• Work smarter
• Reduce stress
• Stay organized
• Experience inner peace
• Put into practice twenty-one time-savers
The pages that follow provide powerful, usable, and highly effective time-management strategies that have had a dramatic effect on the lives of my clients in The 1% Club, as well as for countless other highly successful individuals.
In some instances, you will be able to implement these ideas immediately. At other times, you may not yet be in a position to put these tactics into practice. Fortunately, you can approach the following ideas like you would an enormous dinner buffet. Just as you would not—or at least should not—eat everything on the buffet, it’s neither necessary nor recommended that you try to apply every single tactic we discuss in this chapter. I’d like you to concentrate on the most “nutritious” and most overlooked portion of time management, which is what I call Vital Time. These are the activities that are often squeezed out of your schedule by the addictive urgency of daily living. It’s been said that all behavior is an expression of one’s character. When you begin putting some of these recommendations into practice, it will free you to engage in Vital Time, which in turn allows you to express who you are and what you believe in. Remember, the intent of time management is to enhance the quality and balance of your life, not simply to speed it up!
If you want to minimize wasted time, work smarter, maximize your productive capabilities, and experience more Vital Time, then this lesson is for you. If you want to work less but earn even more, this lesson is for you. These pages contain practical ideas and techniques.
Each strategy presented has been field-tested and proven to be workable in the challenging arena of modern living. In fact, many of the techniques you’re about to learn I put into practice to complete this book. After finishing this project, which required countless hours of research, writing, editing, and even more editing (and which had to be done around my previous commitments and already full schedule), I’m more convinced than ever of the validity of the ideas I’m about to share with you. They are evidence of my personal triumph over procrastination and the other real and imagined diversions that hold most people back. By consistently and diligently applying these principles, you’ll have more time for yourself, your family, and your friends.
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Rapid-Fire Time-Saver #1
Communicate to every employee what five minutes of wasted time means on a company-wide yearly scale. Relate those numbers to profits and salaries.
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With the other chapters in this book, I recommend that you read from start to finish, capturing the full scope of the principles I’ve presented, answering the questions, and completing the assignments. In this chapter, I encourage you to browse, reviewing the bold headers and selecting the sections that seem most relevant and important to you given where you are in life right now and especially in light of where you want to be in the future. This chapter was written not just to equip you but also to challenge you to raise the bar in your own life. Though you may not be able to put every recommendation (such as delegation) into practice, there is something (such as overcoming procrastination) in this chapter for everyone, and that includes you. As you progress through the upcoming pages, continually ask yourself, “How could I use this principle? How could this work for me right now? How could I become a more effective steward of my time?”
What Is Time?
Time is a unique resource—invisible, unalterable, and unstoppable. Everyone has the same amount of time. You and I must live on 86,400 seconds, 1,440 minutes, or 24 hours each day. That’s 168 hours a week, approximately 720 hours per month, 8,640 hours per year, 177,800 hours over the next twenty years, and about 691,200 hours in a lifetime if a person lives to be eighty. And each segment of time we receive must be spent instantly.
Before we go any further, let me point out that human nature is the great archrival of personal effectiveness. I routinely conduct time-management workshops and seminars for large and small organizations in a wide variety of industries. Inevitably, no matter who my audience happens to be, I hear these same cries:
• “But our situation is unique.”
• “Our business is such that it’s impossible to properly plan, delegate, organize, hold effective meetings, or otherwise practice solid, proven, time-management habits.”
• “That won’t work for us because . . .”
Nonsense! Let me translate what these naysayers really mean: “Due to the nature of our particular business, we’re forced to operate inefficiently.” Think about that for a second. “Due to the nature of our particular business, we’re forced to operate inefficiently.” Doesn’t that sound a bit crazy?
The common thread to these comments is none other than human nature. All human beings have a natural inclination to resist change, and nothing is quite as challenging as changing a bad or self-defeating habit. We want our lives and businesses to improve, but sometimes not quite enough that we are willing to change. But remember this: If any area of your life is to get better, you must get better. This means you must be willing to replace sloppy habits with the habits of success and peak performance. Aristotle reminded us thousands of years ago that “We are what we repeatedly do.” And if you’re committed to repeatedly applying the principles in this lesson, you will be amazed by the difference!
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Rapid-Fire Time-Saver #2
Consider finding a convenient hideaway where you can isolate yourself. It can be in the building you work in, at home, close to your home, or even in your car, parked in a quiet place.
