Time: The Limiting Factor
“Stop for lunch and you are lunch!”
It’s just a bumper sticker but we can all relate to the feeling. Time is our limiting factor and we all feel the pressure. Time is our scarcest resource – there is no more being created – and unless we manage it, nothing else can be.
Most people complain about the paradox of work – “you can’t get anything done at work”. A recent study reported that executives are interrupted on average every 25 minutes. Further research shows that close to 75% of the time in any work environment is spent in conversation and discussion with other people on top of distractions, interruptions (self-imposed or not) and the back and forth of “getting things”.
Time management always sounds like a genetic disorder. Not so – managing your time is simply a set of habits that can be learned at any stage of life. Right – it may be simple but it's not easy.
Locus of Control
If the goal is to achieve a more relaxed, sustainable and positive way to work and live, you have to focus on being proactive.
The key is to take steps to be more in charge of your time. You feel much more positive about yourself and your life based on the degree to which you feel in charge. When you are in charge, you feel like life is in your hands, take responsibility for actions and outcomes and can make better decisions. When you simply react to pressures and events, you completely lose your feeling of being in charge – it creates anxiety, stress and saps your energy. It stands in your way of meaningful, sustainable success.
Take charge of your time!
- You will “gain time” in your day and create more value.
- You will feel more positive and optimistic.
- You will improve your productivity and performance gaining more energy.
- You will have more time to relax and enjoy your family, friends and your own time.
How do you make the shift to being proactive?
“Let your advance worrying become advance thinking and planning.”
Winston Churchill
You can make dramatic changes to your work and life faster than you think simply from your desire to change, decisions to take action and the discipline to add positive habits.
Unsuccessful people complain about what they don’t want to do with their time – take a different approach and focus on what you do want to do with your time. You don’t need to work harder; you need to define your work better. Working more and more hours is not the answer – it just compensates for being ineffective and consumes energy and time.
You don’t need discipline, you need a disciplined approach.
“Ever stop to think and forget to start again?”
Unknown
You need a systematic approach to your time. No more relying on ad-hoc, reactive behaviors and dealing with pressures and fires. Take charge of your week and become more relaxed – when you relax, everything improves.
You need to practice a new way of thinking – what is the best thing for me to do with my time. Since we can’t change time, we have to change our approach to it. To take charge of our time, we need to shift our perspective from trying to control our time to focusing on what to do with our time to get the most important results and be flexible to change.
You gain greater confidence by managing, rather than trying to control, the changing nature of your days.
Make the shift to take charge of your time by taking three steps:
Step One Record your time
Step Two Focus your time
Step Three Manage your time
Face the Facts
The first step is to find out what you do with your time now.
To take charge of your time, you need to know where your time goes now. If time is your limiting factor, where are the limits now?
A great way to start is to simply write down how you THINK you spend your time right now. Over the next two weeks, record what you actually do with your time. Compare your thinking, your doing, and be prepared for clarity…”projects always take longer than you thought”, “certain days are better than others for you”, and “multi-tasking doesn’t work”.
Focus Your Time
Now take the next step – what do you want to do with your time that would provide the most meaningful results for you? What a concept – what works for you?
Follow the Chamberlain System:
- Focus on your Priorities (both professionally AND personally )
- Set a weekly agenda based on your Priorities
- Do your Priorities FIRST!
Think for a few moments about what would make the perfect week for you. What would you do with your time? What actions would you take? What would be most important for you to look at your week and feel energized and happy with your progress?
Having trouble with your priorities?
- Think about if you had an extra day each week – what would you do with that time?
- Think about if you had an extra hour each day – what would you do with that time?
- Who would you spend the extra time with?
Your answers are your priorities.
Decide what would be a productive and profitable schedule for you. What are your personal energy jump-starters, when is your personal prime time, what do you need to relax and recharge and what do you want to do with your week?
Successful people don’t multitask, they “spotlight” task. They focus on their priorities one at a time and structure their schedule through habits and supports to take action.
Design your own ideal week based on your priorities and take actions.
Manage Your Time
You are clear on what you have been doing with your time and what you want to be doing with you time, how do you bridge the gap?
What supports and habits will help you implement and follow a plan for your ideal week?
With all the demands your time, you need to be honest when you make your plan.
- Most people underestimate the amount of time required to complete an activity
- Most people think everything will go right exactly according to plan
- Most people will hurry through things rather than set a pace that enables their best work.
- Most people try to do several things at once
Help yourself achieve your ideal week by being honest with yourself and recognizing the real answers in terms of what you will need to do your work effectively.
- Daily tactical meetings with your assistant are a must – short 15-20 minute meetings to move things along and avoid wasting time later
- Make your internal meetings work with an agenda based on your priorities – plan them with a flexible agenda, keep to the topic, stay within an hour at the most and never finish a meeting without an action plan for who is doing what by when
- Block at least three 1-hour times each week for you to close the door and work on priorities
- Group your client meetings within certain times as much as possible (and not in your high-focus periods) and keep to a calendar
- Provide time each week for you to think about your business and your plan
- Each day MUST have a 15-minute planning appointment with yourself to plan the next day and have an agenda – always work from a list
- Set 3 priorities each week to complete (not 11) – organize your list by priority
- Have boundaries for yourself and others to protect your focus from time wasters
- Use a time planner (whatever works for you)
- Keep a lot of flexible time each day to handle what you didn’t expect
What is most important is that for managing time one size does not fit all. Be honest with yourself and see what tools and strategies work best for you and build a personal system that you will use yourself naturally. It has to work for you.
Results
Your goal is to take back charge of your time. You want a more relaxed, sustainable and positive way to work and live.
Time is your scarcest resource – unless you take charge and manage it, nothing else in your business or life can be. Being proactive and planning your time is the one and only easily accessible and systematic habit that will have the greatest impact on your success.
There is no real “quick fix” – success requires you to commit to making a positive change. You have to want the new picture and envision yourself in it – the Million Dollar Week. That is why 90% of people who attend seminars, listen to tapes and watch videos see no improvement – they did not commit to the positive change and take actions to support their commitment.
You need time to implement habits to achieve the change.
Remember the benefits for you:
- You will increase your sense of control and confidence
- You will increase your productivity, performance and profitability
- You will increase the time in your work day to do what is truly important and meaningful
- You will increase your free time to relax and enjoy the journey
Taking charge of your time enables you to accelerate your path to sustainable success.
If and how you will apply what you have read here is totally in your control. You will achieve a positive change in your work and life only if you choose to – otherwise, it’s just reading.
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Time: The Limiting Factor
