For too many people, time management is not only a challenge, but nonexistent in their day. With no schedule, calendar or plan they handle whatever comes at them. At the end of the day they are exhausted and wonder how they could be so busy, yet have no idea what they actually accomplished. If you have ever had a day or week like that, you are not alone.
Time is our most precious commodity. The problem is we don’t look at or value time that way. We take it for granted and assume we have plenty of it to spare. The dictionary defines commodity as:
com·mod·i·ty
[ kə móddətee ] traded item: an item that is bought and sold, especially an unprocessed material1. Useful thing: something that people value or find useful
Synonyms: product, service, goods, article of trade
Every minute, hour and day that goes by where we fail to implement a new skill, tool or discipline is time lost never regained. Every child’s event we miss, because we are “working,” can never be re-visited. We all have something in common; we woke up one day older. If you have lost money, especially over the last seven years, I have good news! You can get it back! However, you can never regain lost time as a result of procrastination, laziness, or lack of discipline.
As we grieve for the communities in Oklahoma and other areas in the Midwest who have suffered loss of life from the devastating tornados; it is ominous to think those who perished or lost loved ones that day woke up that morning thinking it would be just another day. Our time is short and fleeting. We need to make the most of it with no guarantees of what the future holds.
In the next several blogs I will comment on how to leverage time to grow your business and enhance personal life. The first step is to determine the barriers or obstacles to mastering or leveraging time. They are:
1- Your Value of time. Do you value yourself and your time? Too often we give so much of our time away to prospects and clients thinking we can “give” ourselves into a business relationship. There is a certain amount of truth to the fact that giving yourself away in a limited amount does create value to our prospective clients. However, giving too much diminishes the value of your time and expertise. This also comes down to how much are you worth in a dollar per hour sense. A $10/hour person goes through their day differently than a $100/hour person or a $1,000/hour person. It doesn’t mean the $100 or $1,000 per hour person is better or morally superior. It simply means they have learned to leverage their time at a higher rate of return because they value their time more. Do the math and determine what you are actually worth per hour and see if that matches what you would really like to be earning per hour. The next step is to determine the necessary changes to realize the increase to give yourself a raise.
2- Your Control of time. Are you in control of your schedule and time or do other’s control your schedule? Do you schedule prospects and clients when you are available or do they tell you when they can meet and you adjust your schedule (even a child’s event) to match their availability? Are you accessible to all internal and external clients (open door policy) when they want and need you or do you have a closed door policy informing people of your open times to meet? The choice is yours. Choose to control your time, clients and expectations or they will control you and your calendar.
3- Tyranny of the Urgent. If I was describing YOU in my opening statement about starting your day with no plan and handling whatever comes your way, then Tyranny of the Urgent is driving you. It is like being a fire fighter and in constant crisis management. You are being reactive. Too often we tend to elevate the incoming request and treat it like an impending urgent crisis that if not dealt with immediately, will end the deal and relationship. If we can just handle it now, it will get done (not forgotten) and clients will be happy. The reality is 90% of what we elevate to a NOW CRISIS, can actually wait.
Here is an example of how to handle the incoming: “John, I have time set aside after lunch for matters like that, if I got this accomplished by end of business today, would that meet your deadline?’’ Most of the time the answer would be – “Yes!” Moving to schedule your day in blocks of appointed time for yourself for all activity you do, prioritizing the important/non-urgent first, you will be taking crucial first steps to controlling your day and becoming proactive vs. reactive. Stephen Covey in his book “Seven Habits of Highly Effective People” created the timeless Activity Quadrant which we have put into a tool you may use: Prioritizing Your Activity Quadrant
My guess is I may have struck a chord with most of you and the majority reading this are affected by time and the control of it. Please take me up on availing a valuable 30 minute time block with one of our coaches to discuss your time and how to specifically leverage it to grow your business and enhance your personal life.
