You have the power to control how you spend your time
Much has been said about how technology and computers have fostered a notion of instant gratification. Whether it’s movies, music, information or many other goods or services, people are now used to getting what they want at the click of a button.
While I happen to love being able to download songs or movies, I sometimes forget that there is no such thing as a free lunch. Yes technology has allowed us to do things instantly, but they have also made possible a culture where people now demand things instantly from us.
Email, text, calls on the cell phone, our bosses, co-workers and even our family often demand that we respond instantly to their questions and problems. I can’t tell you how many times people have berated me for getting a busy signal on my phone or not picking up. “Where were you?!” they’d ask impatiently. “I couldn’t reach you!”. I’d respond with “why didn’t you leave a message?”. “Well,” they’d say. “It wasn’t that important.”
When I was the manager of a television newsroom, I was on call 24/7. If big news happened anywhere in the country at any time I was expected to deal with it immediately. If people had any problems they call me or send an email to my iPhone.
I loved my job but it did not take long before this constant stream of immediate and urgent demands took its toll. I have a painful chronic illness which often leaves me tired and takes a lot of my time. I found I was ignoring things that could have improved my health. I was also avoiding my friends (because I was tired or working), and missing out on things in my life that I enjoyed doing.
Despite working up to 60 hours a week I found I was getting less done than I felt I should have been. I was ignoring important tasks to work on the dozens of urgent little tasks that seemed to get thrown my way.
Without realizing it, I had trained myself so much to work urgently, I often spent my time SEEKING urgent things to do rather than working on important things that needed to be done. I was falling into a spiral of despair.
Then I read Stephen Covey’s First things First. In it he describes how our technological time management culture focuses on the urgent at the expense of the important. BINGO! I realized I had found a kindred soul. Covey’s view of time management was totally different from the rest of the pack and appealed to me greatly.
In a nutshell, his concept was to get people to first look at what they felt was really important to them, then make sure they set and achieved these goals first. It’s a time management philosophy that stresses the “compass” (purpose and values) over the “clock” (scheduling).
By stressing the important goals in life, it makes it easier to say no to urgent tasks that just don’t have the payoff for us.
I have adopted this overall theory and put it into practice in my own way and I must say it works well. I have personally found three time management tools that put the Blackberry, iPhone, and Outlook to shame
Are you ready for them? You may dismiss them out of hand, but I suggest you give them a try for just a month. Stick with them, and I guarantee you won’t go back to your old system.
You won't find what you are looking for here.
The three best time management tools are:
• A pen or pencil
• A notebook
• Your brain
You may have all three within handy reaching distance right now. Of course, just having them around is not going to change you life. Using them without proper thought can actually make things worse. It is how you use these wonder tools that counts.
Actually, there is a fourth tool that’s really important. It’s time. Not a lot of time, mind you. Once you get going it could be as little as ten minutes a day. But there is one thing you have to realize to make it work. These are most important ten minutes of your day. Find this time. Do NOT be rushed. If you are relaxed things will actually go much quicker and your results will be much better.
STEP 1
Your first step in the program takes a little longer than the rest. Give you self up to an hour. Be relaxed. Find a place where you won’t be disturbed, turn the cell phone off, and grab some coffee, tea or favorite soothing beverage.
Then write down specifically what you want your life to look like. What is important to you in your family life, your career, your financial situation and your soul (what sort of good do you want to do in the world.)
Write these things down. Concentrate on things that make you feel good about yourself. Most people will write down things like spending lots of time with family, enjoying friends, travel. Others want to advance their careers. Just remember, as Dr. Stephen Covey says, to put first things first. If your family is the most important thing, put that down as your first priority.
Make sure you actually write this stuff down. You will want to put this in a nice notebook where you can look at it frequently. We will call these your core priorities.
STEP 2
Some people may choose to ignore this step but I found it works for me. Once I found out the things I wanted in life (time to take care of my health and enjoy my loved ones, financial security, and starting a business that would help people). I sat down and turned them into affirmations. Positive statements of what I was doing to help my life. Like step 1 this keeps me on track about what is important to me, but also gives me confidence as it reinforces that I am pro-actively working towards achieving my goals. Some of the affirmations I came up with included
I am building financial security in an easy and relaxed way.
