How to Maximize Your Time! - by Dave Anderson
Time is more important than money. You can get more money but you cannot get more time. Squandering time is one of a leader's most costly mistakes. It robs his organization of results; his people from development; his family of attention and himself of esteem. Following are five basic principles to help you make more effective use of your time:
- Highly structure your day around the discipline of priorities .
Since a lack of daily focus is a chief contributor to wasting time
you'll need to put more structure in your day. As human beings we
develop to our potential in structured environments; not when we shoot
from the hip; operate out of instinct or otherwise make our day up as
we go along. To more highly structure your day you'll need to stop
prioritizing your schedule and begin scheduling your priorities. Put
the "first things" on your calendar and consider them as
non-negotiable.
- Leave as little unmanaged time in your calendar as possible .
As you highly structure your day you will want to make sure that you
have enough productive, pre-planned activities built into your schedule
in order to eliminate as much unmanaged time as possible. Unmanaged
time is one of a leader's most ferocious adversaries. It is the killer
of drive, passion, rhythm, momentum and accomplishment. The fact is
that people do dumb and wasteful things with unmanaged time. Here are a
few examples: (1). Unmanaged time flows to the trivial. It is during
our unmanaged time that you tend to web-surf, engage in useless
conversation, talk for prolonged periods on the telephone, read the
newspaper at work, over eat while on the job and the like. (2)
Unmanaged time flows to your weaknesses. You engage in activities where
you are ill-fitted and oftentimes make things worse by virtue of your
meddling. (3) Unmanaged time surrenders to every emergency. You will
find yourself getting involved in every bit of gossip, drama and
emergency of the moment that presents itself. (4) Unmanaged time comes
under the control of the dominant people in your life. If you're not
going to use your time, the most dominant people in your life will.
You'll be working off of their in-box.
- If a task is contributing little or nothing, then learn to say "no" to it.
Go on a rampage to find time-wasters and ask yourself this question
about many of the questionable tasks you perform: "What would happen if
this were not done at all?" If the answer is "Nothing", then you must
immediately stop doing it.
- Continually update your stop doing list.
Your stop doing list includes the tasks that bring you little or no
return. These are the assignments you must delegate; automate;
outsource, train someone else to do or stop doing altogether so that
you free up your valuable time to invest where you create the most
value.
- Don't let your mouth overload your back. When you are presented with "opportunities" to take on a new project, join a committee, or attend meetings where you know you are likely to add or receive little value in exchange for your time learn to say no. Decline politely and say no to the task and not the person asking: "I'm honored you think that I would make a contribution to the meeting but with my other obligations and pressing deadlines I'm afraid I'd do both of us a disservice by saying yes this time around. Perhaps next time I'll be in a better position to offer you a 100 percent effort"
