---
title: "Time Management: A Dry Goods Article Reposted 100,000 Times by Salespeople!"
description: "This article shares time management tips, emphasizing that with willingness, one can turn 24 hours into 48. It provides 12 key strategies, such as focusing on priorities, using the 80/20 principle, and acting immediately, followed by 21 golden rules from Brian Tracy, a leading personal development expert, along with his personal story and advice on achieving success through action and prioritization."
author: "New Distribution"
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published: "2014-06-17"
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# Time Management: A Dry Goods Article Reposted 100,000 Times by Salespeople!

> This article shares time management tips, emphasizing that with willingness, one can turn 24 hours into 48. It provides 12 key strategies, such as focusing on priorities, using the 80/20 principle, and acting immediately, followed by 21 golden rules from Brian Tracy, a leading personal development expert, along with his personal story and advice on achieving success through action and prioritization.

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If you are willing, your day can be 48 hours, not 24.
Time is the capital God gives you. The god of fate is fair; He gives everyone equal time, neither more nor less. But the goddess of success is picky; she only allows those who can turn 24 hours into 48 to approach her. Below are the success secrets revealed by her assistant, the Time Messenger:
1. Go straight to the point. Smart people stay away from trivialities and keep focus.
Since we can only board one ship at a time, the choice of "ship" is especially important. Economists tell us to keep focus: do one thing at a time, and have one priority per period. The sign on the office door of Dick Schiller, general manager of Westinghouse Computer Company, reads: "Don't bring me problems; bring me answers."
2. The 80/20 Principle
Concentrate your energy on the areas that yield the best results, as the saying goes, "Use good steel on the blade." If you carefully summarize, you'll find that 80% of the help you receive comes from 20% of your friends, while 80% of your energy invested yields only 20% of the returns. We often spend most of our time and energy on unimportant things. A young salesman selling paint earned only $160 in his first month. He carefully analyzed his sales chart and found that 80% of his income came from 20% of his customers, but he spent equal time on all customers. So he asked to reassign his 36 least active customers to other salespeople and focused his energy on the most promising ones. Soon, he was earning $1,000 a month. He never abandoned this principle and eventually became the chairman of the company.
3. Do It Now
When a business magnate was asked the "secret of success," he said only four words: "Do it now." Procrastination or delaying the start is the main reason for wasting a lot of time. Many people are accustomed to "waiting for the mood," spending a lot of time to "get into the state," not realizing that the state is created by doing, not waiting. Remember, the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago; the second best time is now.
4. "Have to Go"
Don't be entangled by boring people, and don't linger in unnecessary places too long. In real life, only when a person learns to say "no" can he truly gain freedom. Successful people are often individuals with personality; they dare to act and dare to say "no." They have an alarm clock in their hearts that rings when it's time to "have to go." They know how to limit time, not only for themselves but also for others. Talk show star Larry King said, "I've found that the more you get in life, whether professionally or financially, the more picky you can be. I no longer have any lunch that I must attend."
5. Avoid Arguments
In this "symbiotic era," a tolerant attitude and cooperative spirit make people feel like spring breeze. Tolerant people instinctively avoid arguments, because unnecessary arguments not only affect emotions and interpersonal relationships but also waste a lot of time, often solving nothing in the end. The more you talk, the less you do. Smart people often walk far away when others are chattering or red-faced. People with economic sense not only get along well with others but also cooperate as much as possible, such as being punctual for meetings and consciously following social order. They know that if you delay others' time, others have the right to delay yours. One person's lack of self-discipline can lead to many others' lack of self-discipline; "the power of example is infinite."
6. Cost Consciousness
Economics places great emphasis on cost. Treat time like business management; always have a "cost" concept and calculate well. In life, there are many examples of "a penny of wisdom, hours of foolishness," such as queuing half an hour to save a dollar, or walking three stops to save two dimes, which are extremely uneconomical. Abroad, tipping is sometimes to win time. In economics, leisure also has a cost; its opportunity cost is the income foregone from work. Therefore, successful people highly advocate active leisure, because "different songs bring different moods." In their view, active leisure should benefit physical and mental relaxation, spiritual cultivation, and interpersonal communication, such as playing badminton, watching sports, going on outings, visiting libraries, attending cultural salons, listening to lectures, writing, and chatting with close friends.
7. Choose Friends Carefully
Friends should also be selected. Having many but useless friends is harmful; they waste your time, energy, money, and feelings, and some may even endanger your career. Associate with people and companies that value time. The choice of a partner should be even more cautious, because a spouse is a lifelong matter. A suitable partner will unconsciously become your "comrade in love," making your life romantic and warm, and making your pursuits meaningful and motivating. A true and beautiful relationship will save you time and give you the courage to face reality and meet challenges.
8. Use the Phone Skillfully
Try to communicate, exchange information, and share updates via phone as much as possible. Prepare before making calls, go straight to the point during the call, and don't say irrelevant nonsense or convey unrelated information and feelings. Be good at using modern office equipment to serve yourself. Many foods and forms can be formatted in advance with computers, and output in just a few minutes when needed. A holiday greeting letter can be sent to many people at once via email.
