How to manage your life and get things done

Many people start a lot of things that they never finish. So many are making New Year’s resolutions and that won’t last for 2 weeks only. Are you one of them? With the following few pages you’ll get real practical advice and exercises to be able to get rid of the boundaries that forbid you to get things done. Beware, if you start practicing what’s inside this post than it has the potential to change your life in an instance.

Speaking about change, let me tell you a shocking news: there’s no one who can change you or your life if you don’t want to. You are shaping your own future, so there’s no one else to blame for the results. This also means that we have to live a balanced life.

But… what should you balance? Everyone has 24 hours in a day and it’s completely up to the individual what they fill it up with. There are 4 main parts of life, that I call the 4 ‘R’s: Rest, Race, Recreation, Relationships. We will go through all these 4 in a moment, but first let’s see what will be the result of a properly balanced life. First of all you’ll be in control of your life. Then you will develop good habits or rituals that help you achieve your goals, you’ll get rid of bad habits and time-wasters. If one lives a balanced life then it will be easier for him to make decisions, because he will be in control. He’ll know what time does he have, can he allocate more time or resources to new things or opportunities or not. He will see how his decisions will affect the 4 ‘R’ areas of his life before he makes those decisions. So basically balance gives leverage.

There are symptoms that you can observe if someone is not living a balanced life. Here are some of those symptoms: being stressed, being overwhelmed, lack of sleep, having no time, overeating, addictions, shattering relationships.

Balance is the foundation of self-discipline. Self-discipline is the jewel of a leader and the fuel that you use while on the road to your goal. The more you’re self-disciplined the more you’ll be able to achieve.

You will learn to use some tools in the upcoming few pages. It is also important to note that since there are many different type of people what works for someone, doesn’t necessarily will fork for someone else. Understand the principles and apply the principles in your own life. Test the tools you get and see if you are comfortable with it. Don’t try to copy and paste blindly. Assemble your set of tools and remember that a tool is there to use it. It’s like a medicine. If you go to the doctor and he prescribes a medicine for you and you don’t take it then you can’t expect to be healthy soon.

OK, let’s see the four areas of life that one would need to balance to be successful not just in business but in life.

Develop a routine

Write down your routine and stick to it. It will help you to avoid time wasters and to keep you focused. It will also help you to prioritize, accept and reject tasks or projects. It will give you the leverage of allocating optimal resources to projects and to deal with those that are important and not just urgent. Develop your routine as a habit. It’ll be easy if you’re naturally self-disciplined.

Remember the simple process

Data in – data processing – data out. Data in means that there’s a trigger that pushes you towards a direction. It could be an internal push from your personality, or it could come from any outside sources. Once you have the trigger, you collect information. This is the first step. Data in.

Data processing. You digest the information, you evaluate, measure, test, so you process it. Once the data is processed then you make a decision. These are the 2 steps of data processing. It ends with a decision. I’ve seen so many people processing so nicely that it’s almost an art, but they never come to a conclusion. It’s called the paralysis of analysis. Don’t get in to that trap. Don’t let the best come in to the way of good. Remember the Parento principle, the 80-20 rule.

Data out. This is the last stage of the simple process. This is where you take action based on your decision. You can do it, you can delegate it, you can delete the idea, you can put it on hold, but there is some action following the decision from the previous stage. If you design your process properly then there will be room for feedback and for checkpoints and evaluation. It’s also important to remember the GIGO principle. Garbage in – Garbage Out. If you put useless, not correct, fake or not enough information in the system the result will also be useless, incorrect, fake or not conclusive.

We humans are social beings. We need solid and sound relationships to be happy, feel worthy and reach great heights. Thus understanding the basics of relationships is crucial to live a balanced life. If we categorize relationships then we can see that there are 5 types. These types in order are: neutral, hierarchical, friendship, parental and loving relationship. These are increasing in intimacy and closeness. Each and every one of them contains all the qualities and natures of all the previous types.

