I will talk about time today. Almost all high-achievers plan to get time on their side when they plan their journey to success. Time proves to be our biggest ally in the arduous path to our goal. And, when on our side, it never lets us down!

Make sure you keep time aside and devote it to your purpose regularly. It is this regular acknowledgement of time that turns into a winning formula almost at all times!

Time-Math is very strong and produces amazing results. And the two methods to apply this math are: -

·         Goal-Fitting Method

·         Goal-Seeking Method

Goal-Fitting Method: Let us say you are planning for the next 12 months. You decide that you can easily spare one hour a day on work days to devote to self-improvement initiatives. Since you are likely to get approximately 246 work days in a year, you will have 246 planning hours available at your disposal. You can now use your discretion to fit activities leading to not one, but multiple self-improvement goals in those 246 hours. All that you did was to acknowledge just one hour of your work day. Imagine a person who inculcated this habit and continued doing it for say, 20 years – that’s almost 5000 hours! Now imagine the difference between two persons after 20 years where one chose to learn to dance and the other did not even acknowledge that one hour of his/her work day. 5000 hours is a difference between a professional dancer and a non-dancer! You must remember, none of those two set out with a goal to become a professional dancer.  

Those who have perfected time-math have turned out to be masters of multiple skills, and the casual observers often make the mistake of calling them “gifted” or “exceptionally talented”.  By doing so, they like to resign to a belief that it is beyond their means to achieve such excellence.

But, here is a living proof. One of my very dear friends, who is also my batch mate from NDA (National Defence Academy), holds the distinction of flying 22 different types of aircraft in his flying career of almost 24 years(when I last checked earlier this year)! Beat it if you can!!  It is very likely that among all other techniques he must have employed, time-math has played a significant role in his success.

But, remember, there are exceptions that almost go hand-in-hand and the time-math does not work well with those: -

1.       Do not apply time-math to count the number of hours “wasted” or “taken away from productive work” while you are on vacation. This is because for best results, your body needs to recoup unconditionally.

2.       Do not apply time-math to more than reasonable number of hours since it will prove counter-productive.

Sometimes, to meet exceptional pressing demands in one’s life, one may have to apply time-math to the extremes. Well, such occasions will call for mastering techniques of overcoming protracted fatigue and monotony. I will talk about those some other day.

I will talk about the Goal-Seeking Method in my next post. Until then, make a promise to yourself to get time on your side!