I have more than enough time for my health and my personal life
I am building a successful business in an easy and relaxed way for the good of all.
The easy and relaxed part of the affirmation was something I discovered in The Type Z Guide to Success by Marc Allen. Again it reminds me to slow down and take a break from the urgent. The important things in life are almost always a marathon rather than a sprint. They take time and can’t be rushed.
Write these affirmations in the same book as the important goals that you did in step one. Then REPEAT these affirmations as much as possible. Keep going back to them a few times every week and write them down over and over again – in the same book. Keep this book with you. When you have a spare moment (even if it’s in a cab or on the subway) open the book to see these affirmations over and over again. They re-orient your thinking and remind you that you are doing important work for yourself.
STEP 3
This step can be done once a month or so. It could take 15 minutes to half an hour. Again you want to find a quiet and relaxing time to do this. Can’t find a quiet and relaxing time? Ah but that’s one of your priorities isn’t it? You find a way to make the time. Even if you have to force yourself to head to the coffee shop and relax in a comfy chair with a beverage for bit.
Go back to your core priorities and your affirmations. You are going to do something about what’s important in your life. Your core priorities are about the long term. You’re thinking medium term now. If one of your core priorities is spending more time with family, perhaps you want to organize a family trip or an elaborate birthday party for someone. If one of your core priorities is your health maybe you want to lose 5-10 lbs in the next month. Maybe you want to leave your job and enter a career selling Real Estate. Taking a Real Estate course would go into these medium term priorities.
Just make sure when you write these down they are actionable items rather than just abstract ideas.
STEP 4
Step three was monthly. This is weekly. Get comfortable and relaxed again – these exercises are a GREAT excuse to get comfortable and relaxed. After a while, when you see how much this system works you will realize how important down time actually is to accomplishing stuff. Being relaxed helps you work better!
Now that you have an idea where your priorities are and the medium term projects you want to work on, now is the time to break them into manageable steps to get them done.
So here’s how I do it. I divide my core priorities like this.
Health
Financial
My business
Family and Personal Life
Yours will likely be slightly different and based on your own core priorities.
So at the beginning of each week I make four lists. Based on the priorities I created earlier. What are the most important things I can do this week…
• For my health
• For my finances
• For my business
• For my family and personal life.
Remember to make sure to include what is important not just urgent. Also make sure the tasks are realistic. If your Step 3 goal was to lose 5-10 lbs this month, write down actionable items that will get you there, such as;
• I will eat only salad for at least four meals this week
• I will spend 20 minutes on the exercise bike five days this week.
• I will limit myself to one chocolate bar this week.
If your goal was leaving your job for a career in real estate and step 3 involved taking a course, your step 4 goals would be something like.
• Look online for real estate courses at my local college
• Phone college and ask about tuition fees and start dates
STEP 5
By the time you get to step 5 you should be feeling empowered. You’ve identified areas that are important to you and have taken systematic steps to get what you want. You have created the best time management tools that you can possibly have. Believe me, once you get back in the maelstrom of urgency you will need them.
Your step 5 task is to check your notebook daily, preferably several times a day. Are you taking the steps to accomplish what’s important? If you find you still don’t have the time than something has to go. And it shouldn’t be what’s important. By going through the previous steps and defining what is most important you have given yourself good and justified reasons to jettison tasks which are urgent but not as important to you.
I always hated saying no to projects, requests for information and for my time. Now it’s much easier. I consult my book several times a day. I see my priorities, my affirmations and my goals and I feel as though I am in total control. Each day of the week I’m able to cross off important goals that I have accomplished and know that I haven’t cheated myself. Doing this regularly provides and enormous sense of self worth.
- The Result
I’m still surrounded by the urgent, but it doesn’t control me. Some urgent matters are important and some are not. I don’t let other people’s expectations get in the way of my priorities. If someone has a problem that can wait or they can easily handle it themselves I no longer have any issues letting it go and not worrying about it.
If you have skimmed this article you’re probably thinking – man I don’t have time to do all this stuff. But it really doesn’t take all that long. Instead of checking your email for the fifth time this hour (and I know some of you do), just devote these few minutes to yourself in a quiet and relaxed way. It will improve your work, your life and your self-worth.
Just try it for a month or two and see how you feel.
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