Working for someone gives the other person material security, spending time with someone shows that you really care and that they are very important for you. Both are necessary in a relationship. Working for someone is easy to understand, but when it comes spending time with the other her person, so many are neglecting it. It is not only for the other person, but for you of us too.

When you spend quality time with someone, you learn a lot and you can grow yourself, develop good qualities, understand the other person better and understand yourself better.

There are a few things that usually build relationships: gifts, dining, discussions. Use these three, to build and to maintain relationships. A few principles for developing relationships are:

• Listen, listen, listen
• Spend regular time with them
• Keep in touch with them
• Remember their birthdays
• Attend celebrations
• Gifts – dining – discussion

Recreation is the indicator of a balanced life. If you have time for recreation, then there is a good chance that you are balanced. Keep it that way.

There is physical and mental recreation.

Both are important.

The main idea is to recharge your batteries and be up and running enthusiastically.

Some physical recreation are: yoga, running, hiking, dance, martial arts, workout, swimming, diving etc. Mental recreation: reading, writing, meditating, listening, playing, celebrations, party or just simple chill out, etc.

Around 1/3 of our life is spent sleeping. Sleep is necessary for a healthy life. The body and the mind is doing a lot of repair during this time. Sleep is needed to gain energy, to clean the body of toxins, it’s needed for clear thinking. So it’s good not to mess up sleep if one would like to live a long, healthy and productive life. It’s not good to sleep too much or too little. Balance is the key word for sleep too.

Research shows that there is a sleep cycle that last for 90 minutes. During that cycle there are 5 phases and the best is to wake up at the end of a cycle. If we were to sleep naturally and wake up without an alarm, then our body would wake up at the end of a sleep cycle, after 4,5 hours, or 6 hours. It also shows that 6 hours of sleep is better, than 8 hours, since 8 hours of sleep means that you wake up in the middle of a cycle and you won’t feel as refreshed as after the end of the cycle.

It’s always good to prepare yourself for sleeping. I’t good and important to have regularity in going to bed and getting up. I’ve found that the best to go to bed is before 10 pm. Before you go to bed, prepare for your next day. Read through your to do list and close your day. Make sure that you closed your day. Then read something, read a few pages from a book, not on the screen. Get a physical book in your hand! It’s also useful not to take any anxiety to sleep. If something is bothering you, then write the next actual step for solving the issue. Put that step on your to do list for tomorrow in this way you won’t have to start thinking about how to start it and you will feel relieved after writing down the next step. There is the 3 NO rule for sleep: NO TV, NO Internet, NO radio before sleep. Drink a cup of hot milk or relaxing herbal tea. Sleep in a clean place with fresh beddings and fresh air.

Learning how to balance 4 ‘R’s ( Race, Relationships, Recreation, Rest) is key to becoming achiever.

Race, or work is usually what most people think they should be successful in. The most important thing for Race is developing a routine as a habit. You can achieve that with Data in – data processing – data out method.

We humans are social beings. We need solid and sound relationships to be happy, feel worthy and to reach great heights. Thus understanding the basics of relationships is crucial to live a balanced life.

If we categorize Relationships then we can see that there are 5 types. These types in order are: neutral, hierarchical, friendship, parental and loving relationship.

Recreation is the indicator of a balanced life. If you have time for recreation, then there is a good chance that you are balanced. Keep it that way. There is physical and mental recreation.

Around 1/3 of our life is spent sleeping. Sleep is necessary for a healthy life. The body and the mind are recovering during this time. It’s not good to sleep too much or too little. Balance is the key word for sleep too. Before you go to bed, prepare for your next day. Use 3 NO rule (NO TV, NO Internet, NO radio) before, during sleep and when you wake up.

That’s all that fits in this post at the moment. If you would like to get deeper more into this or any other topic mentioned in this post then sign up for the online course and apply for the workshop.

Thank you for reading.

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SOURCES:

1. Zoltan Hosszu, Joyful Leadership Manual