Master Your Time in 10 Minutes a Day

"The time is always right to do what is right."
― Martin Luther King, Jr.

Here are some ideas:
- Prayer: I read a lot of books written by saints, and they overwhelmingly agree that prayer and work are not exclusive. Most of them insist that prayer boosts one’s earthly productivity.
- Visualization: To plan for success, you need a vision of a better tomorrow. You don't need special meditation sessions in a peaceful environment; using your imagination requires only your mind.
- Planning: This is similar to visualization; however, to plan something even as simple as a grocery list, it's very handy to have a pen and notepad at your disposal.
- Repeating affirmations or your mission statement: Here’s another activity that only uses your mind. I’m skeptical of using too many affirmations. It's very hard for me to connect the dots, to find a relationship between something I say in my mind and a tangible result. Having said that, I have one or two that I repeat every day because they work for me. Another daily activity is repeating my 1,300-word personal mission statement.
- Self-analysis: Just converse with yourself, have a set of uncomfortable questions for yourself. I do it every day, with pen in hand, writing the answers down. Nevertheless, it's better to ask yourself constructive questions, without writing down the answers, than to let your mind wander idly while you do the dishes.

While getting to sleep and waking up, I pray and/or repeat my personal mission statement in my mind. It is soothing – I sleep like a baby and I start my day full of energy and enthusiasm, even though that day starts at 4:25 a.m.

This approach is one of the core ideas in David Allen's Getting Things Done system. You put every single task on your list and then manage your time based on them. If you have a five-minute walk from the bus to the office, use that time to call a friend you’ve been meaning to call.

“There's never enough time to do all the nothing you want.”
― Bill Watterson

Just as you can more efficiently fill a jar with sand than with stones, the sand grains method allows you to increase your “productivity density.” I structure my habits around this idea. As I mentioned in Chapter 2, I have many activities which take 10 minutes or less. Speed reading practice, studying the Bible, doing pull-ups, reviewing my vision board, a High-Intensity Interval Training workout and adding my website to a web catalog all require 10 minutes at most.
It's really easy to fit several 10-minute blocks of time into your daily schedule. And that's exactly what I do.

"Who makes quick use of the moment is a genius of prudence."
― Johann Kaspar Lavater

I love to read, so I leave the reading for the end of the day.

Don't stop with the first tough job. If you have a choice, pick another difficult, stressful or boring task from the list and conquer it next. Start your day strong and you will be more productive overall. You will feel better about yourself, which will bear fruits tomorrow, when you will face new challenges

Pat Flynn. He advises doing the dishes to put yourself into a work mindset. It is work, but it goes by quickly and is pretty mindless, meaning you can begin to mentally prepare for your next task. Sound silly? Perhaps, but then again, Pat Flynn earns more than $500k a year.