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Time is a unique resource—invisible, unalterable, and unstoppable. Everyone has the same amount of time. Each one of us lives 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.
Common Cries
Before we go any further, we should be clear about the fact as human nature is the great arch-rival of personal effectiveness. In time-management workshops or seminars for large and small organizations in a wide variety of industries, the audience has these common 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! Indirectly they are saying that: “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 are naturally inclined 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.”
Time Saver
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.
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, but they accomplish more hour to hour daily. 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
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-image.
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 restrains 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 takes out an apple pie. You get out only what you put in.
Change Your Terminology
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 exceptional 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 anymore 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. 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?”
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. 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.
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. 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.
2. Make a priority “to-do” list each evening for the following day. You’ll sleep better, wake up with more enthusiasm, and be a better steward of your time all day long.
3. Wake up early, before the time when your obligations and responsibilities kick in. Organize your bedtime and wake-up time so that you have at least fifteen to thirty minutes to yourself before you have to get dressed, deal with the kids, or leave for work. A morning buffer time puts you in charge of your day.
4. Return as many of your phone calls and e-mails as possible at one or two predetermined times during the day. This will save most people twenty to thirty minutes a day that would ordinarily be wasted.
5. Batch or group as many of your daily or weekly chores as possible so that time is not lost by simple inefficiency.
6. Think of your relationships as precious investments. Nothing can compete with the regret caused by looking back and realizing, “I’ve spent way too much time with the wrong people.” In light of God’s purpose for your life, are you investing enough time with the right relationships?
7. Avoid the quick-fix mindset at all costs! Instead, do it right the first time. If you don’t have time to do it in excellent fashion the first time, when will you have time to do it over? Taking shortcuts saves time today, but it costs even more time in the future.
8. Thoughtfully prune something in your life each year, or maybe even every quarter. Abandon as quickly and politely as possible those obligations, projects, habits, and commitments that you’ve come to realize no longer serve your God-given purpose. Big or small, what could you let go of today and never even miss?
9. Insulate yourself sufficiently from distractions. You will be far more effective as a mom, dad, husband, wife, or business partner if you routinely have some space or margin where you can quietly think and proactively take care of yourself without being interrupted by others. Then, schedule time daily or weekly to deal with the important people, projects, and priorities in your life.
10. Constantly remind yourself that time equals life! View each hour of the day as a gift. Stay aware of your time like a world-class athlete watches his or her diet. Quickly evaluate each day in less than two minutes by asking, “What went well today? What didn’t go very well? What will I do differently tomorrow?”
“Unique Tip for News to Save Your Time”
In the olden days, there were newspapers or only a few news channels that broadcasted news at specific times. But now, there are plenty of news channels broadcasting news every minute. Unfortunately, over 75% of these news stories are repetitive in nature. Each channel has a mobile application providing a news feed. Additionally, numerous other apps offer news feeds, bombarding us with several news notifications on our mobiles, all with very attractive headlines. As a result, we find ourselves constantly opening these notification links and reading countless news articles.
If you aim to cover all the news for the day, you may end up spending 3-4 hours either watching news channels or browsing through various mobile apps. However, if you value your time and wish to avoid wasting it, consider adopting a strategy to read news from newspapers (physical) or E-paper (digital). These sources have news categorized into sections such as main headlines, local news, national, international, sports, editorial, etc., presented in printed form. This way, you can choose to read only the news that aligns with your areas of interest.
You might worry that relying on these traditional sources could cause you to miss some important news. However, take a moment to analyse your past few days or weeks—were all the news articles you read during that period truly useful?
Remember, your ability to manage your time affects your marriage, your parenting, your fitness, and your potential for influence in the marketplace. (Excerpt is from ‘Success Is Not an Accident’ by Tommy Newberry).
