Time Management or How to Make Fried Rice

There are many good recipes for fried rice on the internet. The beauty of fried rice is the ingredient list is so flexible. You can put almost anything into it.

It took me years to learn how to make a good fried rice, and it wasn’t until I understood the importance of time management. My secret is to cook the rice hours before, and oil it up, so it has plenty of time to dry before I fry it up.   When it comes to the actual frying up of the rice and other ingredients, it always cooks much quicker than I anticipate, so I make sure all the ingredients are ready to go quickly. The thing is, by going through these steps, it really easy and time efficient to do. I can cook the rice while having breakfast, pop it on an oiled plate and give it a quick toss, and then just leave it until it’s time to fry all the ingredients up in the evening.

Taking the time to learn and practice good time management can save you hours. Time management hacks are not necessarily transferable, what works for me might not work for you but there are some principles that are universal. There is a plethora of time management hacks on the internet, from 'timeblocking', 'timeboxing' and many variations to 'prioritizing' or 'eat that frog'. There really are too many options to address all of them which can be part of the problem. It is easy to become overwhelmed with all the options and information. If you search for time management hacks you will find too many to take in.

So what are some practical suggestions? I will end this article on some of the advice and tricks that I have found useful but two principles I think should be taken from this article are:-

Find what works for you. There is a management hack called 'Biological Prime Time' which suggests you identify your most productive time and allot difficult tasks to this period. The principle behind this is know yourself, something I have written about previously. There are other hacks that build on this principle of knowing how to feed your soul to enable to tackle those hard tasks. That is, how to prepare or reward yourself to ‘eat that frog’. It is also helpful to know how long you can push yourself through difficult tasks when setting periods of time for 'timeblocking', 'timeboxing' or other variations.

The other important principle is - Don’t take on too much at once. There is a reason why I haven’t put links to all the time management hacks or tried to explain them all, there are too many of them and they are overwhelming. I will share a few of my helpful tricks which I can speak of from my experience, but the purpose of this article is to share these two principles. Find out what will work for you and don’t take on too much at once. I would recommend you don’t take on any more hacks than one a year. That gives you time to consolidate your learning and modify it to suit your needs. Just think how much better at managing you will be in five years with just a few little hacks under your belt.

So aside from my little tip on how to make fried rice, here are a few other little hacks I have picked up along the way. Some are followed to the letter; some have subtly informed my modus operandi which then get applied to varying scenarios (these are usually the most effective time hacks). 

One such example is taken from one of my favourite books ‘A Perfect Mess’ by Eric Abrahamson and David H Freedman. It cites the time saving involved in finding 4 random cards in an ordered deck compared to the length of time in finding four random cards in an unordered book. But the point is, how often do you need to find random cards in an unordered deck? If you had 35 instances of having to find cards in a deck, it is worth taking the time to order the decks each time, but otherwise, why bother? I have taken this principle through life to decide when it is necessary to organize data (which is most of the time) but when it is not necessary, don’t bother. A little hack that comes out of this is that I usually start a file (either or both physically and digitally) called correspondence 2024 at the beginning of the year where I file all those one-off insignificant letters. I don’t waste time agonizing over whether it is worth setting up a specific file, but if more correspondence comes in from a person or entity over time, I will then consider starting up a file for them. At the end of the year there will usually only be a handful of letters in the year’s correspondence file so if I need to search through it at a later date, there won’t be that many. Can you see how the deck of cards analogy applies here? Measure the benefit compared to the amount of effort needed.

Another very important hack to me is, set up work to happen even when you are not available to attend to it directly yourself. For example, write that difficult email at the end of the day rather than leaving to the following day, giving the recipient time to think about and act on it. I had the privilege of working on some joint assignments during my MBA where the other parties were located across the country or even across the world which meant some of the work was being completed literally while I was sleeping. There are many other principles that can be applied to writing emails (probably enough for another article) such as, think about what will be easiest for the recipient to act on, and ask questions that are easy to answer. 

As I write this, I am procrastinating about writing a significant email, so I have had to ask myself, “what is blocking me from writing this email”. There can be a couple of reasons for blockers. The reason in this instance for me is likely to be that that I don’t have all the necessary information to communicate the exact need (I therefore need to take action in gathering the rest of the information). Other blockers can often be mitigated by the principle of knowing yourself. Ask yourself why you are having trouble writing that difficult email.

Another hack for me has been to apply the ‘four D’s’ to emails and tasks. Do, delegate, defer or delete. This is also often known as the 2 minute rule in that if it takes less than 2 minutes, then just do it. I am not hard and fast on the two minutes, but it guides my approach to knock over those easy emails, forward on the emails to delegate, add the more difficult ones to the to do list or delete unnecessary emails as necessary. The Four D’s forces you to take proactive steps in dealing with the emails (or tasks) at hand.

Although there are other hacks, the final one I will share is the approach I take to exams which carries through to all aspects of life. Even when there is a critical time limit, take time to organizing your thoughts. For example, I will spend 3 to 5 minutes, even if for only a half hour time limited essay, noting points that need to be included in a coherent manner. I learnt long ago that you always make it as easy as possible for the marker to read if you want a good result. Being other person centred is a valuable key to getting good results in negotiations and seeking any outcomes from other parties. Indeed, taking the time to plan the outcome is a valid strategy for just about any task. Spending 30 seconds to think about that hard email can make the difference between a harmonious working relationship or a potential bullying and harassment claim.

To summarise my personal tips:

·       Take the time to organise important data, don’t waste time on that which is not important.

·       Take the time to set things up so work happens while you sleep

·       The two minute rule – Do, Delegate, Defer or Delete

·       Take the time to organise your activities and plan your outcomes.

Ultimately, the secret to good fried rice is good planning and preparation, just as it is for good management. Follow the principles of knowing how you operate and not biting off more than you can chew, and learn a few hacks along the way.