9. Accumulate Bits and Pieces
There are many fragmented moments in life that are often unnoticed. Although short, they can be fully utilized to do things. For example, waiting for a bus can be used to think about the next step of work, skim newspapers, or memorize a few words. Success is not winning a lottery; it requires accumulated effort day by day and patient waiting.
10. Rest Early
Rest a little before fatigue, which avoids over-rest due to excessive fatigue and keeps you in good "competitive state," greatly improving work efficiency. A good body itself is a time-saving factor. "Those who have no time to rest will eventually have time to be sick."
11. Flowers Bloom and Fall
Don't be stubborn about unsolvable problems. You can write them down and let the subconscious and time solve them. It's like playing football: if the left side doesn't work, try the right side. In short, try not to "get into a dead end." Remember, things you can't let go will eat up more and more of your time until you let go.
12. Learn Speed Reading
Most books are not worth reading page by page from the first page. Generally, a 300-page book may have only 20 pages worth reading. Our task is to "retrieve" the valuable parts. In this information age, the ability to speed-read or quickly grasp key points has become very important. The same applies to "reading people": you must quickly identify who is your friend and who is your time killer.
Brian Tracy is a leading personal growth authority in the United States, with unique insights in success studies, potential development, sales strategies, and personal strength. He is one of the most successful speakers and consultants in personal career development in the world today. "21 Golden Rules for Efficient Time Management" is the essence of his best-selling book "Time Management," and we share it here!
1. Goals.
Set goals in career, health, work, wealth, achievement, self-growth, etc. Ask yourself three questions: If you had one million, what goals would you set? If you only had six months to live, what goals would you set? If you assumed you could do anything without failing, what goals would you set?
2. Plan.
Plan actions in advance. Goals—list action steps—execute daily—revise frequently.
3. Analyze.
List work content in advance. Check work progress. Do important things, effectively delegate to suitable people, and handle emergencies.
4. Set Priorities.
The 80/20 rule. Use 80% of your energy on the 20% most important things, and use 80% of your time to handle things that will affect the future.
5. Focus.
Don't spend a minute on things not worth doing. Do one thing at a time. It is generally believed that you need to work continuously for at least one hour to handle a relatively important matter. If interrupted midway, the time spent is at least five times that of continuous work.
6. Time Limits and Rewards.
Parkinson's Law: Work always expands to fill the time available. It is possible to complete eight hours of work in two hours; you need to compress and tighten time. Don't drag two hours of work into eight hours. After completing a milestone, give yourself a reward to generate sustained momentum.
7. Work Time Records.
Successful people plan their time in at least half-hour increments, even down to minutes. Daily measure, review, and correct your time use. In conscious moments, note what you are doing at that moment, and be clear about how your life is passing.
8. Don't Procrastinate.
Keep telling yourself: "Do it now! Do it now! Do it now!" Cultivate a sense of urgency.
Do it immediately. Think: one minute = 50 yuan!!!
The six-character motto to overcome procrastination: Today's work, do today!!
9. Delegate.
Delegate as much as possible on every unimportant matter. When delegating, be clear: first, tell the delegate what results you want; second, choose the right person; third, specify what you want the delegate to do and when to complete it, and check progress at any time.
10. Meetings.
First, clarify the meeting's objectives and what to achieve; second, for meetings over one hour, distribute the agenda in advance; third, prioritize important matters; after discussing your own items, you can ask the chair to leave early; fourth, start and end on time. Meeting cost = meeting time * number of participants * average salary per hour.
11. Interruptions.
Phone calls, people, unexpected events. Avoid being interrupted as much as possible.
12. Key Result Areas.
What are you suited to do? What valuable work do you want to accomplish? What results do you hope to achieve?
13. Batch Processing.
Accumulate and handle similar tasks together. For example, return several phone calls at once, review several documents at once. Don't return one call, review one document, delegate one task, then return another call.
14. Cleanliness.
The Traf system. T—Toss. Throw unused files into the trash. R—Route. Route tasks to different people. A—Act. Do it immediately. F—File. Archive useful processed files and make records. An important principle: put things back after use to reduce search time. Systematize and centralize work files.
15. Continuous Work Hours.
Keep going without stopping until completion. Separate creative and administrative work.
16. Use Fragmented Time.
Invest at least one hour a day in your brain; after three years, you may become an expert in a field or industry. Fully utilize fragmented time like commuting, rest, and waiting. Carry a book or listen to recordings.
17. Phone.
Say what needs to be said; keep it short; return multiple calls at once; make phone records; keep paper and pen handy.
18. Punctuality.
Arrive 15 minutes early; concentrate; take notes and memos.
19. Simplify Work.
Systematize and simplify work; find better methods. Important principles: make time longer; do things faster; don't do too many things, only the most important; do what you are best at; minimize mistakes, do things right the first time to reduce revision time; use team cooperation and unity.
20. Say No.
Learn to say "no." Use it early and often.
