After hearing many undeserved compliments about my multi-tasking abilities with varied avocations, my hard-working nature etc, I thought its time I reveal to the world around me that I'm far from being a hard-worker. On the contrary, I'm one of the laziest creatures around.
So how do I manage to pursue varied avocations and hobbies ? Answer is not in multi-tasking as much as it is in time management. I was in a situation where I had no choice but to learn time management or fail in my longtime goals. Necessity is the mother of invention and I had to reinvent myself and circumvent my laziness.
There was a time in 2017 when I was in the final stages of my Ph.D thesis work and also on the verge of completing coursework at Harvard and hence had to regularly travel to Boston in addition to handling my regular work. Though my wife took upon her the responsibilities of our kids (then 4 and 2 y.o respectively) and The Saharsh Project, things were getting extremely difficult and dropping out of Harvard was just around the corner but I reached so close to those academic goals which many die for and I could not have lost that golden opportunity. But time was a scarcity and I had only one option and that was to get the most of 24 hours I had in a day.
I meticulously planned for 5 hours of sleep, 2 hours of daily routine that left me with 17 hours a day which meant 5 hours to read, prepare and 12 hours a day to write thesis, dissertation, project work, presentations, research work etc. Yes I was only writing and publishing strategic management related articles for 12 hours every day for months. Looking back, it appears surreal but it was a norm then.
Had I aimed at perfection in all tasks at my hand, I could not have completed any of that. So I chose to be more productive, left out few tasks I could afford, learnt faster ways of doing things, invested 100% in my priorities and adapted myself to the time pressure through skimming, extreme focusing to the tune of not acknowledging the exterior world. I wouldn't have noticed even if somebody robbed me then. At one point, one full hour felt like a luxury.
The phase ended. I graduated from Harvard in May 2017, submitted Ph.D coursework a month later, got doctorate later that year and suddenly I had all the time in the world but didn't want to let go my hard-earned time managing attitude. I needed to do take up something else to keep myself busy by honing my abilities and testing new waters. That was the beginning of my version 2.
I rekindled perennial interest in traveling and we traveled all 7 continents in that calendar year to commemorate our 10th anniversary, revived my latent blog and voraciously read as much non-fiction as I could get hold of. I still had time so I picked up new interest in photography, short film making, cooking. And in everything, I tried to implement the techniques I learnt earlier and in the process racing against time became more fun than compulsion.
I do not usually like to sermonize others as how to manage their time because what worked for me may not work for everyone universally. Also it all depends on how badly one wants to work towards their passion. So the below observations or secrets of time management are based on my own case and could be subjective to my points of view
Most complain that they don't have enough time to get over daily chores. But I never understand people who take 2 hours for cooking or 30 mins for shower. For example to take a shower - it takes 15-20 seconds to get wet (why more than that ?), 30 seconds to apply soap, 15 seconds to get rid of soap. Even if it's repeated thrice, it takes 3 minutes. Clothing would take another 120 seconds (really need more ?). So if one spends more than 5-10 minutes in shower, they are just having fun or making excuses for themselves.
This logic might sound silly but once you get into the habit of planning things based on minutes if not seconds, you'll notice a significant change in your lifestyle. There is a fastest way of accomplishing every task and if you think this sounds impractical, read more on project management techniques CPM & PERT.
Assume you overslept and have only 30 minutes to catch the train whereas you usually take 2 hours every morning to get ready. What would you do ? You PRIORITIZE.
You skip all avoidable habits like browsing through Instagram or Facebook on bed or toilet seat, admiring yourself in mirror for long, spending more time in selecting outfits. Bottom line is that when you are under time pressure, you do certain things differently by prioritizing only the unavoidable stuff and skipping everything else. Why can't we do the same even when we are not under any time constraint ? How much of time can you save if we make it a lifestyle ?
Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs sported same kinds of t-shirts everyday just to save time spent on deciding what to wear everyday. Lesser decision fatigue, more time at hand.
Human body and mind are adaptable. If you subject yourself to certain kind of time pressure for a while, it will gradually become a norm and you start accomplishing the task faster. If you have 1 hour for any task, tune your mind that you have only 20 minutes and plan accordingly.
Pick a task - for example cooking - notice why would it take more than 120 seconds for washing vegetables, 600 seconds for chopping, 120 seconds for adding spices to the pan. Do you really need more than 30 minutes to cook one curry ? Or practice spending not more than 10 seconds to wear shoes.
Taking shower for 30 minutes may give you happiness or satisfaction, but is that satisfaction really worth when you can finish off both shower and cooking within 30 minutes and pick up a hobby in the saved time ? This attitude doesn't get into your system in a day, but doing the same for weeks or months will auto-tune your body and mind.
You may feel, the above techniques will not result in perfection. I totally agree but think how many tasks we do on a daily basis require perfection ?
