Time Management Isn't About Managing Your Time, It's Getting Control of You

Do you start off a day with the idea of getting certain things done and by the end of the day you haven't even gotten to the things you wanted done?

Then you should be working on getting control of you, getting control of how you manage you.

What is getting in your way, getting between you and those things you intended to do?

Is it easier to do things that are easier or more fun first?

You look up at the clock and it is break time, so you go take a break, grumbling that you didn't get to the things you really needed to do. After returning to work, of course there are a couple of those fun, easy things that you can do before you start on the tough stuff.

Doing the easy things first is poor time management. It's a habit, but habits can be changed.

Do you have a priority list but things lower in priority get done first because of excuses like these: • This one is easy, I'll do it first to get it out of the way. • The whole list of things that won't take as long can be done fast, so I'll start there. • This one is not as difficult.....

You get the idea. Things that you'd rather be doing, things that aren't as difficult or challenging you'd rather do first.

I believe it was Brian Tracy that said, "Eat the frog first" Swallow the things you don't like to get them out of the way.

The idea is to do the hard stuff, and more important stuff first. Get them out of the way. When doing the easy and fun stuff first you never get to the stuff you should be doing.

Keeping a time log of what you are currently doing will help you find where your time is going. Make sure to write everything down.

Many times I am totally amazed seeing people coming back from doing their time log for just a week. 80-90% of their time went to the low priority stuff, not the things they should be doing, not the things that are important.

I assume that: "Over 95% of everything most people do, even people who seem to have it together, is wasted time." Just think about that! If 95% is waste, then what would happen if you put ALL of your time, or ALL of your employees' time into the 5% where you should be spending your time. Doesn't that say that you SHOULD be able to do 20 times as much as you currently are?

Sounds rather far out doesn't it? Well it's not too far out. If we assume that 20 times is the ideal, just how hard do you think it would be to increase your results by 50-200% when 20 times is a potential?

Pretty easy really. So, start off by tracking where you are spending your time now, looking for the right things to be doing, and where time is wasted.