Lifestyle Mastery Boxed Set

by Scott Allan

  If so, it is important to understand that you are not in control of your life until you learn to be in control of yourself—that is, learn self-management so you’re utilizing your most precious resource: time! PIP puts you in control of your life. Most people never figure out their priorities, and so they spend all their time chasing unimportant, non-urgent matters and responding to the never-ending needs and demands of others.

  The Golden Egg of Time Investment

  Prioritizing your tasks and goals is the process of taking those things that matter most—that is, the goals and aims that contribute to your true values and the creation of a vision you have for the rest of your life.

  Once you have those goals and aims, you will create a plan to carry out the plan. That is, through priority time investment, you will decide what goals are most important and require daily intense concentration to succeed. In other words, you are putting what matters most first.

  In Stephen Covey’s wonderful book The 7 habits of Highly Effective People he tells us that to be most effective in the area of time management, we must “organize and execute around priorities.” This is exactly what we’re going to do: determine the most important things in your life and build the rest of your world around those high-level activities.

  Time Control = Action Management

  Organizing your priorities and putting into order of importance the things that matter most is a powerful organizational skill. Clarifying and defining goals and projects is one thing but is only the beginning.

  A goal without immediate follow-up action is just words on paper. In order to be truly effective, you have to know the actions you’re going to take and why you’re taking them. Having said this, it isn’t enough to just schedule our priorities and hope it all works out in the end. You have to take proactive measures to control your actions in relation to those priorities.

  In order to be truly effective and make a recognizable difference in your life, you have to organize your busy schedule around these priorities. This means that, no matter how many things you have on the go today or this week, determine the actions you must take to complete the work you want to achieve.

  Know your tasks for the day and for your week. If you fail to do this, the things that matter most will be buried under heaps of other “little” things, or the stuff that matters least. If you can manage your actions—that is, work on those activities, tasks, and projects that deliver high value—you automatically begin to define the skills necessary for mastering your time. It really is that simple.

  When I look around at the actions people take, I can see the difference in people that are working because they have to and those with a deeper purpose. The latter know why they’re busy and what they have to do to achieve goals and meet demands.

  Many people I notice keep busy to avoid falling into lethargy, or to avoid getting scolded by a supervisor that wants to see them looking busy. It is the select few, however, with actions that are directed toward a specific purpose that will accomplish their greatest dreams.

  Make an Action List

  Now, referring again to the list of goals you created, are the actions you partake in every week contributing to meeting your desired accomplishments? If so, that is great. Continue to work at it, monitor and review your progress regularly, and stay focused on what matters.

  If your actions are not yet in line with your dreams, it’s time to stop what you’re doing. I would suggest right here that you take a look at what you’re doing and ask if it’s contributing to your future.

  Are you just killing time for the sake of pleasing others? Begin to question your reasons for doing things—your job, your activities, your habits—and shift the things that need to be changed.

  Take the time now to complete this short exercise. Choose something you’ve been meaning to start but just haven’t found the time. Is your house a mess? Does your desktop need to have a good cleaning? Is there a project that’s been on your to-do list for the past five years?

  Whatever it may be, choose something right now to work on. Now, for the next twenty minutes, I want you to do some form of action on that activity. You can set a timer if you want to, but for the next twenty minutes you’re going to do something that contributes toward the progress of this project, no matter how big or small it is.

  If you’ve been trying to start a book for the past year, write the first page (or the last). Make a chapter list. Do anything. Don’t even think too long or hard about what you’re going to do. Just do something. Make your next action count.

  After twenty minutes have passed, stop if you can and observe how you feel. Do you feel excited and motivated to continue, or like a great pressure valve has been released and now, instead of putting off this job or task, you know it’s possible to do it if you take some action? Even if it’s something that will take you months or years to complete, taking that first step gives you momentum. Instead of wasting time thinking about doing it, you can start to do it whenever you want.

  Organizing Things That Matter

  What’s most important to you now? Is it raising a family? Winning an election or giving a public speech? Starting your own company? Getting into the best physical shape possible? Volunteering your services? Learning a new language? Upgrading your education so you can get a better job that’s more in line with your true talents? Reading a series of books on how to do something?

  Changing your job to another profession more in line with your purpose for living? Building the house of your dreams? Saving money for your house of dreams? What makes you feel enthusiastic and motivated? Where is your passion the strongest? Are your daily activities in line with your character values? When do you feel the most enthusiastic and energetic?

  Know what you feel passionate about and you will find time for it. It’s the people without a purpose that kill time, and in actuality, they are killing themselves. Time is the air we breathe; when you’re out of time, you’re out of life. To be truly effective in your family, career and business, finance, and self-development, your priorities within each of these areas must be first!

