How do you manage your time? Sales guru Harvey Mackay hit the nail on the head when he exclaimed, "Time is free, but it's priceless. You can't own it, but you can use it. You can't keep it, but you can spend it. Once you've lost it you can never get it back.”
I asked my good friend Regev Yativ, CEO of Magic Software Americas, how he manages his time. He relayed sage advice and I thought you'd enjoy it as much as I did. Take a look and feel free to chime in with your tips and tricks on how you make the most of every day.
1. Use your “Idle time” - idle time occurs every time you undertake a task that doesn’t require full concentration / your full attention – these can be very long at times. Sometimes you can just ‘disconnect’ yourself mentally and use this time to multitask – idle time include also flights, travel, train, taxi, terminals, hotels, finishing a meeting earlier, arriving to meetings ahead of time, canceled meetings, time 'windows' between meetings or during a commercial show and even boring or insignificant conf calls...
2. Good meetings should take 1 hour, not more (an old Japanese practice that works very well till today).
3. Some people are “time consumers”; learn to control your time in their presence
4. Don’t drive / fly before you ensure all meetings are properly set / fully prepared. Always make sure there is an agenda and an objective set for the meeting and that these are aligned with the counterpart.
5. Do not start and leave tasks for ‘later’, its the worst enemy of time management.
6. Mind your priorities. Spend time only on forums, meetings and events that DIRECTLY contribute to your success
7. Wake up earlier, sleep later – these are the “quiet” hours that will yield a lot over time. It’s hard at first, but your body will soon follow.
8. Go through your weekly plan every Friday PM (for the week ended) and every Sunday PM for the week starting.
9. Ensure ALL meetings are in your calendar (conf calls too!) subject, location, address, contact + phone # (get a GPS system no point in wondering the streets for hours over pride).
10. Run your home / private schedule in a ‘business-like’ way. Make sure you control your private engagements and that you are not constantly surprised by them. Emergency is way overused.
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