Are you a student looking for another way to build toward a successful future?
Would you consider yourself to be a high-achieving person?
Have you reached many of the goals you’ve set for yourself?
If your answer to these questions is, “YES,” you’re probably wondering what else it will take to become successful.
As I was pursuing a collegiate baseball career, I regularly thought to myself, “There’s got to be more I can be doing to be successful.” I did all the throwing drills, I hit the weight room hard, kept my arm healthy…
But there always seemed like there was something else…
Here is the first way you can take action today to prepare for a more successful future:
- Time Management
When I began my Junior year of college at The Master’s University in Southern California, I took on a significant load between classes and baseball.
For four consecutive semesters, I had 21-24 units (7 or 8 classes), while being a part of the collegiate baseball program. For context, a normal practice lasted anywhere between 4 and 6 hours.
These things considered, one might ask, “how were there enough hours in the day?” Technically, there weren’t.
This is when I began to apply the discipline of time-blocking.
Since then, time-blocking has been an essential part of my personal growth and development. Through this easy-to-implement practice, I went from being an overwhelmed and underperforming student-athlete to a dean’s list student and high-performing athlete.
All of this while maintaining friendships enough to eventually meet the woman who is now my wife.
Simply put, time-blocking is having a single task focus for a specified amount of time.
No Distractions.
Essentially, this meant that during class and homework time, I was fully present with my schoolwork. During baseball practice and weights, I was fully present. This allowed me then to be fully present with my friends as well.
So, how do you time-block?
- Schedule your day using blocks of time designated specifically to tasks that need to be done.
- Prioritize the items that need to be done and arrange your day around that list.
- During each time-block, apply singular focus to the task at hand. No social media, no distractions.
The two most important skills in the job market right now are:
- The ability to produce elite-level work
- The ability to sustain deep focus
By practicing time-blocking, you are preparing yourself for a successful future.
The most important aspect of time-blocking is limiting distractions. Anything that is a non-emergency should not be allowed your attention.
Scrolling through Instagram or sending one last tweet is not going to get you where you want to go. The number one distraction in our world today is the smartphone.
By dealing with this distraction immediately, you are setting yourself up for a successful time-block.
You could choose to cheat… allowing yourself to occasionally check social media or send a quick text. No one would know except for you.
So, I’ll ask you this. How committed are you to becoming successful?
Choose to commit to long term gain rather than short term pleasure. 99% of people cannot and will not do this. In order to be in the top 1%, you need to make decisions that 99% of people are unwilling to make.
Keep reading next week to learn about the second action item you can apply to build a more successful future!
(Hint… Researched data from Harvard University has proven this action item to increase the probability of success by up to 10x)