The society we live in sees busyness as its’ purpose. In actual fact, busyness has become a status symbol. Many people equate how busy they are to how successful they are. These people are in constant conflict with time – how much they have and what they are able to do with it.
Time is a precious commodity that is fairly distributed between the happy, the unhappy, the busy, the not so busy, the successful the unsuccessful, the wealthy and the poor. No-one can steal it from you. If you waste it, you do not get punished for it, you get another 24 hours to value, use and manage.
What differentiates the people who have the time to do all they want to do and those who never seem to get through what they set out to do? The article to follow will offer some answers to this problem, a problem that many see as their enemy or excuse to success.
Realising the value of time:
To realise the value of one month – Ask a Mother who gave birth to a premature baby.
To realise the value of one week – Ask an editor of a weekly newspaper.
To realise the value of one day – Ask a child the day before Christmas.
To realise the value of one hour – Ask the lovers who are waiting to meet.
To realise the value of one minute – Ask the person who missed the train.
To realise the value of one second – Ask the person who has just missed an accident.
To realise the value of one second – Ask the person who won the silver medal at the Olympics.
Make every second count!
How often do you hear yourself saying?
“I don’t have enough time to do that”
“If only I had more time I would…”
“I would love to do it but the timing is not good”
Is it really a question of time? Think about that for a while…
My answer would be that it has nothing to do with the 24 hours you are given, it is all about what is important to you. You will always find time to do what is important to you. The problem is that very few of us know what is important to us and have never taken the time to look at our value hierarchy. The result is we feel overwhelmed with all the tasks that land in our in tray and because we don’t have a filtering system we either try and do it all or start using time as an excuse.
In order to be able to manage your time you need to manage yourself. You need to know your purpose. Do you have a vision for your life? Do you know what you want to achieve, why you want to achieve it and by when? You need to know what is important to you. What is your value hierarchy? You will always make decisions based on your highest values. You will always find time to do the things you value the most.
I could give you 20 ways to manage your time better, however, if you did not know your purpose or have a vision or invested time in understanding your values, you would not know what your priorities are and therefore you would not be able to plan your days, weeks and months better. So, try this:
Take time to understand what your purpose is:
- What is my vision?
- What are my values?
- What is important to me?
- What do I want to achieve?
Prioritise tasks
There is always enough time to do what is important, the trick is to determine what is important. What tasks speak to the above and give you the results you want? Make a list of the tasks you need to perform to meet the above purpose/vision/goal/s. Divide these tasks in proactive tasks, the ones you can plan for in advance and reactive tasks, the ones that you will have to respond to as and when they arise. The % split here, should be 80% proactive and 20% reactive. If this is not the case for you, take time to see where and how you can change reactive tasks into proactive tasks. Take on the challenge! It is all about changing a habit.
Plan
Take the proactive tasks noted from the exercise and start planning. Your motto should be – If you think it – ink it:
- Daily planners – diary/outlook
- Weekly planners – diary/outlook/wall planner
- Monthly planner – diary/outlook/wall planner
- Yearly planners – visionboard
And as if the above wasn’t enough…
Recognise, acknowledge and deal with your time wasters
YOU:
- Procrastination
- Stress
- No clear vision
- Lack of planning
- Poor organisational skills
ENVIRONMENT:
- Interruptions
- Telephonic
- Face-to-face
- Some Emails
- Some SMS’s
Some Inspiration
“The chief beauty about the constant supply of time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next day…the next hour…are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted a single moment in your life.” Arnold Bennet
“Procrastination is opportunity’s natural assassin.” Victor Kiam
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