Best guide on how to Make the Most of your 24 hours
In his tribute to Kobe Bryant, Kyle Lowry of the Toronto Raptors said that Kobe’s number 24 wasn’t just the number on his jersey, it was the number of hours in the day that he used to hone and develop his craft as a basketball player.
Kobe was reputed for and wanted to be known as someone who gave his all and “never took a day off.” He declared that he didn’t want to take his great talent for granted and recognized that he needed to do the work in order to “overachieve.”
What about you?
You may not be wearing 24 on your jersey but you still have 24 hours in every day.
In fact, we all do. We are all allocated the 24 hours -1,440 minutes -86, 400 seconds, every single day. Yet, some people seem to get so much more done compared to their peers. Why do you suppose that is?
It all comes down to how we chose to spend our time.
There are many who spend time engaging in activities that do nothing to move them closer to their goals. There is no doubt they are busy. But their results don’t reflect their activity. They don’t seem to realize that being busy doesn’t mean that you are being productive.
Then there are others who have adopted the mantra, “I don’t have enough time.” Somehow, they are able to find time to do everything except the things they purport to be important to them. All the while, coming up with reasons or perhaps more accurately excuses as to why they don’t have enough time.
I think the answer can be found not in how many hours there are in the day but in how we choose to use and maximize them.
Here are three ideas on how you can get the most out of each day and thus achieve more:
Prioritize
How exactly are you spending your time?
On what activities do you place your priority?
Of course, we spend most of the day on our jobs and in our businesses. That is understandable since the world we live in dictates that we have to earn money in order to live. If you have dreams of moving up the ladder at work, plan to start your own business or grow your existing one, but don’t spend much time acquiring new knowledge, developing your skills, creating a product and so on, then your priorities are not aligned with your goals. If that is true for you, what do you think your chances of success would be.
What about outside of your vocation? What are the other things that are important to you? Health and fitness, relationships, leisure, volunteering?
What we truly prioritize determines how we spend the majority of our time and hence impacts the extent to which we succeed. It doesn’t matter how busy it gets, we always find time for the things we value.
Be intentional
What is the best way to get the most out of your day?
Be intentional!
The most productive people are those who start their day determined to accomplish the goals they set for that day. They develop an absolute focus on the activities that are aligned with their priorities and are going to produce results and then work on accomplishing as many of them as possible.
Of course, such laser focus does not immune them from distractions and setbacks. There is always a high probability that things that are beyond your control will happen. Being intentional and focused arms you with the ability to deal with them quickly and minimize their impact.
Practice reflection
How did you spend your time today?
Were your priorities and activities aligned or did you come up with excuses to avoid doing what you were supposed to do?
Did you quickly and efficiently deal with and minimize the impact of the distractions and roadblocks?
This is the kind of mental review you need to do at the end of the day. If you answer no to any of these questions, then you may need to seriously reevaluate your priorities. Perhaps what you deemed to be important to you is not really that important. By practicing self-reflection, you will be able to truly identify your priorities and get more out of your day.
The American author Ann Dillard, reminds us that “How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives.” How we spend each moment of each day translates into the success or failure of the day and ultimately whether or not we can look back and say we’ve had a good life; not only in terms of what we have accumulated for ourselves but in the way we have positively impacted others.