變得更有效率: 富人的秘密

生產力這個概念聽上去可能比較乏味——無聊的管理- 說如果有的話. 然而，您在完成工作方面的工作效率對於您作為一個人的盈利能力至關重要.

我們在利潤公式中看到，您計費的小時數是一個“乘數”因子:

收入= (時薪 x 計費時數) – 費用
那是, a small improvement in billable hours can have a big impact, because its effect is multiplied by your hourly rate. Yet there are only so many hours in a week, and you don’t really want to spend your evenings and weekends slaving away to increase your income…

So how do you increase your number of billable hours? You must increase your productivity.

Now that doesn’t mean that you have to turn into a work machine, trying to do several things at once, and not giving any one task the attention it deserves.

What it does mean is that you should learn how to get the most from your time, using the hours you have to greater advantage.

And in order to do that, you must learn to value your time.

我希望我知道這是誰寫的——它真正體現了時間的價值:

想像一下，有一家銀行每天早上將 $86,400.

它每天都沒有餘額. 每天晚上都會刪除您白天未使用的餘額的任何部分.

你會怎麼做? 把所有的都畫出來, 當然! 我們每個人都有這樣一家銀行. 它的名字是時間.

每天早上, 它歸功於你 86,400 秒. 每天晚上它都會寫下來, 丟失, 無論如何你都沒有為良好的目的進行投資. 它沒有餘額. 它不允許透支.

每天它都會為您開設一個新帳戶. 每晚它都會燃燒白天的殘骸. 如果您未能使用當天的存款, 損失是你的. 沒有回頭路. There is no drawing against the “tomorrow.” You must live in the present on today’s deposits.

Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success! The clock is running. Make the most of today. Treasure every moment that you have! And remember that time waits for no one.

Yesterday is history. Tomorrow is a mystery. Today is a gift. That’s why it’s called the present!

(Author unknown)

We often tend to think of them as a disposable commodity. If a complete stranger asked you to put your hand in your pocket and give him ten dollars, you would very likely give him a few choice words instead. But if you get held up in a traffic jam for ten minutes, you are likely to brush it off as a minor inconvenience.

After all, 除了一點時間，它沒有花費你任何東西.

然而，時間是迄今為止我們擁有的最有價值的商品. 我們只有有限的數量, 如果我們浪費它, 它永遠消失了. 請記住，當您按小時出售時間時, 你正在小塊地拍賣你的生活.

不要低估自己. 一個常見的錯誤是計算全職工作每小時可以賺多少錢, 在...之上 9-5 工作週. 但自由職業與正規就業有很大不同. 作為一名員工, 你只是因為出現而得到報酬. 當你在飲水機旁聊天時，你會得到報酬, 去洗手間——甚至在你生病或度假時.

作為一名自由職業者, 您只會根據為特定客戶投入的時間獲得報酬. All the time spent on interruptions, administration and personal matters have to be accounted for out of your own pocket.

Let’s say you decide to charge $50 an hour, and expect to work 40 hours a week. At first this looks pretty good – hey, you’re going to make over $100,000 a year. But when you start deducting time spent on vacations and illness, you find your revenue dropping sharply. Then there’s all the time devoted to looking for work, managing your finances, and everything else.

By the time you’ve finished deducting all this time-sucking overheads, you may find that, on average, you are earning nearer $15 an hour. That’s not much more than you could earn part-time in McDonalds.

So improving your productivity can have a real impact on your earnings. In fact, 如果您可以在計費時間內每天多花一個小時, 你的收入 (在 $50 an hour) 會增加 $13,000 在一年的時間裡.

為了得到額外的一小時, 你需要學習有效時間管理的秘訣.

有效時間管理的秘訣 良好的時間管理不是與生俱來的技能.

我們都以不同程度的低效率工作, 努力把事情做好, 但不斷被日常生活分心. 您有多少次以一個單一的目標開始新的一天, 但不知何故到了這一天的盡頭，那個目標仍然遙不可及?

這是一個熟悉的問題, 但好消息是它可以被解決. 有效的時間管理是可以學習和發展的.

如果你是一個有創造力的人, 例如作家或設計師, you are more likely than most to have a problem with time management. Creative people tend to have fewer left-brain skills, and so find logical tasks such as time management more difficult.

That doesn’t mean you have an excuse for avoiding time management – it just means you need to work harder at it.

To start with, you need to understand what time management is, and – more importantly – what it’s not…

Time Management is not doing the wrong things quicker. That just gets us nowhere faster. Time Management is doing the right things.

So let’s take a look at the right things you need to do get things done.

Are you an early bird or a night owl?

Finding out which time of day suits you best can have a big impact on your productivity.

One of the big advantages of being a freelancer is that you have greater freedom over your choice of working hours. You are not tied to a 9-5 schedule from Monday to Friday.

So take some time to analyze when your most productive times are. If you work more efficiently in the morning, for example, make sure that those morning hours are free from interruptions, so that you get the most done in the shortest possible time.

One hour of planning can save you ten hours of doing.

That’s a statement that’s worth taking notice of. So rather than rush into your day with only a vague plan of action, take enough time out to plan your schedule for the day.

Prioritize your tasks, so that you ensure that the really important things get done. Be realistic, however. There are only so many hours in a day, 你不會僅僅因為你已經制定了一個長長的“待辦事項”列表而完成更多的工作.

