At the start of every business venture, we all crave that extra time.
You can stay 10, 12, or 16 hours in the office, but still don’t seem to get anything done. I was like that. I worked all day, and when I left the office, I would continue to work from the backseat of my car, emailing, or returning calls. My bedtime wasn’t spared. I would type away on my phone until my eyes could not stay open.
As your journey evolves, you will come to find that time and not money is the most precious commodity you own. You will also come up with your own methods of saving time. Although unfortunately we can’t invent more time in our day, I have found that the following ways not only save you time, but will lead to more productivity and, most importantly, a happier you.
1. Prepare in advance
One of the things that waste time in the morning is to go to your office and do not know what to work on first. My notebook has been my saviour for the past few years. Every night I write down a list of things I need to work on the next day. That way when I wake up in the morning and head to my office, I instantly dive in to work. If you are more into digital apps, then check out those online apps meant to make your daily tasks easier such as Todoist and Wunderlist.
2. Cancel unnecessary meetings
From my career experience, nothing wastes more time than meetings that are nor necessary. They divide your day into useless segments such as and could have been conducted over the phone rather than in-person or via email. Another great way to cut meetings short is to conduct them while standing up. That way you will avoid unnecessary small talk and cut straight to point. In addition, instead of travelling to a meeting say in Dubai or another part of town, consider doing it over the phone or over Skype. This does not apply to all sorts of meetings, but the majority of them could be conducted this way.
3. Automate and outsource.
As I have highlighted in previous columns, mundane and administrative tasks eat up a large chunk of your day and brain activity when you could be doing something better and far more important. If you have the financial ability to hire staff, then hire an admin who would be in charge of these tasks. Alternatively, I am a strong advocate of outsourcing these tasks to numerous online platforms/virtual assistants who could be doing that for a fraction of the price. Tasks that can be automated include accounting, social media, graphic design, emails and admin.
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4. Avoid social media
The thing with social media is that once you log into your account to check something, a whole hour could just drift by without you feeling it. When you are at work, log out of your accounts, and make it a habit to check your accounts when you are not the office. If you can do so with personal emails, then I suggest you do that as well. A business colleague of mine is so rigid with this. She made it a rule that she only checks her social media accounts once a day before going to sleep. Doing so, she found more time to focus on important business issues, catch up on her readings, as well as spend time on physical human interactions, which we tend to miss out on.
5. Schedule in your breaks
This is perhaps one of the things I miss about school. We had a recess and a lunch break scheduled at a specific time. Doing so, we knew that we had to stay focus, and study until 10am for our recess break, and then again at 12:30pm for our lunch break. The same should be applied for your business, but instead of just having one break at 1pm, which is the norm in many orgnaisations, try to schedule in mini ones in between. For example every hour, schedule a five-minute break to stretch your muscles, and to look away from your computer screen. You can then schedule a 20-minute recess in the morning and then an hour for lunch. These breaks are not only good to enhance your productivity but to sustain your health and wellbeing.
The thing is that as much as we crave time we often do things such as pulling up our phone to check our social media feed, or wasting our time doing mundane tasks. But a minute wasted here and another there adds up to so much time that could have been used to focus on more important things.
Manar Al Hinai is an award-winning Emirati writer who manages her branding and marketing consultancy in Abu Dhabi.
Karwaan
Producer: Ronnie Screwvala
Director: Akarsh Khurana
Starring: Irrfan Khan, Dulquer Salmaan, Mithila Palkar
Rating: 4/5
'Saand Ki Aankh'
Produced by: Reliance Entertainment with Chalk and Cheese Films
Director: Tushar Hiranandani
Cast: Taapsee Pannu, Bhumi Pednekar, Prakash Jha, Vineet Singh
Rating: 3.5/5 stars
MADAME WEB
Director: S.J. Clarkson
Starring: Dakota Johnson, Tahar Rahim, Sydney Sweeney
Rating: 3.5/5
DUNE: PART TWO
Director: Denis Villeneuve
Starring: Timothee Chamalet, Zendaya, Austin Butler
Rating: 5/5
TOURNAMENT INFO
Fixtures
Sunday January 5 - Oman v UAE
Monday January 6 - UAE v Namibia
Wednesday January 8 - Oman v Namibia
Thursday January 9 - Oman v UAE
Saturday January 11 - UAE v Namibia
Sunday January 12 – Oman v Namibia
UAE squad