21. Balance.
Allocate time to family members, friends, society, etc. Not communicating with family, not attending friend gatherings, or not paying attention to society is unacceptable.
Everything you do each day should be as important as possible, ensuring you move closer to your goals!
Brian Tracy
At 65, Brian Tracy's hair is completely white, but his figure is still as upright as a young man's, thanks to long-term physical exercise. When listening to others, he is very focused and smiling. Once he speaks, he is good at creating a magnetic field that attracts everyone's attention.
Brian Tracy was once Bill Gates' business mentor. Buffett, Michael Dell, and Jack Welch have all heard his speeches. He is one of the most influential speakers and success lecturers in the United States, having given speeches in 43 countries and traveled to 92 countries. Recently, he came to China and gave three speeches in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.
Unlike most success lecturers, Brian Tracy likes to tell his own stories, partly because he himself is a living success textbook. "My life path was not smooth from the beginning," Brian Tracy often says, because he was once a dropout from a poor family who didn't finish high school.
Three Principles That Changed My Life
Brian Tracy was born in San Diego, USA. His parents never had steady jobs, so he often faced material shortages in his youth. Years later, recalling his family's situation, he said their family theme song was "We can't afford it!"
He dropped out of high school. His first job was washing dishes in a small restaurant, starting at 4 p.m. and often working until the early morning. His second job was washing cars, then he moved to a cleaning management company, often scrubbing floors until midnight. At that time, he couldn't help thinking, "Maybe I'll be washing things all my life?" At age 20, Brian Tracy began traveling. He and two friends crossed the Americas, Europe, Asia, and Africa with $300, covering 17,000 miles, mostly by car and on foot. In Africa, the Sahara Desert gave him a hard time, and he began to realize, "Everyone must cross their own Sahara." Brian Tracy began to try to change his life. After hard physical labor each day, he would spend 5 hours studying. Many of his companions couldn't understand why a manual laborer would study so hard every day, but for Brian Tracy, it was simple: to change his life. "I don't want to do this kind of work all my life." Looking back, Brian Tracy doesn't think there was a turning point in his life, because life is the result of continuous accumulation. He believes three principles changed his life: "First, be responsible for yourself and never make excuses; second, recognize the importance of goals and work toward them; third, realize the importance of learning and pursue lifelong learning." For 40 years, Brian Tracy has read at least 3 hours a day, even on busy workdays or holidays. His persistence in reading is not only reflected in his regular reading habits but also in his pursuit of knowledge. He later completed college and graduate school.
Success Lies in Practicing Goals
"Only 3% of people make detailed plans for the future, while 97% don't plan. Generally, those who plan have their own careers, while those who don't plan work for those who do," says Brian Tracy.
In his long-term practice and observation, he found that top people always focus on the future, while mediocre people focus on the past. Brian Tracy says, "The best people set a future vision before starting, then work backward to determine what to do now, and take the first step. Most people have ideas about life but never take the first step." "Nature is like a magician; it sets a curtain in front of you. With each step you take, the curtain automatically retreats one step," says Brian Tracy. "So if you don't take that step, you can't see the future clearly. Don't over-plan the future; the key is to take that step." Brian Tracy is a man who advocates action. He says, "The key to success is action. Successful people are action-oriented. Once they have an idea, they immediately practice it. There are two outcomes: success or failure. Success is always accompanied by a series of failures; it's the accumulation of failures. So as long as you try, you won't lose." "Don't fear failure; the key is action," says Brian Tracy. "On a flight from China to the US, the plane deviates from its intended course 99% of the time, but most planes arrive on time because they constantly correct their errors during the flight. The journey of life is the same."
Do the Most Important Things First
In his 20s, Brian Tracy read a philosophy book with a sentence: "Man is an animal that is good at prioritizing." Brian Tracy says he almost fell off his chair when he saw it, and it profoundly changed his view of success. The order in which people handle things directly affects their performance.
"Mediocre people often put easy things first, while excellent people put the most important and valuable things first. So we often see two people equally busy, but because they order things differently, their achievements are vastly different. That's the difference," says Brian Tracy.
Brian Tracy believes that the first priority in time management is to spend time on work with the highest return on investment. Once you start, concentrate and don't stop until 100% complete. If you stop several times and restart, it can increase completion time by five times because you need to "warm up" each time.
"The way to solve a company's difficulties is simple: first find profitable projects, increase investment, and close losing projects, and you'll naturally make money," says Brian Tracy. "For an individual to achieve high performance, do important and valuable things first, and performance will naturally improve greatly." Brian Tracy is busy at work every day, but he also takes good care of his family life. Speaking of his experience, he says, "Life is like walking a tightrope; you must maintain balance at all times. It's not easy. Family is absolutely worth your time. Never use busy work as an excuse to ignore your wife and children." "For me, I devote myself fully during work hours and maintain high performance, so I can leave on time and not bring work home. When I'm reading at home, if my wife or children come in, I always put down the book, because for me, they are more important than books." He trained himself this way when he first got married. Over 30 years later, it has become a habit.
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