The following article was written by one of my close, personal friends and a mentor, the late Jim Rohn. Jim was full of wisdom on a variety of topics, but this one on time management seems particularly relevant with the holidays upon us, when our already busy schedules become even busier.
Enjoy!
– Donna
The key to all time management is to stay focused, have a plan based on priorities and actively follow that plan. If you do these three things, you will have your time–and your life–under control and moving along the way you would like it to.
But…just like every now and then when you are driving along and various things can slow you down, sidetrack, or distract you, there are many things that can do the same thing in regard to your time management. Have you ever been driving down the road when you come across a detour because of road work? Or maybe you see a store you would like to stop at… even though you have somewhere to go?
Managing our time is much like that. There we are, managing our time, knowing where we are going because we have our priorities set, and then a “time waster” presents itself. Or we waste time because we simply procrastinate. Either way, the same result happens–we don’t get where we want to go.
So let’s take a look at the issue of time wasters first, and then next week we’ll look at the idea of procrastination.
What are time wasters? You may think they are obvious, but this isn’t necessarily true. Time wasters are anything that keep you from accomplishing the proper use of your time based on your priorities and values.
Believe it or not, time wasters can be “good things”. Now I don’t mean they are good for you, but that they may masquerade as something “good”. You may be able to look at them in a vacuum and say that the things you are spending your time on are inherently good… that is until you weigh them against your priority list. Then it becomes clear that these “good” things are actually “time wasters”.
Time wasters fall into two primary categories: The urgent and the pleasurable.
The urgent: If we do not have a firm grasp on our priorities, and work hard to develop a schedule that keeps us working on the important things we want to achieve, eventually the “urgent” will be upon us. The urgent things cry out to us, telling us they are important, when in actuality they are not. The power of the urgent time waster is in the dramatic demand it makes on us. When it calls our name and appears to show us just how urgent it is that we spend time on it, it takes away from the very important things we should be working on. And I have found that urgent things can rarely be done in short order. They usually drag themselves out, keeping us even further from our true goals. Perhaps the best way I have seen this demonstrated is in Stephen Covey’s idea of the four parts of the time management quadrant. You have:
1. The important and the urgent
2. The important
3. The urgent but non-important
4. The non-important
The idea is to stay in what Covey calls “Quadrant Two”. At first you may be in quadrant one (hopefully you don’t spend much time in 3 or 4) but as you manage your time, you will see fewer and fewer urgent matters vying for your attention.
Always be aware of so-called “urgent” matters, because most of the time they are just time wasters. Have the courage to let them go. At the very least, take a serious look at your life and make sure you aren’t constantly living in crisis mode. Crisis mode is a very dangerous thing when it comes to making good decisions and managing your time.
The Pleasurable: Pleasurable time wasters are extremely insidious. Sometimes when we waste time with urgent matters, we know we are wasting time and we wish we could get out of them. Not so with pleasurable time wasters. These are the things that we willingly and openly pursue. We know they are time wasters and yet we still pursue them. Why? Because they are Fun! They are pleasurable. We enjoy them, and that keeps us from disciplining ourselves to work on our priorities. It is much like the person who wants to lose weight yet keeps eating dessert night after night – they do it because it tastes so good.
As you think about time wasters, think about which are urgent and which are pleasurable for you. Work to get so far ahead in your priorities that you virtually eliminate urgent matters that call your name. In regard to the pleasurable, this takes brutal honesty with yourself. It takes a real ability to admit to yourself that you are choosing what is fun rather than what is important.
Remember, you don’t have much time to waste in the first place. I realize now in the latter years of my life that time moves by quickly. It doesn’t seem very long ago that I was only 30 years old! Time is a very precious gift, one that we can and should take seriously because once that moment in time is spent, it can never be retrieved. Stay focused on those very important things you desire for your life. Stay focused on those things that will build your business and fulfill your life’s purpose. Stay focused on those things that will bring you a happy and joy-filled family life. Do not waste your time on those things that will quickly pass away and have relative unimportance.