You may have heard the saying that you have the same 24 hours as everyone else on earth. You have the same 24 hours as Bill Gates, Donald Trump, and Michael Jordan, so you better use them to the best of your ability. The problem is not the lack of hours in the day, it is that your time is not very well organized, you are not making the most of the limited time you have every day. To make more time every day, learn to say no, start early, and repeat what works.

The sooner you feel comfortable saying no to new opportunities, choices, and distracting tasks, the better. I’m definitely not saying you should say no to every new opportunity, but if you have a business that is making you money and you get sidetracked by a business opportunity or project that has nothing to do with it, that’s bad for you. I know many people who are always approached for different offers or products and opportunities and they agree to something they don’t want to agree to for fear of angering someone else. It’s completely okay to tell someone that I don’t have time right now, that I’m not going to get to it later, or that it doesn’t fit with what I’m doing right now. Your time is yours and if someone wants to steal your time, it shouldn’t be something you agree to.

The next thing to do is start early and I mean that in several ways. You can start early in the day, start early in the week, and start early on any project. I’ve found that when I get up an hour earlier to get things done, I get much more done than if I stayed up an hour later. For whatever reason, if we’re burning the midnight oil, so to speak, and we’re taking extra time to complete something, we feel rushed, we feel too much pressure, and we’re not happy. But if you have the attitude that you’re ending something early, early, you’re being smarter than the average person, then now you’re growing and moving on. Instead of working late, start early in the day and finish your easy tasks so you don’t have to worry about future projects.

As long as you make this steady progress you are productive, what you need to do is keep repeating what works and stop repeating what doesn’t. This means that if you are actively maintaining ten different websites and only two of them are making money, then you should spend most if not all of your time on those two sites that make you the most money, and grow and build them because life is too. short to maintain two sites that make money and eight sites that do not make money. Focus on what makes you money and stop repeating those ugly patterns of spending your time on sites that don’t make you money. Repeat what works, stop repeating what doesn’t.