Thank Goodness It's Monday #341

WHAT TIME WOULD IT BE

IF ALL THE CLOCKS WERE STOPPED?

Odd thought isn’t it? Actually, it’s an old Zen saying. (Are there new Zen sayings?) I’m using it here to set up the more prosaic question – 

How do you think about time? 

If you’ve been to any event I have been involved with that touches on Time Management you have probably seen a visual that has the number 168 on it.  

That represents the number of hours each of us has every week. 

Why a week? In the context of how you feel about the way you invest your time, a week is probably the best standard unit of time to consider because it encompasses all the challenges to how you satisfactorily allocate this finite resource. 

Stuff happens, of course. The occasional hectic day or overbooked morning happens.  You can’t judge or run your life by that. 

But how you feel about your 168 is a pretty good benchmark for how you manage the bulk of your time and how that management might be improved. 

Time management with a difference.  Unlike most teachers of time management, we are not going to burden you with the task of keeping a time log; you know, one of those “note everything you do for a week in quarter an hour increments” lists. 

We feel, as you probably do, that it’s largely a waste of time.

You know where the time goes.  If you don’t, and you’re not happy with the way you feel about how you spend your time, simply rewind one recent mental movie of the time you feel dissatisfied about. 

Then play it back. It doesn’t take a detailed Time Log to recall the business meeting you never should have committed to … that started late and rambled on without an agenda or the facts needed to make decisions … wrecked your plans to finish your budget tasks on office time … made you late for your kids’ play date pick up and team practice … put you in the doghouse with your spouse … and kept you up way past midnight doing office work that should easily have been completed when that idiot meeting was going on! 

Got it?  Good.  So let’s be honest about your time allocation and -- wasting no more time covering familiar ground -- move on. 

As this New Year gets rolling, have you been wondering how you can fit it all in?

It’s not uncommon.  We all have a tendency to get caught up in the busy-ness of life and in the moments that seem, in afterthought or hindsight, to have stolen our time.

People tell us all the time that they are “Busy 24/7.”

Oh, yeah? Then answer this: 

Busy doing what?

It’s frustrating, isn’t it?  Time flies. You start the week with a “To Do” List and the best intentions.  And before you know it, the 168 hours have gone by. 

In a way that might seem like a good thing, right?  It is – 

• If …
• Make that a Big “If” …
• In fact, HUGE “IF” 

-- IF you're accomplishing your objectives and moving toward your goals. 

Oh yeah: Goals. Didn’t you end 2011 and begin 2012 with resolutions and goal setting as a priority?  And although maybe you were not fully aware of how the process would proceed, now that we’ve begun to talk about it, perhaps you realize –

Your Goals

needed to be in place

so that you can

Prioritize Your Time Activities

around them. 

We’re 30 days into 2012.  This is a wake-up call. 

If you are committed to having your Best Year Ever, this is the time to evaluate your activities, your schedule, and your priorities to make sure that your Goals and your Time Management Strategies are properly aligned. 

TGIM ACTION IDEA: It’s when you are acting without purpose that you waste the most time. Fight to link everything to your goals. 

TGIM IDEA IN ACTION: Ask, “Is what I’m doing this minute moving me measurably closer to my goals?” 

Do The Right Thing. You must have the courage, integrity, and character to “do the right thing” for yourself and your goals, in spite of time pressure you feel to do other things. 

What’s right?  Often you’ll sense when “the right thing” is or isn’t happening.  Usually a “gut feeling” tips you off to the rightness of how you’re investing your time and your actions. 

Still, if you feel pressured to use your time one way -- and you don’t want to rely solely on instinct -- use of these – 

Empowering Time Questions

Get in the habit of asking the following 4 Key Questions.  While they may seem familiar in some respects, they encompass subtly significant differences in how you think about using your time.  They can effectively direct and focus your thinking toward your top priorities and away from distractions. 

Key Question #1:

What is the most valuable use of my time RIGHT NOW? 

This is the perfect question to ask whenever you’re unsure about what to work on next … or if you are challenged by an unexpected interruption … or when your “gut feeling” suggests you are not making good use of your time. 

Key Question #2:

What – ULTIMATELY – am I trying to achieve? 

Ask this in order to bring your thinking back to your real objective and goals.  It’s a reminder to not get sidetracked or caught up in trivial pursuits or bogged down striving for an unnecessarily perfect outcome. 

Key Question #3:

What am I giving up in order to do what I’m doing? 

Acknowledge the often-overlooked Universal Law of Decision Making: When you choose to DO something, you also automatically choose to NOT DO everything else you could have done at the time.  Make the conscious choice – or make the necessary changes – to invest your time in what really matters. 

Key Question #4:

Should I continue to do this? 

What distinguishes this question from the earlier ones that may seem like it is that, at its core, it’s focusing on what to STOP DOING rather than what to start.  This is the Q for you if you suspect you’re wasting time on something that should be finished by now or stuck and spinning your wheels in a time stealer that no longer serves your long-term goals. 

Make it a habit.  At first, you may have to frequent remind yourself to ask these questions about how your time is being used.  So it might even be useful to write them on a 3x5 card. Then put it in your pocket with your goals (you do have your goals there, right?) … or sticking out from under your phone … or in your desk drawer where you’ll come across it at the appropriate moment.  Eventually, if you keep asking consistently, the questions will become a habit that serves you for the rest of your life. 

Uh oh. Look at the time. (No Zen clocks around here.) Thanks for investing some of your time today in this TGIM. 

Looking forward to next time. 

Geoff Steck
Chief Catalyst
Alexander Publishing & Marketing

8 Depot Square

Englewood, NJ 07631
201-569-5373

tgimguy@gmail.com  

P.S.  “The thief to be most wary of is the thief who steals your time.” Source unknown.