\”I wonder where the time went\”?. You or someone you know may have uttered these words at one time or another in your life. Time is a precious commodity that no one regardless of who you are can be able to contain. Once time passes you can never get it back. Every day each of us regardless of age, sex, or status is given the same amount of time. How you use the 86,400 seconds you get each day is what makes the difference between whether you achieve your goals or not.

Over time, I have come to discover that there are some things each of us can incorporate into our lives if you want to make the most of your time. Let us go through these simple but in my view very effective actions.

#1. Live A Purposeful Life

We are in the 21st century where those who live life with a clear purpose are the ones who will take the day. I love the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People specifically Habit 2 which requires that we always begin with and keep the end in mind. People who live out this principle are clear about what they want to achieve. They begin the day with a clear plan and then work according to that plan. You will rarely find such people saying where did my time go? instead, they are able to make the most of their time and achieve their goals.

Living a purposeful life will also require that you take full responsibility for your actions. You owe it to yourself to make good use of your time. If there are things preventing this, then you need to take action and work on eradicating them.

#2. Always Work Smart Not Hard

The people who are able to make the most of their time are the ones who work smart. There are so many ways one can be able to work smart but my favorite by far is time blocking. Time blocking is a process that helps you achieve a lot in the time you have because you are able to focus on a particular task for a specific amount of time.

Every day after setting my goals for the day, I use time blocking to help me get through my goals. What this allows me to do is break the big tasks into small manageable tasks which I can focus on and achieve my goals. If you are new to time blocking, I invite you to read more about how time blocking can increase your productivity and then download my free time blocking sheet to begin making use of this tool.

#3. Always Work In Your Strengths

In today\’s world, the people who are most successful in what they do are those who have discovered their sweet spot. According to Ken Coleman, your sweet spot is the intersection between your talents and your passions. In order to discover your sweet spot, you need to do work that merges your talents or strengths (things you do best) with your passion (things you do most).

Operating from your sweet spot allows you to work mostly in the areas where you are strong. This means you work faster and are able to achieve more in less time. In order to arrive at this point, you need to go through a process of self-discovery and come to terms with who you are and what you were created to do. When you do this and accept yourself both strong points and weak areas, you are able to reach out to people who are strong where you are weak to help you do what would have otherwise taken you a long time to do.

I invite you to read this post and answer the simple five questions to help you discover your sweet spot. I promise you the answers you receive will point you in the right direction.

#4. Always Maintain An Open Mindset

People who live life with an open mindset are able to make the most of their time because they are constantly learning and taking action on what they learn. On the other hand, those who have a fixed mindset want to do things the same way. They are closed out on any new ideas which may cut the work they have to do into half.

Today we have google to help us, we need to remember that whatever it is you may have to do there is someone out there who has already done it. The question then is why would you want to reinvent the wheel?

A word of caution though is when you find what you are looking for on the internet, remember what your mother taught you and say thank you. Perhaps you search and someone left a blog post or a youtube video which gives you all you need; instead of just doing a happy dance go ahead and leave a good review or write a kind note letting the person know how much they have been of help. This in my view is a win-win situation which we should always strive for.

#5. Beat Procrastination

Procrastinators will always be in the group that wonders where their time goes. These people keep putting off things until there is no time left to do them. They are indecisive and this costs them in the long run. However, as I share on this blog, there are different ways of overcoming procrastination. My favorite is to use the mantra used in silicon valley which is \”done is always better than perfect\”.

Finally,

If you have made up your mind to ensure that you make the most of your time, you need to determine that henceforth you will be an action-oriented person. Begin by setting clear goals of what you would like to achieve and then work according to the plan you set out. I invite you to take my Free 7 Day Organise Your Life course to create your plan today.

Another thing you need to do is stop worshiping on the altar of busyness. It is very common today to find people who act and talk as if someone is always taking their time. They want people to know they have more to do than others. According to them, this makes them feel important. In my view, however, these people are only cheating themselves. When you constantly act and talk as though you never have enough time, this is how you will feel. Instead, welcome each day and be appreciative of your 86,400 seconds then determine to make the most of each day.