Time Management Mastery
It’s hard to find time to not only work ‘IN’ your business, but to work ‘ON’ it as well, to ensure its growth and development. As a business owner, I bet you feel lucky if you manage to find 5 minutes to eat your lunch? Not something many of us business owners like to admit.
In all honestly, how often do you find yourself saying; “I’m too busy” or “I just don’t have the time” in different areas of your life?
You’ll often find that this doesn’t just exist in business, but your personal life as well. All those missed dates with loved ones and friends, missing your children’s sporting activities and ceremonies for instance. Can you remember the last time you enjoying a carefree, relaxing holiday?
We all wish there were more hours in the day, or that somehow, we could maybe stop time, but the only way to accomplish everything we want, is to look at how we manage time and not allow time to manage us.
How we use time is one of the great determinants of how successful we are as both business owners and as individuals.
Think of a car race. They make all the drivers race cars that are all designed and built to the same specifications. The winner is then determined not just by who has the fastest car, but who can drive that identical car in the best and fastest way possible. Similarly, in life the winners are those who learn how to drive their use of time in the most efficient way possible.
So how do you take control of your time?
- Acceptance – There is no such thing as too much or too little time – learn to accept this. There is enough time available for you to be successful – others have been successful and they had no extra time than you. Your situation needs to be taken ownership of; be accountable and responsible for your actions and your results.
- Decisions – Decide what you want or need to accomplish. Why do you want to be successful? Is there something in particular you want to be successful at? Some people see success as being a millionaire, to others it may mean being healthier. For some it’s spending more quality time with loved ones. This is your goal. You must also understand the benefits to you of achieving the goal – how will it make you feel when you achieve it? Both your goal and your ‘why’ (reason for wanting the goal) must be written down with a timeframe.
- Activities – Once you have decided the goal and your “why”, you must now determine the activities that will be necessary for you to accomplish that goal. What do I have to do? What time commitment will I make? What will I need to adjust/sacrifice/reduce/delegate in order to have the time to do the activities identified? Remember if it was easy everyone, including you, would have already done it. What separates the successful users of time from the unsuccessful ones is the discipline and determination to obtain their goals no matter what. In his book The Dip, the entrepreneur and best-selling author Seth Godin advises, “Never quit something with long-term potential just because you can’t deal with the stress of the moment”.
- Understanding – Life and business are about choices and this is something you need to understand. You choose how you will spend your time – on what activities and how much on each. This is a marathon, not a sprint. It takes time and effort to be successful in many different areas of your life. Success comes from laser-like focus on one or two goals. Once they are accomplished, you move on to the next set of goals and focus on those.
- Preparation – Prepare your calendar each week by creating “appointments” to do the activities that you have identified. These are defaulted into your calendar before anything else. Something ActionCOACH likes to call a Default Diary. Treat this as if the appointment was with your most important customer. Would you easily change your Monday 2-3pm “meeting” just because someone asked for that time slot? No, you would negotiate – “I am booked at that time. I can see you at either 1pm or after 3pm, which would work for you?”. Be like this with your own appointments too and you’ll find you skip less.
- Discipline – Your schedule needs to be disciplined. Why would anyone else care about how you spend your time, if you’re not concerned yourself? Learn to say “No”. In Stephen Covey’s book “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, he breaks activities into 4 categories –
a) Not Important/Not Urgent,
b) Urgent/Not Important,
c) Urgent/Important; and
d) Not Urgent/Important.
The Urgent/Not Important category is the danger for most people. This is when we are responding to other people’s urgencies, however if the activity does not move us toward OUR goal – by definition it is ‘Not Important’. Beware of the time and effort devoted to those tasks. Conduct your own time usage study. Every minute that you can divert from ‘Not Important’ categories to the important categories will move you closer to your goal.
- Review – Adjust, where necessary, your successes/challenges in meeting your schedule each week. Be honest with yourself and continually reinforce your “Why” – what are you trying to accomplish and how important it is to you.
- Accountability – Keep yourself on track by finding an accountability partner or mentor to help you. We can all use help every now and then – it is a strength to admit this, not a weakness.
Stop blaming time, take ownership of your time and commit to the discipline necessary to win the race – by being the best “driver” of time you can be.
Tim Coleman, our Business Growth Specialist, is offering a gifted coaching session if you’d like some support on your time management. Click here.
