Hello friends…
There are many books, podcasts, YouTube presentations, blogs and articles written about time management. It is a valuable study and process for personal, friends, family and professional achievement. My personal experience has been successful with the Franklyn Covey system of creating goals and desired results, then daily, weekly and monthly tasks to support those longer-term goals. I believe there are nine human needs for ultimate freedom. These tasks are created to support aspects of these nine needs. The premise is taking control of our most precious commodity, which is time. I believe goals and the supporting tasks are valuable but I also think this system is about limiting distractions and keeping us ON TRACK. In our digital culture, distractions are rampant. Eckhart Tolle is one of the many and probably the most famous author that talks about the fact that all we have is NOW. So, managing every NOW moment will lead to the desired future or NEXT NOW. If we are consistently distracted in the NOW, our life eventually slips through our fingers like water.
The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle. Managing the now will affect all aspects of life.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey is a staple in the realm of human behavior, repetitive habits as well as time management. This method will creating good habits and sustain them. These habits have everything to do with the desired results, goals setting and time management.
Let’s take a quick look …
I’ve heard a large number of people say things like; “I don’t have enough time to …”, “I am so overwhelmed because …”, “I CAN’T FIT IN ONE MORE THING!” “I really want to _________ (do that), but I’ll have to wait until …”, “I have so many things to do …” (usually for others, son, daughter, father, mother, spouse, friends), that I have no time for _________ (ME)!” Sound familiar? Read on!
Time management is not really about how much you have to do or when. It is about organizing your tasks and your time for maximum efficiency. We are never really overwhelmed we are only unorganized. We all have 24 hours in every day. It is also about discovering what is important and making each hour, day, and week count towards what you want to achieve and having fun doing it! Achievement also means planning time off, fun, rest, time with family, creativity and much more. The other side to this is; 1, 2, 5, 10, or more years go by and then you realize, OH NO, where has the time gone? What have I done with my last XX years! This is the issue, HERE is A solution!
1. Make a long “sky’s the limit” list of things you want to do, need to do or have to do. Just write! Make the list long and have fun with it. No limits. Keep writing, take your time, have fun. Be focused with this. Forget about the naysayers and the voices in your head that say “you can’t.” Just do it. Keep writing.
2. NEXT, pull some of the already scheduled, appointment items out of the list and place them forward on the calendar on the appropriate days and hours. Things like dentist appointments, auto repair, and events with children or anything like that. These “tasks” will generally come and go, with a little preparation and travel time and very little thought.
3. With the remainder of the list, go through carefully and determine what are some of the highest priorities. You know, the fun things. The things you can’t wait to get to. Yes, that’s right, make them first and believe me, everything else will get done! Make these priorities things that you WANT to do and can see through to a moderate level of completion. Pull three of the highest priorities (and only three) out and place them on another short-list, to be done either ASAP or on the appropriate day and time.
4. Get the ASAP items and fun things done and done soon for that feeling of success and accomplishment. Repeat step #3 for your next “short” list, and keep going until the first day or week ends, within reason. Schedule some rest. If we are going constantly, we MUST schedule some time off and not let anything distract us from this rest or alone time. If someone wants you for something, you say: “I have something scheduled during that time”.
Now repeat steps 2-4 above pulling tasks from the original list you made in step #1. Do this for at least a few days in a row until you have built some consistency. With this repetition process, take as much time as you need to make this process easy and comfortable. It’s worth it, you’ll see! If there are larger items on the list from step #1, schedule time for a portion of that project. Jim Kwik is a widely recognized world expert in brain performance, mental fitness and memory improvement. HE talks about the brain having 25 minutes of focused uninterrupted time before you take a short break. Then, continue with another 25 min. or comeback tomorrow for another 25 on the same project. This is only one way to manage a larger project.
These are all tools you can use to get things done easily and happily. This will ultimately open up more time for YOU. You might say that making lists and scheduling tasks can be tedious at first and you would be right. We are building a new habit and a new behavior. This is challenging until it becomes more automatic. Keep going! You will see very soon how much you can accomplish and how it will lead to more free time. During that free time, you will not be thinking about something you have to do later. It will be in your task book!
We have only begun with time management. This is a good first step! The next step is GOAL SETTING! All tasks will lead to the desired result. You’ll see. NEXT time!
What do YOU think?
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