The Fundamentals of Time Management
Wasting Your Time is Wasting Your Life:
The following quote sums up the concept I hope to get across: "Life is nothing but a measurement of time - you cannot waste one without losing the other." I hope to ingrain in you the concept that time and life of the same thing - there is no difference! Think about it, let it sink in and feel what that means. Literally, when something or someone wastes a block of your time, they have in effect stolen a chunk of your life that can never be retrieved. Let me share with you another old quote that speaks to this: "What rich man, old and sick, feeble and helpless, would not exchange all the gold in his vault for the blessings you have treated so lightly?" We must protect our time as if we are protecting our life...because, in fact, we are.
One of the greatest tragedies in life is to advance into old age, look back, and say "where did it all go?" I hope that you will learn to exchange each moment of your life only for something of value. As if you were pulling precious coins out of your pocket with the realization that once they are all gone - so are you! Treat your time and you life as precious and protect it from all the stealer's of time.
Fundamentals of Time Management:
One of the keys to effective time management is to discover where the "leaks in your boat" are. Where are we losing time? Where are we putting our energy? To answer these questions we need to get a full assessment of exactly where we are at.
Think of it as a matter of problem-solving. In this case the problem is the loss of time. So let's take a look at how problem-solving works and how it can help us to approach our time management challenges.
Classic problem-solving happens in 5 stages:
1) Awareness - We must be aware that we have a problem. You can't solve a problem that you don't know that you have, so awareness is critical.
2) Understanding - What is the nature and scope of the problem. Get clear about what is happening, why it's happening and how bad it is. Also note what it's costing you and how many areas of your life it impacts (job, home, school, relationships, money, etc.).
3) Knowledge - Study the solution(s) and gain the necessary skills to be effective in solving the problem.
4) Take Action - Commit to taking action daily and makes solving the problem of focus and a priority. Be sure to acquire the needed resources and asked for help as needed.
5) Evaluate and Adjust - Nothing goes perfectly as planned, so be flexible open and ready to adjust. Get committed to outcomes, not methods, and be willing to change your strategies ("Shift Gears") as needed.
Based on this model, the first thing to do is to gain a full awareness and careful assessment of where your time goes and how it is spent. The best way to do this is to use a time tracking sheet. The sheet is broken down into 15 minute increments, because 15 minutes is a valuable chunk of time and just right for tracking activities throughout the day.
Tracking sheets are a powerful tool. People typically can save one to two hours per day by evaluating these sheets and making the necessary corrections. This tracking this tool is central to our work -so don't skip over it, you would be cheating yourself greatly.
How to Use Your Tracking Sheets:
Track your day from beginning to end (where it starts and ends is up to you), write down what you were doing and draw a line down to the next activity to show this time was used on the task. Track your entire day like this, and repeat this process for a three to five day period. This should give you a good idea of how you spend your time, on what tasks, and how long these tasks take you. Tracking for five days should be sufficient, unless your weekly duties vary wildly.
Next, take time to note how productive/critical/profitable each task you engaged in was. This will give you a better sense of how you time is proportioned between Hide/Medium/Low gain tasks. Be brutally honest here, we don't need to defend or justify something we are going to change any ways. Besides, the more "problems" we find - the greater our ultimate gains will be!
Now take some time to self assess how you utilizing your time. What would you change to free up more time or to be more productive with the same amount of time? This step is powerful, eye-opening, and exciting, because it will help you find the blocks of time you seek. It will also give you a great sense of control and power to choose - it's a great feeling! People always feel better when they're in control and enjoying positive gains in their lives - this is what makes time management exciting and fun!
How to Use Your Time Planning Sheet:
First, make yourself several copies of your time tracking sheet to now use as your time planning sheet.
Speaker Jim Rohn says, "Before you start the day, finish it on paper." What this means is that planning the day will create time savings, a focused plan with targets, it will give you a better sense of control and make you aware if you're getting drawn off track (- this may show you the areas that need improvement or are problematic).
I know this may sound strange in an article on saving time, but be sure to schedule in breaks and time to solve unexpected problems. I do this for two reasons: 1) unexpected problems are a fact of life - supplant for the unexpected (*remember this is a reasonable/realistic planning sheet - not a fantasy). 2) scheduling breaks keeps you alert, happy, and sane! You will also likely notice that breaks keep your problem-solving abilities fresh, you're more creative, your memory is better and you make fewer errors. As a secondary benefit, in a pinch, these breaks also allow pad for unexpected problems that take longer than expected. I typically allot for 2 fifteen minute breaks and a half hour for the unexpected daily (I may not always use them - but most days I do, and this keeps my plans on track).
Planning the day like this typically improves peoples efficiency or time savings by 10 to 25% the first time they use it! See how you make out after your first date using the system. You will quickly see that this strategy is worth the small amount of time it takes to implement daily.