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Don’t fall into the trap of thinking that your time constraints are unique and unmanageable. It doesn’t matter where or how you’re currently living. You might live in the projects or in a mansion on the hill or anywhere in between, but one thing remains constant: No matter who you are, your progress and success in life will depend, more than any other factor, on how you invest the twenty-four hours you’re blessed with each day. In fact, contrary to popular belief, it’s not just the most talented, gifted, well-educated, affluent, or advantaged people who achieve outstanding results in life. Nor is it the most intelligent, the hardest working, or the most creative. Success in life comes from one thing: deciding exactly what you want to accomplish and then deliberately choosing to invest the minutes and hours of your life doing only those things that move you in the direction of your goals. This lesson will give you the street smarts to do just that.
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Vital Time is the quantity of time you invest in principle-based, goal-directed activities.
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If you’re willing to seize the initiative, you can learn time management just like you can learn to use a computer, play a sport, or any other skill you desire to master. The more ambitious you are, the better you must be at squeezing every last bit of usefulness out of every minute at your disposal. If you don’t make the most out of an hour or even a minute, you’ll never get a second chance. Remember, whether or not you want to admit it, many people are even busier than you are, but they accomplish more hour to hour, day to day. They obviously don’t have more time. They just put their time to greater advantage. And you can do that as well!
Your Self-Image Affects the Way You Manage Time
To create Vital Time, you must understand how your internal picture of yourself affects your ability to make the best use of your life. Your self-image affects how well you spend your time because when you believe you can manage your time well, you feel in control rather than as though you’re simply reacting to external pressures. You have the ability to organize the events of your life so they make sense. The first step to becoming someone in control, someone who is an outstanding manager of his or her time, is to explore and improve your self-imag
e.
Formed primarily from your environment, your self-image is the subconscious mechanism responsible for guiding your behavior. We always act consistently with the image we have of ourselves. If you see yourself as someone who is overly busy with far too many things to do, someone who is disorganized or working too hard, then your attempt to master your time will be in vain. Your weak self-image handcuffs your abilities and hampers your efforts at controlling your time. In fact, you cannot expect to behave differently from your self-image programming any more than you can expect to put a chocolate cake in the oven and an hour later take out an apple pie. You get out only what you put in.
Your self-image regulates your behavior just like a thermostat controls the room temperature. It determines how you use your time, knowledge, skills, and experiences. And far too often, we don’t question the validity of our self-image. We simply behave as if it were true.
The key to becoming an outstanding time manager is to start thinking and speaking of yourself as an outstanding time manager. For example, if someone asks you about your day, you might say, “Today is the best day I’ve ever had. I’ve managed my time perfectly today. I don’t have time to tell you any more now because I’ve got things to do.” Vocalize, verbalize, and then actualize.
Changing your terminology changes your self-image. Changing your self-image changes your attitude. And changing your attitude changes your actions. I often like to say, “Attitude outranks facts.” To develop the right attitude, ask yourself, “How would I act if I were already an excellent time manager? How would I act if I were the most effective time manager in the world?”
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Rapid-Fire Time-Saver #3
During breaks in the workday or when you are coming and going, use the stairs. It’s a great way to maximize your time and burn extra calories.
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Imagine that someone offered you fifty thousand dollars to play the part of an excellent time manager in a movie. What are some of the things you would do? Well, you would sit up straight; you’d have your desk organized. You would move quickly. You’d work on one thing at a time and work from a list. You would check your e-mail proactively and on schedule. You’d anticipate and plan for interruptions. As Hamlet says, “Assume a virtue, if you have it not.”18 If you start acting like an excellent time manager, really pretending you’re already a model of personal effectiveness, the habits will lock in like a vise. Soon you will become an excellent time manager in reality.
The Time of Your Life
There is always enough time to achieve what God wants you to accomplish. That advice was drilled into me early in my life. It’s a bit blunt, but it expresses a great truth. There is never enough time to do everything, but there is enough time to do the right things. Determining what the few right things are can be a bit challenging, especially when we are surrounded by an avalanche of short-term cultural trends and suggestions. The noise of modern society can subtly distract and divert even the most committed among us. One of the most curious aspects of human nature is that we will fail to find time to proactively set clear priorities, yet we will squander even more time reactively dealing with the inevitable messes created by such neglect. Are you living deliberately right now? That question is what time management is all about.
