It is excruciatingly easy to fritter away hours, days, weeks, and months of your life, if you don’t have plans, and don’t track what you’ve been doing. Being mindful of how you are spending your time is extremely important, and crucial to your success. Why do I say that? Because when you are not aware of your time, it just slips away. You have no idea whether you’ve achieved your objectives or not, because life sort of just happened to you.
I’ve seen this happen over and over again to my kids, to my interns, and to my full time employees. Being very aware of your time is a requirement for everyone in life. Sure, it’s nice to be able to sit back and relax occasionally, and mindfully take a break. Taking time off is great, and is actually one of the seven habits of successful people- called sharpening the saw. There is a limit though, that crosses over into wastefulness. It’s that time when you think back and have no idea what you’ve done for the last day, or week.
That’s part of why setting goals and tracking what you’re doing as you’re doing it is so important. Those blank spans of time reduce, and go away. Your productivity increases. Your time during work is actually productive, and will help you get where you want to go, and make you a better employee. It’s a win-win all around.
Use this tip during your off time, and your whole life will be more productive.