The Trick To Leading A Productive Life...

Hello everyone,

I'm a little bored right now (the irony will become apparent) and as such have decided to share my thoughts on a simple technique that I believe could allow us all to lead more productive, stress free and happier lives - sounds like a something you would read on a flyer right?

I'd personally describe myself as an OCD precision freak at times in comparison to someone who would be late for his own funeral, pretty strange combination I know but hey that's me.

What I'm about to write about isn't anything secret or complicated, in fact it's quite simple. What am I talking about?

Time management is the act or process of exercising conscious control over the amount of time spent on specific activities, especially to increase efficiency or productivity. Time management may be aided by a range of skills, tools, and techniques used to manage time when accomplishing specific tasks, projects and goals. This set encompasses a wide scope of activities, and these include planning, allocating, setting goals, delegation, analysis of time spent, monitoring, organizing, scheduling, and prioritizing. Initially, time management referred to just business or work activities, but eventually the term broadened to include personal activities as well. A time management system is a designed combination of processes, tools, techniques, and methods. Usually time management is a necessity in any project development as it determines the project completion time and scope.

Time management

We all could manage our time better in my opinion which leads to a happier life, set aside 15 minutes at the start and end of each day to plan how your going to tackle your daily activities.

When you plan your actions and prepare for the coming day life flows so much easier, rather than waiting until the morning to iron that work shirt or blouse do it the night before. You now have a less stressful tomorrow morning, more time during that morning for other things and your happier

Like I said, this is nothing new or difficult to understand but like I said I think it's an area we could all improve upon.

I met a senior figure at work who told me a tale of his old boss (an even higher positioned senior figure) and he told me that the reason she was so effective was her time management - if she said you had to present a 15 minute meeting then it better had been 15 minutes or you would be shown the door.

I think if we live our lives like a business then we could all become either more successful, productive, happier or a combination of all three.

I'm not saying we shouldn't have "chill out" time but keeping a structure is definitely the way to go.

To keep this short, the following website is very usual in my opinion -

MindTools

Good luck

P.S. I live my life nothing like the above at the moment but I'm honestly trying my best to incorporate some of the strategies the above website describes.

Disclaimer: I'm in no way affiliated to the above website, it was simple found through my own research and I think it contains useful tips/information in regards to the topic of this thread.

I totally agree with you, time management and moderation are the keys to happiness in a modern world. But these are are not the only paths.

Originally posted by Death_Kron
I think if we live our lives like a business then we could all become either more successful, productive, happier or a combination of all three.

Couldn't agree less with the above sentiment.

If the business was akin to how Willy Wonka did things, fair enough.

reply to post by LiveForever8

I agree! I don't think running my life like a business would help things... I would start walking all over people to make myself happier, I would abuse my employees (i.e. my health) just to the point of quitting, I would destroy my environment to better my personal interests and I would end up selling what I accomplished with myself to someone else (can't think of the metaphor there, but I bet you know what I'm getting at here). Or at least that is my opinion of "business"...

I don't mean to bash the idea of the OP (whatever works for you is what really counts!). I just don't agree with that one statement.

Originally posted by LiveForever8

Originally posted by Death_Kron
I think if we live our lives like a business then we could all become either more successful, productive, happier or a combination of all three.

Couldn't agree less with the above sentiment.

If the business was akin to how Willy Wonka did things, fair enough.

Really?

Then maybe you wouldn't run a successful business

What's wrong with running your life like a business? Surely, if you owned your own company you would want to manage your time well, prioritize what needs to be done, manage your finances smartly, gain respect from the competition and run smoothly?

All things that would apply in life, no ?

I make my plans for the week/month, on a whiteboard.
Draw a line through each one, as completed.
Then reality happens. and not many lines are drawn.

It's an IT job...So That's expected. But it does help keep me on track somewhat.

reply to post by spacedoubt


Yep, work in IT/Telecoms myself. Probably has something to do with my thoughts..