Have you ever wondered why you always seem to be one step behind some of your peers in terms of work rate, performance, and keeping to time? Or is it as simple as feeling so tired, unmotivated, and cranky when you wake up? It’s just a simple answer to these problems really; you are a latecomer. You probably do not wake up on time, nor do you set reminders for important tasks. You also probably do not prioritize your overall tasks, nor do you hold your time in very high regard.

This can be detrimental to your progress in all parts of life. The sentence ‘the early bird gets the worm’ is not just a saying, it is a philosophy. There are so many reasons to start taking your time more seriously and be punctual. You would have better relationships, a better work and performance rate, and all other aspects of your life.

But what does it really mean to be the earliest bird that gets the worm and stand out from your peers? That is what we will cover in this post, and hopefully give you some insight on what you are doing wrong. For people who are already familiar with this concept, it is equally important because we would give some interesting facts that are extremely hard to figure out on your own.

The Earliest Bird Gets What It Wants

It is a very simple, yet rigorous concept to practice. In truth, it is one of the hardest philosophies to perform, and it is understandable. People like relaxation, as well as comfort. Because of this, more people are more likely not to push themselves beyond their capable limits of time management.  One day, they wake up in regret, wishing they had kept to time more, or paid more attention to their schedules.

Take Bill as an example: he is a very successful associate that has high hopes of becoming a name partner one day. He has the skill and expertise to achieve this, but he lacks a certain something; time management. He constantly shows up late to meetings, negotiations, and uses his time poorly.

 Dave on the other hand is not as skilled as Bill, but also wants to be name partner someday. However, he has a knack for keeping to time which is something his superiors like. He is always punctual to events, and does a decent job at the same time. The truth is, if he goes on like this, not only would he NOT make name partner, he would also be kicked out of the law firm he so deeply desires.

Get it now? You need to show up earlier than your colleagues in order to get the best rewards. Of course, this does not just mean attending events early. It also means developing an effective time management plan, and sticking to it religiously.

Self-Care

People have always thought the term “self-care” as something hard and rare to come by. That could not be any more wrong. It is something that is totally within your grasp, as long as you are willing to constantly fight for it and retain it. This self-care also involves using your time well, and getting rid of time wasting events.  After all, we also need time to maintain these self-care practices. That is why time is one of the most important things to manage. If you manage it successfully, it can make all the difference.

First of all, you should ask yourself how you spend your time. Most people do not have a direct, immediate answer to this, and it is somewhat expected. We as people are not naturally wired to keep track of everything happening around us, especially the more regular routines. It is a very important question to ask yourself, no matter who you are, where you are form, or what your goal is. This is essential and is one of the first steps to building a good regimen and practice.

Start by asking yourself how you spend your most unproductive day. You may spend it watching marathons of “Game of thrones” or be playing video games for hours on end. We do not need to tell you that unless you are affiliated in the video game world, or are a movie critic, you are probably spending too much time on said event.

Next, ask yourself what you ideal day is like. To you, it could be breaking your productive record, or simply just being early to everything. Whatever it is, that is a good way to start. Most people think of something ideal as something they cannot get, and that is just not true. It is something anyone can do if they put their mind to it.

Time Management Tips

We would be sharing some personal Time management tips that would be beneficial to you if you use them:

Monitor your time.

As someone who wants to get better at managing their tin=me, it is very important to understand how you spend your time, and keep it in check. This is applicable to most aspects of time management, and we would be taking working in an office setting as one of them. Imagine your job is to send out emails and other important documents to your colleagues and superiors. You seem to do a good job at it, but still unexplainably lose two hours’ worth of time. You need to be able to understand exactly why those two hours are being wasted.

In this case, you may be losing time because of the consistent “breaks” you keep taking to go on social media, or other unnecessary breaks.

Make your most important tasks a priority.

You may want to do the tasks that are the most important as soon as possible, rather than later. This is because large tasks tend to take more time. They would be more analytical, lengthier, and a tad bit more annoying to finish. Chances are, the sooner you get them done, the better for you. Doing them first would mean that you would be likely to do them when your brain is still fresh and ready to go in the morning. If you reserve them for later, you are bound to make more mistakes, get frustrated, thus taking more precious time.

If you are overwhelmed, delegate to save time.

This is a very solid tip to practice, as it can be a lifesaver sometimes. You need to understand that sometimes, it is okay to not be able to handle all the work assigned to you; it happens to the best of us. To make up for that and to save yourself from screaming in despair and sadness, it is always a good option to delegate your work. This would assign the job or task to your colleagues or juniors who have more time on their hands and are better equipped to handle it.

Alternatively, if there is no one to delegate your work to, you may want to consider outsourcing your work. This might be more stressful than delegating, but it still offers you a way to get some weight off your shoulders. Being overworked would easily cause you to oversleep, and wake up late. It would then cause you to miss appointments and deadlines. Ultimately, it would affect your time management to a very high degree.

Do not be afraid to make some changes.

Whatever you do, do not be afraid of making changes to your already existing time management regiment and schedules. You should understand that you do not have to stick with the same time management routine and plan if it doesn’t seem to work for you. You do not have to emulate somebody just because they seem to have they seem able to control their time expertly.

 At the same time the time management plans that worked out for you might not work out for you after a while. In this case, you are highly encouraged to tweak things/shake things up. The fact is that you would always need to regularly update your time management plans because events change. If you do not adapt to the times and accordingly adjust your time management plans, you are more likely to fall behind and be right where you started. It takes a lot to be a successful individual, and time is one of the determining factors

Try not to multitask too much.

A lot of us are guilty of this, and is one of the main reasons why we waste time. Imagine Bill has some important business to attend to, and at the same time needs to supervise the work of his juniors. Supervising dozens of employees is bad enough, but he would also have to do four tasks before his deadline. As you can already predict, this is surely a recipe for disaster. He would definitely fail to perform all his tasks on time, and would do a lousy job of supervising his juniors on the social media marketing work they are doing. Therefore, it is very important that you perform one task at a time, as hard as it may sound. This would allow you minimize errors to the minimum, and focus all your concentration on one task.

Our verdict

As we said earlier, it is also very important to switch up regularly. You need to get with the times, otherwise your time techniques would become relics. Whatever you do, you should always make sure that you actively take into account other people’s plans and regimens. You are not in island, and you sure as hell do not live in a vacuum. If you want your time management plans to work well with others, you need to check your plans’ compatibility with others, and be able to come to a compromise with them.