The following quote sums up the concept I hope to get across: "Life is nothing but a measurement of time - you cannot waste one without losing the other." I hope to ingrain in you the concept that time and life of the same thing - there is no difference! Think about it, let it sink in and feel what that means. Literally, when something or someone wastes a block of your time, they have in effect stolen a chunk of your life that can never be retrieved. Let me share with you another old quote that speaks to this: "What rich man, old and sick, feeble and helpless, would not exchange all the gold in his vault for the blessings you have treated so lightly?" We must protect our time as if we are protecting our life...because, in fact, we are.
One of the greatest tragedies in life is to advance into old age, look back, and say "where did it all go?" I hope that you will learn to exchange each moment of your life only for something of value. As if you were pulling precious coins out of your pocket with the realization that once they are all gone - so are you! Treat your time and you life as precious and protect it from all the stealer's of time.
Fundamentals of Time Management:
One of the keys to effective time management is to discover where the "leaks in your boat" are. Where are we losing time? Where are we putting our energy? To answer these questions we need to get a full assessment of exactly where we are at.
Think of it as a matter of problem-solving. In this case the problem is the loss of time. So let's take a look at how problem-solving works and how it can help us to approach our time management challenges.
Classic problem-solving happens in 5 stages:
1) Awareness - We must be aware that we have a problem. You can't solve a problem that you don't know that you have, so awareness is critical.
2) Understanding - What is the nature and scope of the problem. Get clear about what is happening, why it's happening and how bad it is. Also note what it's costing you and how many areas of your life it impacts (job, home, school, relationships, money, etc.).
3) Knowledge - Study the solution(s) and gain the necessary skills to be effective in solving the problem.
4) Take Action - Commit to taking action daily and makes solving the problem of focus and a priority. Be sure to acquire the needed resources and asked for help as needed.
5) Evaluate and Adjust - Nothing goes perfectly as planned, so be flexible open and ready to adjust. Get committed to outcomes, not methods, and be willing to change your strategies ("Shift Gears") as needed.
Based on this model, the first thing to do is to gain a full awareness and careful assessment of where your time goes and how it is spent. The best way to do this is to use a time tracking sheet. The sheet is broken down into 15 minute increments, because 15 minutes is a valuable chunk of time and just right for tracking activities throughout the day.
Tracking sheets are a powerful tool. People typically can save one to two hours per day by evaluating these sheets and making the necessary corrections. This tracking this tool is central to our work -so don't skip over it, you would be cheating yourself greatly.
How to Use Your Tracking Sheets:
Track your day from beginning to end (where it starts and ends is up to you), write down what you were doing and draw a line down to the next activity to show this time was used on the task. Track your entire day like this, and repeat this process for a three to five day period. This should give you a good idea of how you spend your time, on what tasks, and how long these tasks take you. Tracking for five days should be sufficient, unless your weekly duties vary wildly.
Next, take time to note how productive/critical/profitable each task you engaged in was. This will give you a better sense of how you time is proportioned between Hide/Medium/Low gain tasks. Be brutally honest here, we don't need to defend or justify something we are going to change any ways. Besides, the more "problems" we find - the greater our ultimate gains will be!
Now take some time to self assess how you utilizing your time. What would you change to free up more time or to be more productive with the same amount of time? This step is powerful, eye-opening, and exciting, because it will help you find the blocks of time you seek. It will also give you a great sense of control and power to choose - it's a great feeling! People always feel better when they're in control and enjoying positive gains in their lives - this is what makes time management exciting and fun!
How to Use Your Time Planning Sheet:
First, make yourself several copies of your time tracking sheet to now use as your time planning sheet.
Speaker Jim Rohn says, "Before you start the day, finish it on paper." What this means is that planning the day will create time savings, a focused plan with targets, it will give you a better sense of control and make you aware if you're getting drawn off track (- this may show you the areas that need improvement or are problematic).
I know this may sound strange in an article on saving time, but be sure to schedule in breaks and time to solve unexpected problems. I do this for two reasons: 1) unexpected problems are a fact of life - supplant for the unexpected (*remember this is a reasonable/realistic planning sheet - not a fantasy). 2) scheduling breaks keeps you alert, happy, and sane! You will also likely notice that breaks keep your problem-solving abilities fresh, you're more creative, your memory is better and you make fewer errors. As a secondary benefit, in a pinch, these breaks also allow pad for unexpected problems that take longer than expected. I typically allot for 2 fifteen minute breaks and a half hour for the unexpected daily (I may not always use them - but most days I do, and this keeps my plans on track).
Planning the day like this typically improves peoples efficiency or time savings by 10 to 25% the first time they use it! See how you make out after your first date using the system. You will quickly see that this strategy is worth the small amount of time it takes to implement daily.