Time Management

Time is Up!

“The purpose of time management and getting more done in less time is to enable you to spend more face time with the people you care about and doing the things that give you the greatest amount of joy in life.”

—Brian Tracy

Dear Readers, I am so pleased to meet with you once again during the month of November.  Summer vacation is over, Eid Al-Adha holiday is over, and there are no more excuses to keep you from getting back on track. 

Do you know what your most valuable asset is?  It’s not your car, which I am sure you really love, or your amazing new bag, your most valuable asset is time.  Each one of us only has 24 hours in the day, seven days in the week and only 365 days in the year.    Every hour spent is gone forever so it is to our advantage that we value our time.    

An excellent way to begin to assess the value of your time is to understand its worth.  Success expert, Brian Tracy, advises those who want success to know its worth by assessing their hourly rate.  So, what is one hour of your time worth?  Break it down.  Once you calculate your hourly rate, begin to make conscious decisions in regards to the way you spend your time and how to increase its value.        

Many times the problem that arises is not the lack of direction but, rather, lack of motivation.  Many people suffer from the procrastination bug.  We find them avoiding the situation and wasting time on less important tasks.  Moreover, if this sounds like you, take note of what you are avoiding as this is usually tied to the fear of success or failure and need to deal with this stress.  Why are you choosing not to move forward?  Keep in mind that staying in your place denotes that you have chosen to sabotage yourself.  

When it comes to Martians and Venusians, they generally handle time management very differently.  Martians are very single task oriented.  So, when managing time, they prefer to break it into one task blocks.  They may be less inclined to keep a to-do list and would prefer to ‘challenge’ time.  

Venusians, on the other hand, prefer to keep a to-do list and love to multi-task.  Venusians are actually quite good at multi-tasking and doing things in groups.  The problem arises in the fact that they over ambitiously schedule too many tasks in their day and end up rarely finishing the tasks they have scheduled.  Venusians are infamous for the never ending to-do list as compared with Martians who are good at properly scheduling their day and then, when finished, relaxing.

How To Implement Time Management?

Dear readers, for those of you who wish to control your time and reach for success; I suggest holding yourself accountable to your plans and schedule.  In my experience, the best way to manage your time is as follows:

1. All day long write in a “remember book” all the tasks you need to do. The tasks in the remember book do not have to be for tomorrow.  Keep a rolling tab on all the tasks you would like completed.
2. In the evening, take the “remember book” and choose the tasks you would like to accomplish for tomorrow.
3. Plan your day the night before. This keeps you mentally ready, get going and hit the ground running.  Schedule a time every evening to do this.
4. Prioritize the tasks you want to accomplish. Most important tasks first and so on and so forth.  The famous writer Mark Twain said, if you eat a frog first thing in the morning, the rest of the day becomes easy.  So go ahead and eat that frog!
5. Schedule your day electronically by time blocks. The best way to do this is to schedule your day on your phone.  When your next task is due, the alarm rings and reminds you, so there are no excuses.  

Dear readers, I have simply highlighted how to better schedule your day and life with such time management tips.  I urge you to take control of your most valuable resource, time, and change your lives.  If you have any questions or comments, I would love to hear from you so feel free to connect!