Output
Productivity = ---------
Input
This has been my mantra ever since I reinvented myself. If perfection is taking more input with lesser output, bid adieu to that perfection. I would rather earn $5 with 1 hour of effort than $10 with 10 hours of effort. Decide for yourself how much time do you want to spend on each task based on the results it yields. Aiming for perfection in unnecessary stuff is a perfect recipe for failure and disappointment.
Trust me, most tasks you do now can be completed with almost similar quality in 20% of the time you take now.
If you notice, none of my blog posts, creative work are perfect because I chose to be productive over being perfect. I spend not more than an hour to write a blog post and I never bother to proof read before publishing. I don't spend more than 2 days to shoot a song (only once took 3 days) and in most cases I shoot with my phone to avoid set-up lag and overheads, I take only 2 days for editing. That's because neither blogging nor film making is my career and I don't mind being judged.
When I read something, I skim through patches of paragraphs without reading every word. What started as compulsion became a lifestyle and now its more fun to race against the clock. I do indulge in these hobbies for my fun without being perfection-conscious but by doing the same many a time, I managed to get decent command and this would eventually turn into perfection some day. But what mattered more for me is that I caught a habit of reducing lag in doing any task, made it a lifestyle and now using the saved time to pick up new hobbies, avenues and slowly expanding my repertoire one thing at a time.
PS: As we speak, I'm in middle of expanding business operations, final stages of house construction, ground work for a major event through 'CutMirchi Media', expanding 'The Saharsh Project', editing 12 videos, working on astrophysics based vlog, filming remaining portions of web-series. I'm able to do these not because I'm gifted but because I gifted invaluable 'time' to myself. It's more about discipline and attitude than talent.
So how do I manage to pursue varied avocations and hobbies ? Answer is not in multi-tasking as much as it is in time management. I was in a situation where I had no choice but to learn time management or fail in my longtime goals. Necessity is the mother of invention and I had to reinvent myself and circumvent my laziness.
My Story
There was a time in 2017 when I was in the final stages of my Ph.D thesis work and also on the verge of completing coursework at Harvard and hence had to regularly travel to Boston in addition to handling my regular work. Though my wife took upon her the responsibilities of our kids (then 4 and 2 y.o respectively) and The Saharsh Project, things were getting extremely difficult and dropping out of Harvard was just around the corner but I reached so close to those academic goals which many die for and I could not have lost that golden opportunity. But time was a scarcity and I had only one option and that was to get the most of 24 hours I had in a day.
I meticulously planned for 5 hours of sleep, 2 hours of daily routine that left me with 17 hours a day which meant 5 hours to read, prepare and 12 hours a day to write thesis, dissertation, project work, presentations, research work etc. Yes I was only writing and publishing strategic management related articles for 12 hours every day for months. Looking back, it appears surreal but it was a norm then.
Had I aimed at perfection in all tasks at my hand, I could not have completed any of that. So I chose to be more productive, left out few tasks I could afford, learnt faster ways of doing things, invested 100% in my priorities and adapted myself to the time pressure through skimming, extreme focusing to the tune of not acknowledging the exterior world. I wouldn't have noticed even if somebody robbed me then. At one point, one full hour felt like a luxury.
The phase ended. I graduated from Harvard in May 2017, submitted Ph.D coursework a month later, got doctorate later that year and suddenly I had all the time in the world but didn't want to let go my hard-earned time managing attitude. I needed to do take up something else to keep myself busy by honing my abilities and testing new waters. That was the beginning of my version 2.
I rekindled perennial interest in traveling and we traveled all 7 continents in that calendar year to commemorate our 10th anniversary, revived my latent blog and voraciously read as much non-fiction as I could get hold of. I still had time so I picked up new interest in photography, short film making, cooking. And in everything, I tried to implement the techniques I learnt earlier and in the process racing against time became more fun than compulsion.
I do not usually like to sermonize others as how to manage their time because what worked for me may not work for everyone universally. Also it all depends on how badly one wants to work towards their passion. So the below observations or secrets of time management are based on my own case and could be subjective to my points of view
Secret (1) - Plan for minutes or seconds
Most complain that they don't have enough time to get over daily chores. But I never understand people who take 2 hours for cooking or 30 mins for shower. For example to take a shower - it takes 15-20 seconds to get wet (why more than that ?), 30 seconds to apply soap, 15 seconds to get rid of soap. Even if it's repeated thrice, it takes 3 minutes. Clothing would take another 120 seconds (really need more ?). So if one spends more than 5-10 minutes in shower, they are just having fun or making excuses for themselves.
This logic might sound silly but once you get into the habit of planning things based on minutes if not seconds, you'll notice a significant change in your lifestyle. There is a fastest way of accomplishing every task and if you think this sounds impractical, read more on project management techniques CPM & PERT.
Secret (2) - Prioritization
Assume you overslept and have only 30 minutes to catch the train whereas you usually take 2 hours every morning to get ready. What would you do ? You PRIORITIZE.