Ahmed Raza (captain), Rohan Mustafa, Mohammed Usman, CP Rizwan, Waheed Ahmed, Zawar Farid, Darius D’Silva, Karthik Meiyappan, Jonathan Figy, Vriitya Aravind, Zahoor Khan, Junaid Siddique, Basil Hameed, Chirag Suri
Recent winners
2002 Giselle Khoury (Colombia)
2004 Nathalie Nasralla (France)
2005 Catherine Abboud (Oceania)
2007 Grace Bijjani (Mexico)
2008 Carina El-Keddissi (Brazil)
2009 Sara Mansour (Brazil)
2010 Daniella Rahme (Australia)
2011 Maria Farah (Canada)
2012 Cynthia Moukarzel (Kuwait)
2013 Layla Yarak (Australia)
2014 Lia Saad (UAE)
2015 Cynthia Farah (Australia)
2016 Yosmely Massaad (Venezuela)
2017 Dima Safi (Ivory Coast)
2018 Rachel Younan (Australia)
ANATOMY OF A FALL
Director: Justine Triet
Starring: Sandra Huller, Swann Arlaud, Milo Machado-Graner
Rating: 5/5
TECH SPECS: APPLE WATCH SERIES 9
Display: 41mm – 352 x 430; 45mm – 396 x 484; always-on Retina LTPO OLED, 2000 nits max; Ion-X glass (aluminium cases), sapphire crystal (stainless steel cases)
Processor: Apple S9 64-bit, W3 wireless, 2nd-gen Ultra Wideband
Capacity: 64GB
Memory: 1GB
Platform: watchOS 10
Health metrics: Blood oxygen sensor, electrical heart sensor and ECG, 3rd-gen optical heart sensor, high and low heart rate notifications, irregular rhythm notifications, sleep stages, temperature sensing
Emergency services: Emergency SOS, international emergency calling, crash detection, fall detection
Connectivity: GPS/GPS + cellular; Wi-Fi, LTE, Bluetooth 5.3, NFC (Apple Pay)
Durability: IP6X, water resistant up to 50m, dust resistant
Battery: 308mAh Li-ion, up to 18h regular/36h low power; wireless charging
Cards: eSIM
Finishes: Aluminium – midnight, pink, Product Red, silver, starlight; stainless steel – gold, graphite, silver
In the box: Watch Series 9, woven magnetic-to-USB-C charging cable, band/loop
Price: Starts at Dh1,599 (41mm) / Dh1,719 (45mm)
COMPANY PROFILE
Company: Eco Way
Started: December 2023
Founder: Ivan Kroshnyi
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: Electric vehicles
Investors: Bootstrapped with undisclosed funding. Looking to raise funds from outside
Dengue fever symptoms
High fever (40°C/104°F)
Severe headache
Pain behind the eyes
Muscle and joint pains
Nausea
Vomiting
Swollen glands
Rash
The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial
Director: William Friedkin
Stars: Kiefer Sutherland, Jason Clarke, Jake Lacy
Rating: 3/5
The years Ramadan fell in May
COMPANY PROFILE
Company: Mascotte Health
Started: 2023
Based: Miami, US
Founder: Bora Hamamcioglu
Sector: Online veterinary service provider
Investment stage: $1.2 million raised in seed funding
The biog
Hobbies: Writing and running
Favourite sport: beach volleyball
Favourite holiday destinations: Turkey and Puerto Rico
Sarfira
Director: Sudha Kongara Prasad
Starring: Akshay Kumar, Radhika Madan, Paresh Rawal
Rating: 2/5
Women’s T20 World Cup Qualifier
UAE fixtures
25 April – Ireland v UAE*
27 April – UAE v Zimbabwe**
29 April – Netherlands v UAE*
3 May – UAE v Vanuatu*
5 May – Semi-finals
7 May – Final
UAE squad: Esha Oza (captain), Al Maseera Jahangir, Avanee Patel, Heena Hotchandani, Indhuja Nandakumar, Kavisha Kumari, Khushi Sharma, Lavanya Keny, Mehak Thakur, Rinitha Rajith, Samaira Dharnidharka, Siya Gokhale, Suraksha Kotte, Theertha Satish, Vaishnave Mahesh.
*Zayed Cricket Stadium
**Tolerance Oval
ILT20 UAE stars
LEADING RUN SCORERS
1 Nicholas Pooran, 261
2 Muhammad Waseem (UAE), 248
3 Chris Lynn, 244
4 Johnson Charles, 232
5 Kusal Perera, 230
BEST BOWLING AVERAGE
(minimum 10 overs bowled)
1 Zuhaib Zubair (UAE), 9 wickets at 12.44
2 Mohammed Rohid (UAE), 7 at 13.00
3 Fazalhaq Farooqi, 17 at 13.05
4 Waqar Salamkheil, 10 at 14.08
5 Aayan Khan (UAE), 4 at 15.50
6 Wanindu Hasaranga, 12 at 16.25
7 Mohammed Jawadullah (UAE), 10 at 17.00
RESULT
Shabab Al Ahli Dubai 0 Al Ain 6
Al Ain: Caio (5', 73'), El Shahat (10'), Berg (65'), Khalil (83'), Al Ahbabi (90'+2)
Company Profile
Company name: Cargoz
Date started: January 2022
Founders: Premlal Pullisserry and Lijo Antony
Based: Dubai
Number of staff: 30
Investment stage: Seed
COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Haltia.ai
Started: 2023
Co-founders: Arto Bendiken and Talal Thabet
Based: Dubai, UAE
Industry: AI
Number of employees: 41
Funding: About $1.7 million
Investors: Self, family and friends
Teams
Punjabi Legends Owners: Inzamam-ul-Haq and Intizar-ul-Haq; Key player: Misbah-ul-Haq
Pakhtoons Owners: Habib Khan and Tajuddin Khan; Key player: Shahid Afridi
Maratha Arabians Owners: Sohail Khan, Ali Tumbi, Parvez Khan; Key player: Virender Sehwag
Bangla Tigers Owners: Shirajuddin Alam, Yasin Choudhary, Neelesh Bhatnager, Anis and Rizwan Sajan; Key player: TBC
Colombo Lions Owners: Sri Lanka Cricket; Key player: TBC
Kerala Kings Owners: Hussain Adam Ali and Shafi Ul Mulk; Key player: Eoin Morgan
Venue Sharjah Cricket Stadium
Format 10 overs per side, matches last for 90 minutes
Timeline October 25: Around 120 players to be entered into a draft, to be held in Dubai; December 21: Matches start; December 24: Finals
WITHIN SAND
Director: Moe Alatawi
Starring: Ra’ed Alshammari, Adwa Fahd, Muhand Alsaleh
Rating: 3/5
Small Things Like These
Director: Tim Mielants
Cast: Cillian Murphy, Emily Watson, Eileen Walsh
Rating: 4/5