The Winner's Time Management Playbook
You can read a ton of articles about time management, and most of the will say the same things.
Make lists.
Multi-task, if you can.
Get things accomplished during down time.
Bring a book to read when you're stuck in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
All good stuff, but few gurus speak about the glories in being ON TIME. To me this is the Father of All Time Management Doctrines.
If you can't get yourself to show up on time, you're just out of control.
Speaking of control, which this boss exerted with an iron fist, legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi insisted his players do everything on time, even showing up to group meals right on the dot.
Lombardi was the star of a brief training video that I was shown at my leasing job, along with the rest of the sales team. He devised what he called, "Lombardi Time," which among other pointers urges us to arrive at all appointments a full fifteen minutes EARLY.
To him, that is the mark of a professional. That is businesslike.
But it took me a few years after that film to truly get the message. I was part of an elite training team dispatched to teach senior level U.S. Navy managers how to manage better. The Navy simply would not tolerate tardiness in any form.
I learned that lesson so deeply that I'd do nearly anything to keep an appointment or arrive at a distant training locale, on time. Once, when a hurricane prevented me from getting to Ft. Myers, Florida one evening, I hired a taxi to drive during the wee hours across Alligator Alley, getting to my hotel a mere hour before my program was to start.
That was plenty of time to shave and shower and be at my post right on the money.
There are a few pockets of resistance against being punctual. One of them is in college teaching, where some profs feel it is their prerogative to assert their command by arriving in class 10 or 15 minutes late.
Though I succumbed to that temptation myself, the Navy ripped that habit out of my playbook.
As I recall, Lombardi also coached at Army. Maybe they drilled the same way.
Want to me a better manager or just a better time manager? Set your watch fifteen minutes ahead.
Be ON TIME, or even early. It's the way of winners.
Need a great executive performance coach? Contact the author.
Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top trainer, conference and convention speaker, sales, customer service, and negotiation consultant, and attorney. A frequent expert commentator on radio and TV, he is also the best-selling author of 12 books, more than 1,000 articles and several popular audio and video programs. His seminars are sponsored internationally and he teaches at more than 40 university extension programs, including UC Berkeley and UCLA. Gary's sales, management and consulting experience is combined with impressive academic credentials: A Ph.D. from USC, an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management, and a J.D. degree from Loyola Law School, his clients include several Fortune 1000 companies.
Make lists.
Multi-task, if you can.
Get things accomplished during down time.
Bring a book to read when you're stuck in line at the Department of Motor Vehicles.
All good stuff, but few gurus speak about the glories in being ON TIME. To me this is the Father of All Time Management Doctrines.
If you can't get yourself to show up on time, you're just out of control.
Speaking of control, which this boss exerted with an iron fist, legendary Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi insisted his players do everything on time, even showing up to group meals right on the dot.
Lombardi was the star of a brief training video that I was shown at my leasing job, along with the rest of the sales team. He devised what he called, "Lombardi Time," which among other pointers urges us to arrive at all appointments a full fifteen minutes EARLY.
To him, that is the mark of a professional. That is businesslike.
But it took me a few years after that film to truly get the message. I was part of an elite training team dispatched to teach senior level U.S. Navy managers how to manage better. The Navy simply would not tolerate tardiness in any form.
I learned that lesson so deeply that I'd do nearly anything to keep an appointment or arrive at a distant training locale, on time. Once, when a hurricane prevented me from getting to Ft. Myers, Florida one evening, I hired a taxi to drive during the wee hours across Alligator Alley, getting to my hotel a mere hour before my program was to start.
That was plenty of time to shave and shower and be at my post right on the money.
There are a few pockets of resistance against being punctual. One of them is in college teaching, where some profs feel it is their prerogative to assert their command by arriving in class 10 or 15 minutes late.
Though I succumbed to that temptation myself, the Navy ripped that habit out of my playbook.
As I recall, Lombardi also coached at Army. Maybe they drilled the same way.
Want to me a better manager or just a better time manager? Set your watch fifteen minutes ahead.
Be ON TIME, or even early. It's the way of winners.
Need a great executive performance coach? Contact the author.
Dr. Gary S. Goodman is a top trainer, conference and convention speaker, sales, customer service, and negotiation consultant, and attorney. A frequent expert commentator on radio and TV, he is also the best-selling author of 12 books, more than 1,000 articles and several popular audio and video programs. His seminars are sponsored internationally and he teaches at more than 40 university extension programs, including UC Berkeley and UCLA. Gary's sales, management and consulting experience is combined with impressive academic credentials: A Ph.D. from USC, an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School of Management, and a J.D. degree from Loyola Law School, his clients include several Fortune 1000 companies.