you direction
You know how it is: When you’re working toward something, keeping your focus is much easier. A woman may want to lose weight, for example, but perhaps she struggles to stick to a diet or exercise plan. But if her son’s wedding is looming three months away on her calendar, she may be more inspired to stay on track, cutting back on second helpings and getting in workouts.
Using your aspirations to fire up your time‐management success means you have to identify your goals and keep them in the front of your mind. Pinning down what’s most important to you may require some soul searching. Write down your goals – all of them – and follow these guidelines:
✓ Cast a wide net. Go for the big goals, such as joining the Peace Corps, as well as the not‐so‐big ones, such as getting an energy‐efficient car next year.
✓ Think big. Don’t rein in your dreams because they seem unrealistic.
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✓ Don’t limit goals to a single category. Think about goals for your career, your personal life, your social situation, your financial status, and any other facet of life that’s important to you.
The process of goal‐seeking can be a fun and energizing experience, and it’s one you can explore at length in Chapter 3. You also see how your current time use can affect the forecast for your future.
Assigning a monetary worth to your time
Most people think about the value of their time as it relates to on‐the‐job activity. The fast‐food worker knows he earns a minimum wage per hour. The freelance artist advertises a per‐hour rate. The massage therapist charges for her services in half‐hour and hour increments. But to be truly aware of the value of your time, you need to carry this concept into your personal life as well. The value of time in your personal life is at least as valuable as your work life time. In some cases, personal time is priceless.
I once saw a woman in a parking lot throw pennies on the ground. When I asked her what she was doing, she told me she’d just read about a multimillionaire who had calculated his worth, and based on the value of an hour of his time, he determined that it wasn’t worth the few seconds it’d take for him to pick up a dollar bill from the sidewalk. She, however, had decided that although it was worth her time to pick up a dollar, she could afford to part with a few pennies.
I think she missed the point, but there’s a lesson in this experience: You’re always on the clock. Time is money, and yours has a value. Giving away your precious time without a sense of its value is like throwing money on the sidewalk. By knowing what your time is worth, you can prioritize those tasks that yield the greatest return, delegating or eliminating those tasks that provide little to no return on your time investment.
Identifying your rhythm to get in the zone
Athletes talk about being in the zone, a place where positive results seem to stick like a magnet. Well, I’m here to tell you that the zone isn’t some magical place where wishes come true. Anybody can get there, without a lucky token or fairy dust. What it takes is focus, singular focus.
If you know your rhythms – when you’re most on, what times of day you’re best equipped to undertake certain tasks – you can perform your most important activities when you’re in the zone. Everyone works to a unique pace, and recognizing that rhythm is one of the most valuable personal discoveries you can make. Some of the aspects you need to explore include the following:
✓ How many hours can you work at a high level each day?
✓ What’s your most productive time of the day?
✓ How many weeks can you work at high intensity without a break?
✓ How long of a break do you need so you can come back focused and intense?
About ten years ago, as I was evaluating my sales results, I puzzled over a drop in my numbers at the tenth week when I’d been working without a break. It didn’t take me long to realize that my lower results reflected my drop in focus. And it’s a pattern I could see in previous months. I realized the best course of action, rather than gutting it out, was to get out. I needed a vacation.
I also found that I didn’t need a full week’s vacation to return to work revitalized and refreshed. I simply needed a mini‐break, about five days over the course of a long weekend to step away from the work routine and see the world through another lens, whether holing up with my family or making an escape to the beach. In the last few years, I’ve recognized again that span of time spent at work has been reduced from ten weeks to a nine‐week schedule. It could be attributed to age, increased responsibility, pre‐teen and teen children, or a couple of ongoing health issues. I have learned that getting out is still the best course of action.
To this day, I lay out my whole year in advance, now based on the nine‐week rhythm. This ensures I use my time for maximum benefit. I’m either working at a high level, or I am out recharging myself for five days to come back strong.
Effective time management requires more than good intent and self‐knowledge. To keep your time under careful control, you need a framework. In your arsenal of time‐management ammunition, you want to stock organizational skills, technology that helps keep you on track, and planning tools that help you keep the reins on your time, hour by hour, day by day, week by week, and so forth.
Establishing
