You can’t manage time. You can only manage yourself. Successful people manage to get a lot more out of their time. Here are nine things that you can focus on next year to make the most out of your time.

1. Executing on your current projects flawlessly

No excuses there. None of the other items in the list matter if you keep breaking promises and go south on your commitments.

2. Strengthening your personal brand

Whether you like it or not, you have a personal brand. It is “who you are” to the world. A personal brand, like any other brand is a promise to the world.

Your personal brand or identity in the marketplace is important as it has direct correlation with the value that the marketplace places on you.  Here is how it always works - first you invest in your personal brand meaning first you work on your personal brand and then your personal brand works for you.

3. Building long-term relationships

Long-term relationships with powerful people will provide you the ultimate competitive advantage. Invest in building them. Here are three things to remember on relationships:

• It is not what you know; but who you know.
• It is not who you know; but how you know who you know.
• It is just not who you know; it is who knows you.

4. Increasing your capacity to deliver

Who you are currently may not be ready to face the challenges or take advantage of the opportunities of tomorrow. You have to continuously invest in your capacity to deliver in the future.

5. Making a difference to the world

This world is what we make of it. Everyone has an unspoken responsibility to make a positive difference in this world. Without worrying about what your neighbor is doing, do something good.

6. Increasing others’ capacity to make a difference

You also have a responsibility to increase the capacity of people around you to make a difference. Lift them to a higher level in any way you can.

7. Spending time with friends and family

They say that we are blind to things that are very close to us. Family and friends typically come into this category. You can take them for granted and if you are bit late, you don’t have to worry as you won’t have them for you to take care.

8. Become a valued member in multiple networks

You can’t do everything alone. You have to not only belong to multiple networks but also be a contributing member there.

9. Learning and learning to unlearn

The information overload is only going to get worse. Explore Mindmapping. Explore Accelerated Learning. Explore Audio books. Explore Book Summaries. Do something but don’t stop learning with quoting lack of time.

It is also important to ensure that you leave behind those skills that may no longer be relevant. In other words, learn to unlearn.

Note: An expanded version of this article is available in the form of an eBook and can be downloaded (free) here:
Making the Most of Your Time: Going Beyond To-Do Lists

About the Author

Rajesh Setty is a serial entrepreneur, investor and author based in Silicon Valley. Rajesh is involved in several companies in US and India mostly in some combination of investor, advisor or operating executive. Currently, he serves as the president of Suggestica, a company that powers vertical discovery engines. He also serves the chairman of iPolipo that aims to make scheduling simple.

His latest book “Beyond Code” (foreword by Tom Peters) was published late 2005. He maintains a blog called Life Beyond Code (http://blog.lifebeyondode.com)

Rajesh serves on the advisory boards of PSVillage and SIPA and as a volunteer for Isha Foundation.