  Organizing your priorities and knowing specifically what they are is the formula for mastering time investment. It’s not about controlling all the little stuff or attempting to keep busy just so you look productive. It is concentrating and dedicating your time to a particular target.

  You focus on your highest ambitions and do what has to be done to achieve victory within the areas that have your passion at heart. Concentrate on the activities, people, and things that will have a massive impact on the way of life you’re striving for.

  So, how do you know what your priority is for this week, or even for today? Up to this point everything you were doing probably felt like a priority-one situation. Dealing with everything as it’s thrown at you has become an unconscious habit. It’s in our nature to respond with a sudden reaction whenever a crisis occurs or we’re called to the line of duty.

  We should try to stop reacting to every little event as if we need to fix it. Maybe you do and maybe you don’t. The point is learning to choose what needs to be done by you and what can be done by someone else. As I learned to adjust my schedule around my priorities, I stopped treading down the path of least resistance. Learning I didn’t have to try to please everyone, I knew when to say no.

  The key is to select and focus on those master areas of your life that will contribute to the overall progress, growth, and quality of your life. The master areas I spend the most time on contribute in some small way to designing the world I will live in in five, ten, or twenty years. In other words, I focus on the activities that are in a direct relationship with my master goals and contribute to the achievement of those goals.

  It’s easy to know where your priorities are: just take a look at the things that add the greatest value to your life and you’ll have an instant understanding of what you’re supposed to do with your limited time resources. The actions I engage in are constructive and positive li
fe-building activities.

  “If you want to make good use of your time, you’ve got to know what’s most important and then give it

  all you’ve got.”

  — Lee Iacocca

  Recognizing the priority thoughts, words, and actions that govern your life is a way of valuing yourself. Remember that if you are not fixated on a goal or high-end priority tasks, you’re probably fixated on something else; this is a distraction that pulls you off course and steers you in the wrong direction. This is where people lose time.

  When I’m distracted or get pulled into something else, it takes me hours or even days before I get back to what I was doing initially. Remember that your high-level priority workload grows out of your desires. The subconscious knows what it wants and will help you prioritize to get it.

  When you schedule your daily, weekly, and monthly priorities, keep these important factors in mind:

  Be very clear and exact about what you want to achieve

  Prioritize those activities that take you closer to your desired accomplishments. Give them first place on your priority list

  Work your schedule to fit around your priorities

  Focus on life design, not life crises

  Learn to say no to “urgent” matters that don’t matter

  Delegate tasks to other people when needed

  Be flexible in your scheduling

  Reward yourself vigorously when you complete a goal or priority

  Enjoy yourself—creating your destiny is fun

  Ensure your priorities reflect your personal values—they are a statement of what you want the most.

  When you do the things that matter most, even when you don’t want to do them but you schedule them anyways, you are practicing a form of self-management. You do what needs to be done, even when you don’t feel like doing it. This is the foundation for developing self-discipline and diligence in everything you do.

  Organizing priorities is one of the master keys to time investment. In order to invest your time in something that will bring you a good return, you have to know what you’re investing in; you must consciously choose the areas you will allocate your time to.

  Time Management

  Performance Techniques

  “One cannot manage too many affairs: like pumpkins in the water, one pops up while you try to hold down the other.”

  — Chinese Proverb

  168 Time Blocking Technique

  The 168 technique is a simple idea that works extremely well if you’re focusing on balancing your time to become more efficient, or if you’re just looking to free up some extra time so you can relax more.

  How it works is simple: one block equals an hour. There are 168 blocks, or units, in a week. With 168 blocks of time, you are going to sleep, eat, work, and prioritize your activities to manage your time and make the best use of your minutes. As you think about planning for this week or next, you’re going to assign blocks of time to each activity.

  Try not to spread your time too thin and remember that the purpose of this technique is to create a wealthy, healthy balance of your most precious resource so you can live as an efficient, healthy, and happy person.

  How It Works

  We are each given 168 blocks a week. Assuming you sleep 7 hours a night, you now have 121 hours to divide up within your week. If you work from 9:00 to 5:30, you now have 78 hours/blocks. Now here’s where it gets interesting. If you have already slept and worked a full week, there are still 78 hours remaining, give or take a few depending on circumstances. As you can see from this, there is enough time left over for you to do the things you want to do.

  One of the reasons this technique is so effective is because, when you treat every hour as a tangible something you can envision in the form of a unit or block, your time has value. Instead of just using time or spending it, we’re now in a position to manage ourselves more effectively.

  Take a look at your week and see how you’re going to invest in it. What would you do if each unit of your time was worth $100,000? Would you treat each hour differently? If the time in your life had the same value as cash in your pocket, wouldn’t you spend it more carefully?

