How to make usr of your time effectively

Do you want to get ahead in life?
If yes, then you must dedicate some of your
Read more
spare time to improving yourself.
For example, average workers come home at
the end of each day to purely relax and enjoy
themselves. High achievers, on the other

hand, take a regular part of their spare time
for learning new skills, developing existing
ones, and finding ways to make their daily
work more efficient.
Which of the above are you?
If you aim at achieving outstanding
performance at work – then please read on.


Successful People Go for
Exponential Growth While the
Majority Settle for Natural Growth

Have you ever considered that work time
should be solely for working? For instance,
an actor does not rely on their time on stage
to practice their art. They do this between
performances.
It should be the same for you. Let your work
time be the period when you focus on
productivity and output. (In other words, do
the job that you’re being paid for!) And let
your spare time be the period when you work
on improving your knowledge and skills.
People who habitually devote some of their
spare time to learning, are the ones most
likely to be successful in life.
However, this doesn’t necessarily happen
overnight. It’s much more likely to follow the
pattern of exponential growth, which looks
like this:


You Just Need to Spend One Hour
Every Day to Make the Difference
It can be tough to make an effort after a hard
day’s work.
You’re probably tired or even exhausted. You
may also have… cleaning to do, pets to feed,
children to play with, friends to call, and
partners to please. (I could go on!)




What could be easier and more satisfying
than slumping down on your couch and
turning the TV on?
It’s tempting, for sure.
However, I have a suggestion for you:
Commit to spending one hour each evening
on your personal development.
This will still leave you plenty of time for
relaxation and entertainment, but it’ll also put
you on the fast track to success!
By breaking down your self-improvement
time into one-hour chunks per day, you’ll
find it much easier than trying to study for
five hours on a weekend (for example). You’ll
also have the benefit of building a regular
routine that you can easily stick to.
If You Want to Use Your Spare Time
to Boost Your Success – Here’s
What to Do
What you do after work can determine your
future. So, please use the time wisely.
Here’s my top recommendations:


Read books on diverse topics
While reading in general is a great hobby,
why not take it a stage further and make it
part of your career development?
You can do this in a couple of ways.
Firstly, read books that are specific to your
line of work. For example, if you work in IT,
then you could spend an hour reading a book
on the latest software trends. This extra
knowledge will immediately put you ahead of
most of your colleagues.
The other thing to do, is to choose books
from a wide range of topics. (Be sure to
include subjects/genres that you wouldn’t
normally choose.) If you do this, you’ll
stretch your thinking, and you’ll also be able
to supercharge your creativity by enabling
you to connect different ideas that you’ve
read about.


Boost specific skills that are
currently holding you back at work
If you’re like most people, then you probably
don’t enjoy public speaking. You may even go
out of your way to avoid it! However, if your
job involves communicating ideas, then it’s
inevitable that at some point you’ll be asked
to present them to an audience.


The key to defeating your fear of public
speaking is preparation.
Imagine spending an hour per night
developing your presentation skills. You
could watch videos of great speakers, take
an online presentation course, and practice
speaking in front of a mirror.
With time, you’ll magnify your skills – and
your confidence.


Build your connections
Your future career prospects are likely to
depend on who you know.
Few people like to admit this, but it’s the
truth.
So, turn over some of your spare time to
growing your professional connections. You
can do this through social media sites such
as Google+, LinkedIn and Twitter.
Just be sure that you’re connecting to the
right people. This usually means folks who
share your interests and line of work. For
instance, if you’re a trainee accountant, link
up with qualified accountants and other
finance professionals.
Connections can become mentors – or even
lead to career opportunities for you.
Work on personal projects
Let me tell you how I got started as a
freelance writer.
I had the idea to set up a website that would
feature the latest innovations in green
technology. To be honest, it was supposed to
be just a hobby. I created the site on
WordPress, and then began writing regular
articles for the site. I did all this in addition to
my full-time job.


However, I found that I loved writing and
sharing stories. And before long, I decided to
apply for paid writing work. It took me a
while to secure my first contract, but since
then my writing career has taken off.
You could do something similar.


Take a hobby or personal project (e.g.,
playing a musical instrument or researching
your family tree), and see whether you can
turn it into a profitable sideline – or potential
new career. Even if you don’t make money
from your hobby, you’ll still be able to take
soft skills such as patience and enthusiasm
and transfer them over to your day job.
Look for ways to do things more
efficiently
I’ve saved this one until last, because I think
it’s the most important.
Wherever you work, and whatever your job,
there’s bound to be ways to improve the way
work is performed.
Let’s say that you work as a receptionist at
your local gym. One of your duties is to help
people to sign up for new memberships.
You’ve noticed that this takes about 15
minutes on average, but can also take much
longer.
You’re too busy at work to find ways to
streamline the signing up process, but at
home you want to give it a go.


The first night (and hour) you make a list of
ways that the signing up process could be
improved. The next night you prioritize the
list into which ways will be most effective at
quickening and simplifying the process. On
the third night, you develop ways to
implement the changes.


Imagine taking your suggestions to your
boss. Even if they decide not to go ahead with
the changes, they are sure to be impressed
with your initiative.
If you want to begin practicing the five
suggestions above, you’ll need excellent time
management. The secret is to turn your
actions into habits. Once you’ve done that,
spending an hour each day in personal
development will be as natural as spending
an hour watching your favorite soap opera!
If you’re eager to join the ranks of the highly
successful, then be sure to make great use
of your spare time.