I want you to become an excellent Time Investor. You can do it! It does not require you to get everything under control, nor does it require complicated time tracking. Here are three areas I would like for you to focus on today.
Understand Your Personal Ability and Responsibility
The first thing you can do to get a good handle on your personal time is to come to grips with these five things related to your personal ability and responsibility.
- You will never have enough time to do everything that needs to get done.
- You are not personally responsible to do all that must get done.
- You are not responsible for doing what others are assigned to do.
- You are only responsible to give your best and honest effort to do your task.
- You need to remember that you are not bigger than God.
Myth Buster
A second thing that will help you get a good handle on your personal time is to eliminate some myths.
- Being in control does not mean becoming super-organized.
- Being in control does not require being preoccupied with making sure that every moment is detailed and planned out.
I am amazed at the number of people who attempt to be excellent time managers by using tracking tools to the max. Many times these people become so interested in the tools of organization that they allow them to rob them of valuable time. The overuse of these tools can render you ineffective. Always allow for flexibility and spontaneity. Include family time and personal time in your planning process.
I tend to plan blocks of time for a general or specific purpose. In my personal calendar, detail plans are only made out for precise projects.
Seize Your Time
A third thing that can help you get a good handle on your personal time is to understand that unused time moves you away from getting a task completed. Gordon MacDonald lists four laws of unseized time in his book Ordering Your Private World.
- Unseized time flows toward my weaknesses.
- Unseized time comes under the influence of dominant people in my world.
- Unseized time surrenders to the demands of all emergencies.
- Unseized time gets invested in things that gain public acclamation.
So let’s review what needs to be done to get a good handle on our personal time.
1. Be responsible to do the things you can do and do them well.
2, Don’t get preoccupied with time management tools and let them rob you of precious time.
3. Seize your time to make it work for you;
The goal is to live fully and well. You want to be able to accept responsibility and not walk away feeling guilty if someone else fails to fulfill their part. As you move forward, you want to have values that determine your priorities and allow you to seize your schedule. You want to be certain that you are not busy with unimportant things and miss the important. Proper priorities will help you balance the use of your time. Priorities relay into goals and give focus. Focus prevents you from getting sidetracked. A focus prompts you to take charge of your time rather than allowing others to be in charge of your time.
Happy Investing in You!