  Of course, you still don’t know what’s going to happen to you this week, whom you’re going to meet, or what circumstances will fall your way. This system is very flexible and allows you to plan for the unexpected. Perhaps your boss asks you to stay late at the office every night this week, and instead of the usual seven or eight hours of sleep, you decide to sleep in two days. That’s fine.

  This technique requires some juggling around as you move your time blocks into position. I make changes almost daily to my time-blocking schedule, but it’s a lot of fun. By doing this, you know where you’re spending your time. If you must increase your time blocks for one area, such as in your job or if something suddenly comes up, you simply take a block from one area and put it in another.

  This is where your priorities come in. If at all possible, don’t steal time from these areas. If you do this right, you still have lots of time to play with. One of the reasons we fail to use time efficiently isn’t because we don’t have enough of it, but because we don’t know what to do with the time we do have.

  Start by creating your 168 time-blocking plans for the week. Remember to stick to your priorities and allocate enough time for fun and games. Most time schedules people make for themselves are very tight, sometimes right down to the last hour. This can be hectic if everything doesn’t go according to plan, and it very rarely does.

  I leave at least five blocks of time in reserve for flexibility, in case of little emergencies or if I want to spend an extra hour or two with the kids. Tuck these hours away at the bottom of the page. If the end of the week is near and you don’t foresee any unexpected events, take them and have fun.

  The Pomodoro Technique

  This is a strategy designed to get you to break up your action tasks in twenty-five-minute increments. How it works is easy. You can download the app or set your timer for twenty-five minutes. Then, you work for twenty-five minutes on one project. You don’t deviate or do something else. You stay fixed on the one activity. After twenty-five minutes, take a five-minute break. Then, go again.

  This is great for breaking procrastination and getting started on a project you have been putting off. By tackling something in short chunks, we can deal with it without feeling overwhelmed.

  Download the Tomato time app

  Set the timer for twenty-five min

  Take a five min break

  Start session two

  Repeat as many times as you can

  Declutter Your Stuff

  You may not think about it but living in a space surrounded by clutter is robbing you of your time. Do you ever spend time looking for something you need right at that moment? I know I have, and if my workspace had been in better order, I would have saved a lot of time. Now how often do you look for something in a week or a month? Our clutter not only keeps us from staying focused, but it is a distraction. As we know, distractions waste time.

  You can significantly reduce your clutter by spending just ten minutes a day cleaning up a part of your house or committing to getting rid of one thing a day.

  Think about what your room, desk, or office would look like if it were reduced to a minimalist state. Can you imagine how relaxed you would feel? How much more productive you would be? How much time you could save by staying focused instead of being pulled away by the clutter getting in your way?

  You don’t have to totally minimize your environment, but if you are drowning in clutter, both in your physical and digital environment, it could be time to do something about it.

  Action Steps: Get Decluttered

  Set aside a block of time for decluttering. This can be fifteen minutes, thirty minutes, or a block of one hour.

  Decide what you are decluttering: Is it your closet? Kitchen? Desktop?

  Once you start to declutter something, stay focused on that one area
until you are finished. If you start with that place under your bed, even if it takes you three days of short increments to get it done, stick with it. When done, move on to the next.

  Make a clear decision on everything you touch. You either keep it or toss it. If you keep it, put it where it belongs. If you can’t decide right now whether you need it or not, put it in a box and leave it there with the other undecided items.

  Then, after three months, if you still haven’t touched it, toss it or sell it. Chances are you are just holding on to it for fear of letting go.

  Fifteen-minute Weekly Planning Session

  Start each new week with fifteen minutes of goal-planning time. During this session with yourself, write a list of priority goals and tasks for that week. Then, break down those tasks into manageable steps. Making a weekly schedule or priority task list focuses your concentration on the things that matter most. Without this, like a ship with a broken rudder, you’ll soon find yourself veering off course.

  To make the most effective use of your time each and every day, set aside fifteen minutes at the beginning of each week to make your weekly schedule. Once your goals for that week have been determined, put them in order of importance and tackle them one by one. Write down the steps you have to do for each goal and keep your plan visible at all times, in a place you have easy access to.

  As the weeks and months go by, you’ll be amazed at the progress you’re making. Every week should have a priority goals list, and your first priority is to make a schedule for your master priorities. At the end of the week, if there are any tasks that didn’t get finished, move them over to the following week and continue to do so until they get done

  Balance Your Activities

  Balance in life is everything. To live up to your own expectations and personal values, you need a true balance in the vital areas of your life. Don’t just commit to one area of your life and spend eighteen hours a day focused on this one thing. While doing so guarantees you will become a master at this one thing, the other parts of your life will fall apart if neglected.