Time Management Successful Living

Time Management Successful Living By Chuck Groot People might say to me, "Chuck, it's nice to say that we learned all this great stuff about planning and goal setting, but let's face it, I don't have time to do this on a regular basis!" So, (one might ask) how do we get all this done and still have time left at the end of the day for ourselves and our family? I know that you have heard about time management, but do you really know how easy it is to do? Do you know how much time you can actually save by applying it? If you do, why are you not applying it? If you don't know how much time you can really save and do something you enjoy with it, charge ahead and learn how. Have you ever heard the old saying that: "If you want to get something done - give it to a busy person?" How can that be you ask when God gave us the same 24 hours in a day? The secret is not how much time we have, but how we use it! What are the reasons that people run out of time and don't get much accomplished? Many people spend time on things that are not important. These concerns may seem important at the time, but I am reminded of what my pastor loves to ask, "What is the better question?" The better questions is, "What is the most important thing that I should work on right now that would advance my company or get me closer to my goals?" Often people spend a lot of time worrying about the problems that occurred because they didn't plan! When you are busy putting fires out because you didn't spend the time to properly organize, you end up running around a lot more, don't you? Another reason is that people spend trying to decide what to do next. Now that excuse sounds silly, but if you think about it, if you don't know where you are going, it is difficult to decide which way to take, isn't it? Often, people remain undecided to the extent that they don't have time left over to do things they should do. A really common reason people don't get much accomplished is that they let other people dictate what they should do. How often do you hear someone come up to you and say, "We have a problem"? Usually it is their problem, but they expect you to help them solve it. Last, (although there are a lot more), if you don't plan your time, it is really easy for other people to take it. It is so easy for you to get distracted by someone else when you have no real hard and fast reason to get on with what you are doing, other than the fact that you are doing it. If you had a plan, it is so easy to tell someone, "I'm sorry but right now I need to get this done because I have an important deadline to meet." Doing so is made much easier by the fact you have set both goals and a date by which you want to accomplish them. Moreover, your confidence is boosted by your certainty that those plans and goals are important! International training company Priority Management systems has poem in their daily planner that is quite appropriate: Take time to think. It is the source of power Take time to play. It is the secret of perpetual youth Take time to read. It is the fountain of wisdom Take time to laugh. It is the music of the soul Take time to work. It is the price of success Take time to give. It is too short a day to be selfish Take time to pray. It is the greatest power on Earth Time management is comprised of these 10 essential factors: Clear Specific Goals: know what you want. You already have these written down from Chapter Two On. Doesn't that feel great to know? Have clear specific plans on how to get your goals accomplished. Wow. You have done this too. Make a list every day of all the things that you must do. The best time to do this is at the end of the day. Pick the six most important things that need to get accomplished and write them on your list of things that need to get accomplished today. There are three great benefits to this: You won't lose any precious sleep thinking about what you have to do because your subconscious will know that you have them all listed and it won't worry about forgetting them. You won't be running around trying to remember what you had forgotten because, since it was written down, there is no need to waste time trying to remember. You won't clutter your mind with a lot of details or petty information - once you write it down you can forget about it. If something comes up during the course of the day, rather than doing it or forgetting about it, write it down on the bottom of your list so that it can be included on your list of priorities for tomorrow. The critical idea here is to keep focused and working on the most important items. Prioritize each item on the list in order of importance. I actually have a list with everything that I need to do. I list them in groups of "A", "B", and "C". A's are essential and must be done as soon as possible. B's are secondary, C's are items I will get to when I have extra time. These groups are then further prioritized with a priority code of 1 - whatev