Issue 1 in The Series

Introduction

We’ve all heard the sayings value your time and time is money, but we don’t actually pay attention to how we spend our time. Every day, we give up our most important asset time without even thinking about it. At work, we generally spend the majority of our time in mundane meetings that others plan, or we focus on other people’s priorities while failing to achieve our own. At home, we usually relax by watching TV, Netflix, socializing, or checking social media.

Meanwhile, we regret that we are not making progress in our work life, or that our professional growth could be faster. How can we get ahead in life then? Read on to find out how to break out of this cycle that keeps us complacent and stagnant.

Value Your Time - Anything is Possible

Credit: Prateek Katyal, Unsplash

TIP:

If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.

– TONY ROBBINS

1) Have Clear Written Goals and Priorities

Discontent is the first necessity of progress

– THOMAS EDISON

Most people seem content with their meager yearly rise of 2-3% or with staying in the same position for five to ten years. However, if you want to advance in life, you have to consider what your top priorities are and take action to make them a reality.

Start by identifying your high-level long-term goals and priorities in your professional life. These could be achieving a certain role, changing career paths, getting a promotion, a salary increase of $X per year, retiring at a certain age, or work-life balance. Dream big and leave nothing off the table at this point. Read this article on how to turn your goals into reality and fulfill your potential.

Be very clear on what goals you want to accomplish. Write it down and keep these priorities visible to remind yourself. You can use a To-do app such as Evernote or Todoist for this or even go low-tech and write in a journal or a sticky on your desktop.

Evernote

Tame your work, organize your life.

Remember everything and tackle any project with your notes, tasks, and schedule all in one place.

Todoist

Organize your work and life, finally

Become focused, organized, and calm with Todoist. The world’s #1 task manager and to-do list app.

This is going to be your blueprint for success so you must have clear written goals and priorities that you continue to revisit regularly. Establish measures, benchmarks, and deadlines to meet these key priorities for your life. Be single-minded in your mission to achieve success.

2) Do Your Research

Depending on your goals, start researching the options for achieving your key priorities. This may go something along these lines:

  • Get a certain role: If you want to get a certain role, start by researching the requirements for the role and acquiring the necessary skills. This may include looking at internal or external job postings and acquiring the skills in your current role or by volunteering for projects or freelancing.
  • Getting a promotion: To get a promotion, you need to research the requirements for the next level up and work towards meeting the criteria for the role. This may include meeting a certain sales target annually, internal and external visibility by doing high-value projects, etc.
  • Changing career paths: To change career paths, you will need to identify your existing experience and skills that can apply to your new career path. For instance, if you’re a teacher you also have experience in leadership, planning, public speaking, and mentoring among other skills. You can start by freelancing to acquire experience in the career you’re trying to move to.
  • Getting an Annual Raise of $X: To achieve an annual salary of a certain amount, you’ll need to research what someone in your role gets in the market. You can research this by using sites like Glassdoor or job posts such as LinkedIn or Indeed. Then be ready to explain why you qualify for an annual raise of a certain amount, your accomplishments, and what unique value and skills you bring to the table.
  • Early Retirement: The path to early retirement requires you to work smartly and invest your savings. If you’ve been meeting some of your other professional goals, then you should be working in a company that recognizes your value and pays you accordingly. A worthy goal to keep in mind is that if you’re not making a minimum $10,000 raise every two years then you should be leaving to another company that values you more. Moreover, you should be investing regularly ideally 15-20% of your salary in 401k and if you have any additional money for investing then in a Traditional or Roth Individual Retirement Account (IRA).
  • Maintaining Work-Life Balance: Although working longer hours is highly valued in our culture, it is not sustainable. Instead of working harder, one should work smarter. Get focused, work hard, and get the important tasks and projects done first.   It is critical to prioritize tasks and target the most valuable tasks first. There are limited work hours in a day. Avoid idle chit-chat, inefficiencies, and activities that derail you from your daily priorities.  Start blocking your calendar to prioritize meaningful work and tasks. You don’t need to be reachable by work once you’re done with your work day. You’ll be happier if you set boundaries after work. Keep in mind that getting enough mental rest is just as crucial for preventing burnout and recharging for the following workday.

    This type of in-depth analysis and reflection of your goals will give you the knowledge to have a meaningful discussion with your manager about how to achieve your key priorities.

    3) Have a Conversation with Your Manager

    Preferably at the beginning of the year, schedule time to speak one-on-one with your manager and discuss your key priorities. Use your research to make a case for why you deserve to achieve your key priorities and make it difficult for your manager to say no. Together, devise a strategy for achieving these objectives.

    Your supervisor may give you personalized targets that you can accomplish to move to the next level. Your boss may say that your priority may not be feasible a this time but if you accomplish these targets, then some other benefit may be feasible. In any case, you’re making progress by planting the seed and putting the wheels in motion.

    This shouldn’t just be a one-time discussion. Rather, use this conversation as a starting point to meet the goals set by your manager. Keep track of your progress and bring them up in your regular meetings with your manager. Schedule a bi-weekly meeting with your manager if you don’t already have one in place.

    Document your accomplishments of the targets established by your manager during your performance evaluation. Be very specific and mention the dollar amount of business development or sales you did, how much time and money you saved the team or company through your initiatives, etc.Take every opportunity to show your value to your team and your manager. As actor and comedian Steve Martin once said, “Be so good they can’t ignore you.”

    Conclusion

    By valuing your time, you are setting yourself on the way to success.  Time is the most valuable resource we have so we have to ensure to use it wisely and invest in activities that have the highest impact. By valuing your time, you can accomplish your true potential. 

    This is such an important topic that this post will be turned into a series with additional strategies highlighted in future articles. Until then keep learning, keep growing!

    Similar Posts