決定那天真正需要做什麼, 當天實際上可以完成的事情, 並創建一個將兩者都考慮在內的時間表.

當您面臨完成任務的壓力時, 讓文件堆積在您的辦公桌上可能很誘人. 花幾分鐘把東西收拾得井井有條似乎是不必要的打擾.

但是當你的工作空間變得雜亂無章時, 你的工作可能會變得混亂, 也. 幾分鐘在這裡尋找文件, 花幾分鐘在那裡尋找電話號碼——不知不覺, 你一天的大部分時間都被浪費掉了.

當你遇到不知道如何立即處理的事情時, it’s easy to put it back into your ‘pending pile’. But the more times you handle each piece of paper, the more of your time is wasted.

Try to get into a habit of dealing with documents as they arrive. When you open your mail, remember the three D’s:

Deal with it

Dump it

Delegate it.

Make sure you apply one of the above to each piece of paper that crosses your desk, each email that arrives in your mailbox, and every item on your action list.

Putting things off until tomorrow doesn’t help – it just gives you an even larger ‘to do’ list to deal with in the morning. The more you put things off, the more impossible the task becomes.

If you don’t allocate a specific time for a task, 很容易發現這項工作花費的時間超過了合理的時間.

而不是專注於所需的項目, 你可能會發現你的思緒在遊蕩.

回電話或削鉛筆可能突然看起來比繼續工作重要得多.

為了避免以這種方式浪費寶貴的時間, 學會有效地預算你的時間. 給自己一個合理的時間來完成某項任務, 然後確保你堅持下去.

不要在細節上迷失太多. 繼續工作並完成它比陷入小問題更好.

時間管理的最大問題之一是處理分心和乾擾.

您可以從一組看似簡單的目標開始新的一天, 相信您可以在有空閒時間的情況下完成所有這些.

然後電話響了. 客戶需要對最近的項目進行緊急修改. 您檢查電子郵件並發現需要立即關注的問題, 然後交貨到達，您必須確保妥善處理.

在你知道之前, 計費時間正在流逝.

雖然幾乎不可能完全消除此類干擾, 你可以把傷害降到最低. 明確表示你在工作時, 你不會被普通的家庭問題打擾. 在你的優先項目完成之前不要檢查你的電子郵件. 並獲得答錄機或語音郵件服務，以便在您忙碌時屏蔽您的來電.

最重要的是, 學會說“不”. 人們只需要在你的工作時間了解到這一點, 您根本無法幫助處理可以等到以後的事情.

您制定了多少次新年決心, 到一月中旬就把這一切都忘記了? 設定職業目標是一回事. 實現它們完全是另一回事. 然而，如果您應用以下三個簡單的技巧, 你會發現實現目標要容易得多.

說你想賺更多的錢, 或者有更好的生活方式都很好, 但是你如何衡量你的成功? 而不是模糊的雄心壯志, 把具體數字放在你的目標上. 如果你說你想賺 $100,000 a year, 然後你就有了一個具體的目標——你會確切地知道你什麼時候到達那裡.

將目標寫在紙上的簡單行為是實現目標的重要一步. 一旦你把它們寫下來, 毫無疑問，你正在致力於什麼——很難與印刷證據爭論.

沒有截止日期的目標是毫無意義的. 不斷推遲保質期永無止境的目標很容易. 給自己一個期限, 你會發現你更努力地去擊中它.

研究表明 75% 的美國工人經常抱怨他們累了. 這並不奇怪, 因為普通工人每晚的睡眠時間顯然少於七小時. So the vast majority of people start the day firing on just three cylinders. No wonder that poor productivity is such an ongoing issue.

But it gets worse. Some 40% of working people skip breakfast, and 39% miss lunch. And of those that do manage a break for lunch, half allow themselves 15 minutes or less. These are big problems, especially where time management is concerned. If you think that working late nights, burning the candle at both ends and missing meals makes you a hard worker, you really are missing the point.

Productivity depends not just on the hours that you put in, but also on the quality of work that you produce. If you are tired and not eating properly, your productivity will plummet. As your blood-sugar level drops, your body automatically slows you down to conserve energy. Add tiredness on top of this, and you might as well give up all pretense at working. The lights may be on, but there’s probably no-one at home.

That’s the negative side. Now let’s turn things around and look at the positive. Increasing your fitness can have a really dramatic effect on your productivity. You don’t need me to tell you what that entails – regular exercise, getting enough sleep, eating nutritious food and establishing a routine that your body can become familiar with.

Don’t forget to take regular breaks. Your body and mind needs to relax from time to time – you can’t operate for hours continuously like a machine.

We all know that getting in shape is easier said than done. But if you can improve your level of fitness, you will be amazed at the impact this can have on your working life. You will approach each day fresh and with greater enthusiasm. You will find it easier to solve problems, and you will get more done than you ever imagined possible. If there was ever a way to get 25 hours out of each day, fitness is it. Look after your health, and your wealth will take care of itself.

Most of all, try to ensure that you are undertaking work that you enjoy. That way, you can enjoy the journey as well as the destination. Thomas Edison said that he never did a day’s work in his life – it was all fun!

That surely is the best way to get the most from every week of your working life.