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Rapid-Fire Time-Saver #4
Measure your time in small increments, such as fifteen minutes. Attorneys do it, after all. It creates awareness, speed, and momentum.
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As we touched on in lesson 1, you tend to make wise decisions when you take into account the longest time horizon. When you consider an opportunity and ask, “I wonder how this will affect me in the next ten years, twenty years, or even longer,” you tend to be very satisfied with your decisions. On the other hand, your biggest regrets often originate when you factor in only a short span of time, such as a year, month, week, or even the next fifteen minutes. Reflect for a moment on the choices you’d love to buy back, if you could, that were facilitated by a short-time perspective. Breaches of integrity are close neighbors with short-term thinking. Rarely will character break down when the long-term consequences are sufficiently weighed. After choosing a long-term perspective, it’s critical to surround yourself with other individuals who share your strong commitment to the same priorities. Over time, and sometimes rather quickly, we take on the values, habits, and attitudes of the people with whom we spend most of our time. If your friends and coworkers compromise on matters that are important to you, it’s only a matter of time before you become similarly influenced. With whom are you investing most of your time . . . and are they moving you in the direction of your full potential?
“I Didn’t Have Time”
It has been said that four simple words characterize mediocrity most accurately: “I didn’t have time.” Neither you nor anyone else could have a more damaging excuse concerning success. When you tell someone that you didn’t have time, you simply reinforce their perception of you as someone who can’t be relied on to get the job done. And when you tell yourself that you didn’t have enough time, you undermine your inner credibility and fortify a self-image of underachievement and irresponsibility.
We all know where good intentions are likely to take us. There is a certain, well-traveled road that is paved with them. Pleasant intentions and other good thoughts are only a starting point, a commencement, not a finish line. Besides, most of us entertain worthwhile intentions. That’s not the problem. The question is whether or not you have altered the way you use your time to fulfill those intentions. How have you positioned yourself to keep your promises and honor your commitments? Have you set yourself up for likely success, or have you weakened your probability of living in alignment with what’s most important? Take a moment to scan your life and determine your priorities. What are the top five priorities in your life and how are they ordered? Do you put your work before your health? Do you put your kids before your marriage? Do you allow busyness to crowd out time with God? Do you ask yourself questions like this on a frequent basis? What are the long-term consequences of placing your priorities in the wrong order?
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Rapid-Fire Time-Saver #5
If you have a separate set of keys for each set of locks, you’re likely to end up at the right lock with the wrong keys! Prepare a complete set of all your important keys, and then make as many duplicate sets as necessary. Then, no matter which set you pick up, you will never be locked out of your home, your ofice, or the car you choose to drive. Always leave your keys in the same spot so you can find them quickly.
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The Power of 15
What could you do to enhance your life if you had an extra fifteen minutes each day? You might want to read something uplifting or maybe review your most important goals. You might want to stretch your lower back or take a quick walk. Maybe you’d turn this extra fifteen minutes into prayer or journaling time. Perhaps this bonus time could be used to chip away at an overwhelming clutter project or to better plan the next day. You might play a quick game with your kids or write a note to a special friend. If you give it some thought, just fifteen minutes a day can change your life. I’m confident you can find this “extra” fifteen minutes somewhere in your day. Consider cutting fifteen minutes of daily television or newspaper time and reallocating it to a higher priority activity. Or consider waking up just fifteen minutes earlier or staying up fifteen minutes later. Possibly you could shave fifteen minutes off your lunch routine. If you look for this extra fifteen minutes, you’ll find it. I challenge you to re-budget just fifteen minutes a day, seven days a week, to an activity of higher value. Three months from now, those fifteen extra minutes will accumulate to 22.5 bonus hours. And three years from now, those fifteen short minutes will add up to more than eleven extra twenty-four-hour days, or thirty extra nine-hour days.
Fortunately, you already have these extra days, but how will you choose to invest them? It’s worth thinking about because it is the time of your life!
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Rapid-Fire Time-Saver #6
Compile commonly sought materials into binders or digital files, or create digital shortcuts to them. You’ll avoid sorting through files to retrieve the answers to frequently asked questions.
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Ten Recommendations
No matter where you are in life or what restrictions you have on how you use your time, the following ten recommendations will help you live on-purpose and make the most of the twenty-four hours you receive each day.
1 | Know your life goals. We covered this in lesson 3, but it is worth pointing out that nothing wastes more time than not having a set of clear goals for your life, for the year, for the week, and for the day.
Success Is Not an Accident Page 10