A typical day in my life
I have been often asked how do I use my time myself. If I am giving everyone advise on time management, then how do I manage my own time. How does a typical day in my life look like?
Well, it is pretty difficult to describe a typical day for me because every day is unique to some sense and probably there is more variety in daily time use for me than for an average person. I am not a 9 to 5 employee and my working hours are not the same every day. I do not have a single job, but instead of that I have many different jobs. I am an associate professor of economics at the university, which means that my work tasks include giving and preparing for lectures, seminars, doing research and writing scientific articles, participating on conferences and other events. At the same time I am involved in many business projects. First, I am a speed reading and time management trainer. Second, I have an investment and insurance company. Third, I have a network marketing company, which is mostly specialized on selling different health relate products.
That may seem pretty much, but it is no problem if you plan your time well and work efficiently.
If I think about my ordinary day, then there are basically three types of days, days I work at home, days I work outside home, days I do not work (or work only a little). I always try to work at home as much as possible. For example, in the university you will basically see me only when I am giving lectures or attending meetings. But when I am doing research or preparing for lectures then I do it at home. Why? Because I can be more efficient in that way. My colleagues at the university are pretty talkative and they are not so good time managers. Then will often disturb me when I work there and I try to minimize my stay at the university building as much as possible. I also have to work outside home when I have to give training or meet people for business reasons. When possible I prefer to communicate with my business partners electronically for saving time, but it is not always the best solution, so there have to be some face-to-face meeting.
I am a morning person and my most efficient working time is before 11 AM. Therefore I try to get up early and start working early. I usually start working at 8 AM and usually I start my day behind my computer at home. I start my working day with some simple and short tasks to get myself going and create positive emotions. For example, I write my blog posts in the morning. It will usually take about 30 minutes for one post and it gives me a good emotional charge if I complete it. On some other days I may start with other simple tasks such as sending some mail, checking some information from the internet, filling some forms etc. It is important that these tasks do not last long, not more than 30 to 40 minutes. It is good if I can get many small tasks completed in that period.
After that I am warmed up for more challenging tasks. These may include doing some scientific research, preparing for lectures and trainings, solving some problems for my businesses, working out strategic plans etc. From 9 to 11 AM I do hard work behind my computer. Of course it is not possible on all days, as for some days I have to give a lecture at 9.30 AM.
If I have done enough hard analytical work then I will check my emails. I read them the altogether and for every mail I make a decision, how I am going to respond to them. In most cases I write the answers to some mails immediately, but when I have to do some work with that issue before I can reply to that mail, then put these thing into my “To do list”. After processing mail I usually make some phone calls. I make all the calls in a row if possible for saving time.
Before I go to lunch I will take up some easier and more routine tasks as I am tired already. Still I will be doing them at fast pace. If I can stay at home then I do not go out to lunch (if I do not have a business meeting on that day), but will prepare lunch for myself and at the same time I will be still doing some simple work tasks.
After I have completed my lunch, I stop working on many days. If my stomach is full then it makes my sleepy and I can not be that efficient. On some days I have meetings or appointments after the lunch. But if there are not any, then I will do something else like go shopping, go for a walk etc. My girlfriend works in my investment and insurance company as a sales agent, which means that she can choose her working time on her own. So we often spend time together after the lunch.
I spend a lot of time on practicing sports. I try to perform physical training six days a week , however on some weeks I have to be on business travels of trainings and I do not always manage to stick to that rule. Twice a week I have soccer training, once in a week there is a soccer match, twice a week I will do bodybuilding in the gym and one a week I will go running. The soccer practices will start at 8 PM, gym and running usually about 4 or 5 PM.
After the training I feel refreshed and I have energized myself to work at full power again. Therefore I often work for a couple of hours in the evening for example from 8PM to 10 PM. I do not do it every day, but usually two or three days a week. I will usually work with my business projects on the evenings or do some scientific research. Those evening hours are my second efficient working time in the day besides the morning hours.
On the weekends I will usually enjoy my life, meet friends, have parties etc. Still, I usually work a little on week ends, about 2 to 3 hours a day. If find it inefficient to spend the whole day on leisure as does not really spoil your day for example if you work from 8 to 10 AM. I can still enjoy most of the day and I can use my most efficient working time.
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My name is Kristjan-Olari Leping. I am a speed reading trainer. I have an associated professor position at the University of Tartu, am a policy analyst in a policy research center, I am a trainer and I am involved in many other business projects. 