Learning how to use your 24 hours wisely requires a strategy that involves: analyzing your activities, setting goals, creating a routine, taking action, and reviewing your progress.
Unfortunately, most people won’t do that. They’ll find all sorts of excuses to justify giving away hours of their day for nothing.
Surprised? Don’t be. According to Charles Darwin, “a man who dares to waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life.”
Now while that’s true for 90% of the population, it doesn’t apply to you.
Why? Because you came here to learn how to spend your day wisely. This means you probably understand the significance of managing time.
So let’s cut to the chase and talk about how to use your day productively.
How to Use Your 24 Hours Wisely
If you want to make the most of your day and get things done in less time, then try to implement the following strategy.
1. Analyze your activities
This is the first step to ensuring you spend your day productively. It involves asking yourself one simple question…
Are the things I’m doing on a daily basis really worth my time?
You see, most people spend an astonishing amount of time each day on wasteful activities. Examples include television, YouTube, and social media.
Those things know how to lure you in, stimulate your senses, and get you addicted. It’s enough to make every drug cartel jealous.
That’s why analyzing your activities is so important.
Here’s how to do it:
- Grab a pen and blank sheet of paper
- Try to think about what you do every day
- List all your activities on the paper
- Review your list when done
- Cross off anything that’s unnecessary (e.g. engaging in Twitter wars)
Congratulations! You’ve just won back hours of your day by doing this simple exercise.
Let’s move onto the next step.
2. Set goals
Unless you want to sail through life like a wandering generality, you need to set goals for yourself.
Goals give you something to strive for in life. When you have some goal you’re trying to reach, you’re intrinsically motivated and excited to achieve it.
Having goals also allows you to quantify your life. They act like mini checkpoints.
For instance, imagine yourself sometime in the future. Sitting on a park bench, rays of sun illuminating the wrinkles on your face. As you reflect on life, you begin to realize that it was… *crickets*.
You can’t recall anything significant. Your greatest achievement up to that moment was that you simply managed to survive.
This has been, and will continue to be, the reality for most people.
Now imagine if you had set some goals and actively pursued them.
The good news is you still have time today. So use it to identify the goals that will inspire you to live intentionally and give your life meaning.
After that, you can start planning your daily routine.
Need help setting goals? Click here to download this free goal setting worksheet.
3. Create a routine
Routines are like habits, do them consistently and they soon become second nature.
However, like habits, routines can be good or bad.
Since you’re here, it means your routine either sucks or is non-existent. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be reading this post.
But don’t worry, soon you’ll have a solid routine to guide your efforts and help you sustain momentum to pursue your goals.
To do that, you’ll need to do two things:
- Break your goals down into manageable tasks
- Plan your day around those tasks and other essential daily activities
One of the best tools for creating your routine is daily planner. This makes it easy for you to schedule everything so you know exactly what to work on each day.
If you prefer digital tools, you can use an app like ToDoist or Google Calendar to organize your day.
Combine it all with auto reminders for time management and you’ll have yourself a highly productive daily routine.
Now you’ll be ready for the most important step… execution.
4. Take action
This step is where 90% of people fail or give up.
Almost everyone is capable of learning how to save time, set goals, and create a routine. That’s the easy part.
The hard part is taking action.
Look, there’s no point in doing the other steps if you’re just going to sit around twiddling your thumbs.
There are no secret hacks, special tools, insider tips, or whatever.
You have to put in the work. It’s that simple.
If you don’t, then you won’t be able to complete the last step.
5. Review your progress
How can you tell what’s working or not? How do you find ways to improve? How do you know what to start, continue, or stop doing?
The answer: by doing periodical reviews.
That’s what smart people do.
Typically, reviews are done on a daily, weekly, monthly, or annual basis. Some productive people also like to do quarterly and semi-annual reviews. It’s all a matter of preference.
The important thing is that you’re regularly reviewing your actions to assess your performance and ensure that you’re making progress towards your goals.
Reviews also help with your planning process.
For instance, if you have a checklist with unfinished tasks, they can easily be reassigned when you’re planning another day or week.
By the way, plans aren’t perfect. Many factors can cause them to change.
But with frequent reviews, you can adapt to those changes and still manage to achieve your goals… One. Step. At. A. Time.
Bonus Tips That Will Help You Use Your Time Wisely
In order to increase your productivity and get the most out of your day, you need to do the following:
- Sleep – Even though it costs about 30% of your day, your body needs sleep. Not just for recovery, but for the energy necessary to get through the day. So try to get your 6-8 hours of rest.
- Eat/drink healthy – Skipping meals, eating junk, and forgoing water for sugary drinks is bad. Doesn’t your body deserve better than that? If you agree, then treat yourself to a healthier diet.
- Take breaks – Are you a robot? No. Therefore, you need to take mini breaks during the day. It helps you stay fresh, focused, and mentally sharp. It also kills any possibility of boredom.
- Exercise – Besides good health, this is a great way to boost your productivity and motivation. You don’t need a gym to do it. A 15-minute walk, light yoga, or stretching is just as good.
- Meditate – Apart from giving you peace and clarity, meditation also helps to reduce stress and overwhelm. Sitting quietly for a few minutes or doing deep breathing, will make you feel calm.
- Avoid distractions – You already know your time is valuable. So don’t waste it on meaningless tasks, office gossip, or whatever. Be stingy with your time and stop giving it away for nothing.
Final Take
As you can see, learning how to use your 24 hours wisely isn’t rocket science.
All you need is a smart strategy mixed with a few good habits to have a continuous string of productive days.
If you stick to your plan, you’ll be able to achieve your goals even when life gets busy.
And more importantly, you get to preserve your most valuable asset – time. Now you can spend it on what matters most.
Speaking of value, make sure you click the buttons below to share this post to help other folks use their time wisely.
