Obsessing the Truth.

The rich invest in time, the poor invest in money

- Warren Buffet

This is a post I’ve been wanting to write for a while but, you know, waiting for the right time kind of thing. Waiting for the sign.

And the sign, it came.

P.S. being me, it has to be basic foundation well understood first, and then application. So this will be a little bit philosophical..

To have more time in a day,

you need to understand and appreciate the following 3 basic principles:

1. We all have 24 hours in a day. None of us has more than the others.
2. Spending time doing one thing necessarily means spending no time doing other things. You can’t do more than 1 thing at the exact same time.

You must appreciate both basic truths above. Both are the constraints nature has put on us. Don’t take them lightly.

I know some people are thinking right now “D’oh. Who doesn’t know?”, that’s a sign of unappreciativeness. These people know but do not accept. Those who accept are nodding their head. Only when you can appreciate those basic truths, you will start to realize that your time is your most precious commodity and you need to spend it wisely. Which conditions you nicely to do the 3rd principle.

3. Remove waste: know what is truly important, focus on it, then do it. This is the key ingredient in having more time. And also the hardest to apply.

   Stop procrastinating and do what’s important to you. Stop looking at your twitter, your followers are not that important. Stop browsing your favorite sites, they are not important. Stop replying to unnecessary emails, they are not important. These things take away your precious time. These are luxuries you can only afford when all the important things are neatly done.

   Many people are confused with their life. We often measure success by the degree of our busy-ness. “I’m very busy, I must be successful.” So we find things to do, regardless of importance, just so we can stay “busy”. We need to stop fooling ourselves.

   Focus.Only.On.What’s.Important. Everything else, throw it away.

“But Pandu, I like to check them for updates. I want to know what’s new!

And you think I don’t? I do!

I also feel the temptation to check things out during work. But I know they can wait. So I assign 10 minutes after every hour (you can do 5 minutes for every 30 minutes if you want) to take a break and do what I want to do.

Interruption during work costs you your attention and it slows you down. Think of a manual transition car: what happens when a motorcycle suddenly pass in front of you and you are forced to step on the break? You need to shift to lower gear and start accelerating all over again right? Same thing with our mind. So when you feel the urge to check your twitter, hold it.

I promise you, if you apply the 3 principles above, you will start having more time than you thought you could ever have. You will feel that much more productive and accomplished by the end of every day.

And here’s the best part: you will be a lot happier.