to happen. Nothing at all, in fact. I don’t want you to read the advice — nod twice — and then continue with business as usual. I wish for you to enjoy a new lease on life and change it positively; I want you to keep your chin up, grow, and remain or become successful. The tips in this book will only work if you take action yourself. You have to follow up the words read in the book with deeds. An equalized and flexible work-life balance doesn’t come for free — you have to do something for it. However, I have paved the way to make it as easy as possible for you.

To this end, I divided this book into two parts. In part one, I depict the seven core principles of time management and explain how you can integrate them into your life. In part two, I present 24 concrete time management methods to apply the principles in practice.

These are the seven principles:

• Set goals

• Define priorities

• Make plans

• Generate focus

• Work efficiently

• Establish habits

• Never give up

To make the whole issue more inspiring and less theoretical, I will give you examples and best-practice guidance for easy use whenever possible.

The 24 methods have been structured according to another pattern for you to achieve your goals even faster. For this purpose, I have depicted every time management technique on 4 pages and divided each technique into these sections:

At a glance

A summary of the time management method presented in one single phrase so that you know straight away what it’s about and what to expect.

How it works

Concise description of time management methodology in less than two pages for a quick understanding — without ramblings and unnecessary explanations.

Instruction

Action plans and step-by-step explanations on how you can implement the appropriate time management technique immediately.

Example

Relevant examples from your everyday life that pick up on the respective time management method and show you how the previously described method works in practice.

Take action

Concrete tasks and motivating calls to action for you to try out and apply the new methods directly.

Generally, I have tried to avoid long descriptions and overloaded passages. That’s boring and affects your reading flow. I rather focused on the core ideas and depicted them in a nutshell. This way, you can get started right away and use this book for your own benefit.

In addition, I have prepared adequate interactive worksheets and collected bonus material for you that will facilitate working with the book. This collection includes additional information, supportive material and a lot more. This workbook is a gift from me to you. On the last page of this book, you will find a link to access this content. It will take you to my website where you can subscribe to the corresponding mailing list — for free, of course. My recommendation: Get the bonus material right away to make reading and working with this book as easy as possible for you. With this, nothing should stand in the way of your success.

Let’s get started!

____________________

Principles

____________________

Principles for your time management

In this chapter, I introduce seven core principles on which successful time management is based. They’re timeless concepts that have been used for hundreds of years and followed by the greatest figures in human history. In every book, seminar, or webinar on the topic all these seven principles are mentioned. Therefore, you have to know them — and apply them. If possible, use them every day, because only then you will be able to manage your time bottlenecks in the long run and build a more fulfilling life. Before we get to the nitty-gritty, I want to give you five recommendations.

1. Choose the right dose

The seven principles of time management have only one purpose: They’re supposed to improve your life. The principles can help you to focus on the important things in life and make wise decisions in your stressful everyday life. That also means: Every now and then, it may be inconvenient to consistently stick to these guidelines — especially in the beginning. But the principles aren’t tools of oppression under the use of which you should constantly measure yourself and clock your time until exhausted. Use them with a pinch of salt and don’t overdo it. Only in this way can you unleash their full potential.

2. Don’t let it make you unsure

I have personally gathered and described the time management principles for you. The odds are high that you already know some of the principles under a different name or have already heard of them. Like I said: These strategies are timeless and will still be of importance in 1,000 years. In this book you will find the essence of numerous studies, guidebooks, and courses. I have prepared this content for you in such a way that you can absorb, understand, and apply as much information as possible in a short period of time.

3. Take the principles seriously

You will be surprised how simple the seven principles are. Frighteningly simple, in fact. However, this doesn’t mean that you should underestimate them and therefore perform them half-heartedly or even ignore them. Most people are familiar with the basic principles of successful time management: “Of course, I know that already!” is the most common reaction to many of the following strategies. Ironically, exactly these people don’t make use of any of the tips described, but waste their time systematically with unimportant, miscellaneous odds and ends — although they supposedly know all about it. Do it better. Take the principles seriously and apply them decisively.

4. Be creative

The seven principles are to be understood as overarching guiding principles for a successful and happy life. They’re the cornerstones of holistic time management that gives you the power to achieve the extraordinary. At the same time, it creates space for you to have more free time, so that you can enjoy it even more. For you that means: Once you have understood the principles, you have to bring them to life and find application opportunities. In part two of this book, you will learn 24 methods, which I will support you in implementing step by step.

5. Take action

You must take action. The point isn’t that you can or should — but that you must! If you just skim the following pages and then continue business as usual, nothing will change in your time management. Apply the principles determinedly and give it a shot at any given opportunity. “Consistency” is the magic word: Make a habit of the seven principles and absorb them in your daily routine. Only then you will make a sustainable improvement in your life. Let’s start with principle number 1 immediately.

#1 Set goals

Many people think they have goals. In reality, they only have a few dreams and wishful thinking drifting through their mind. Clear goals for the future: Failure to display. And that is exactly the problem. Without goals, even the best time management is worthless. How are you going to achieve something that you don’t really know in the first place?

Correct — you won’t.

Not setting goals is one of the most effective ways to remain unproductive and unsuccessful throughout your entire life. There is no better way to hamper yourself. Let me give you an interesting statistic: Only about three percent of all people have set clear, written goals. But these three percent manage five to ten times more than all the others combined. All that just because they have set their goals and have written them down.

Only clear goals help you to achieve outstanding results — in all spheres of life. Because once you know where you’re heading, you’re able to define the exact path to get there and take the right steps. Nothing else.

Without goals you’re haphazard and will fail before you even start. Success level: always far below your possibilities. That takes away your motivation and makes you unhappy in the long run. Without goals you will stumble into a downward spiral. To prevent this from happening, you need to figure out what exactly you want to achieve and be smart about setting your goals. This will give you orientation in your hectic everyday life, immediately create more structure in your life, and finally bring focus to the essentials.

By the way: “Be successful and have more time” is a reasonable resolution and a nice vision for the future — but as a goal, this statement is completely inadequate. Why? Too vague, non-committal, with no time reference. Bottom line: wishy-washy times two. Mere foggy lip-service. And what fog can lead to when setting goals is illustrated by the following story:

4 July 1952, shortly after sunrise. Off Catalina Island, west of the California coast, a 34-year-old woman walks into the water. Her name is Florence Chadwick. Florence has big plans for today. She wants to be the first woman in the world to swim the distance of about 30 kilometers back to the mainland. The water is freezing cold and it’s densely foggy so that she can hardly see the accompanying boats.