You skip all avoidable habits like browsing through Instagram or Facebook on bed or toilet seat, admiring yourself in mirror for long, spending more time in selecting outfits. Bottom line is that when you are under time pressure, you do certain things differently by prioritizing only the unavoidable stuff and skipping everything else. Why can't we do the same even when we are not under any time constraint ? How much of time can you save if we make it a lifestyle ?
Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs sported same kinds of t-shirts everyday just to save time spent on deciding what to wear everyday. Lesser decision fatigue, more time at hand.
Secret (3) - Adaptability
Human body and mind are adaptable. If you subject yourself to certain kind of time pressure for a while, it will gradually become a norm and you start accomplishing the task faster. If you have 1 hour for any task, tune your mind that you have only 20 minutes and plan accordingly.
Pick a task - for example cooking - notice why would it take more than 120 seconds for washing vegetables, 600 seconds for chopping, 120 seconds for adding spices to the pan. Do you really need more than 30 minutes to cook one curry ? Or practice spending not more than 10 seconds to wear shoes.
Taking shower for 30 minutes may give you happiness or satisfaction, but is that satisfaction really worth when you can finish off both shower and cooking within 30 minutes and pick up a hobby in the saved time ? This attitude doesn't get into your system in a day, but doing the same for weeks or months will auto-tune your body and mind.
Secret (4) - Aim for productivity not perfection
You may feel, the above techniques will not result in perfection. I totally agree but think how many tasks we do on a daily basis require perfection ?
Output
Productivity = ---------
Input
This has been my mantra ever since I reinvented myself. If perfection is taking more input with lesser output, bid adieu to that perfection. I would rather earn $5 with 1 hour of effort than $10 with 10 hours of effort. Decide for yourself how much time do you want to spend on each task based on the results it yields. Aiming for perfection in unnecessary stuff is a perfect recipe for failure and disappointment.
Trust me, most tasks you do now can be completed with almost similar quality in 20% of the time you take now.
Analysis
If you notice, none of my blog posts, creative work are perfect because I chose to be productive over being perfect. I spend not more than an hour to write a blog post and I never bother to proof read before publishing. I don't spend more than 2 days to shoot a song (only once took 3 days) and in most cases I shoot with my phone to avoid set-up lag and overheads, I take only 2 days for editing. That's because neither blogging nor film making is my career and I don't mind being judged.
When I read something, I skim through patches of paragraphs without reading every word. What started as compulsion became a lifestyle and now its more fun to race against the clock. I do indulge in these hobbies for my fun without being perfection-conscious but by doing the same many a time, I managed to get decent command and this would eventually turn into perfection some day. But what mattered more for me is that I caught a habit of reducing lag in doing any task, made it a lifestyle and now using the saved time to pick up new hobbies, avenues and slowly expanding my repertoire one thing at a time.
PS: As we speak, I'm in middle of expanding business operations, final stages of house construction, ground work for a major event through 'CutMirchi Media', expanding 'The Saharsh Project', editing 12 videos, working on astrophysics based vlog, filming remaining portions of web-series. I'm able to do these not because I'm gifted but because I gifted invaluable 'time' to myself. It's more about discipline and attitude than talent.
6 comments:
Currently I am facing a problem with balancing projects,assignments,college studies and extra courses.
Will try these from now on.
Hi Chandu (if thats your real name)
I am proud of you . You have achieved much more than people can even dream of. Heartiest Congratulations.
I am a Time Investment Strategist and am studying and researching this intriguing subject. I have written a book, MILLION DOLLAR SECOND published by CNBC TV18. (bit.ly/BuyMDS) I continue to share my experiences and research with the online community of my readers called Time Investors League. On every Wed and Sun, I release a video on my YouTube Channel (bit.ly/BSBYouTube) which includes my interviews with people from different vocations, nationalities and expertise.
Your story is extremely powerful and I have loved it. I will love to interview you, too.
I will look forward to your response
Thanks
Brig Sushil Bhasin
www.BrigSushilBhasin.com
Very nice article. People always ask similar questions to me too. At the same time I would add a 5th secret - Attitude. People need to have an attitude and openness to change their habits. Enjoyed reading this article!
Very beautiful explanation. I like this presentation on mindset on goals, sparing appropriate time on most interested aims in life apart from taking care of family matters. I can only wish for success in every step you dream in life.
Well said👏 thank you so much for this post!
This is really helpful for many ppl who are struggling with Time management .. specially me:-( henceforth will try this logic and see if I can do small changes In my daily routine which I really wanted to do and unable to do due to lack of time..
Absolutely delightful read. Time is something that everyone in this world has got equally in hand. And a person who values and utilizes it judiciously ought to succeed. And you have proven this time and again, Sharath. Kudos. I keep lecturing about time management to my son, and of course, you know how most teens react to such topics :-). I guess I'll share this blog of yours with him.
Post a Comment