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May 13, 2005

The Biggest Time Management Problem

If you are going to be successful, you will have to become an expert at managing your time.  More properly stated, at managing your life.  If all you do is manage your time, you are likely just managing your movements--managing your efficiency at getting a lot of "things" done.

But success is more than just getting a lot of things done.  Success comes to those who get the right things done--getting the most meaningful things done.  Things that positively impact the greatest number of people.   That add a massive amount of value to the lives of as many people as possible.

This brings me to the biggest time thief.  Some interruptions are easy to spot:

• Watching too much television
• A commute time that is too long to and from work
• Blindly surfing the internet
• Idle conversations
• Too much sleep
• Performing tasks that should be delegated to others

You get the idea.  All of these activities may take up a significant amount of time that is better spent working towards your goals or general self-improvement.

But as much time as these can steal, the amount of time is insignificant compared to the biggest thief of all:  being in the wrong situation.

What are some examples of being in the wrong situation:

• Studying the wrong major in college (or in some cases, even going to college)
• The wrong relationships.  This could be romantically, marriage or even just being friends with the wrong people.  I believe you should be loyal to your family and friends, but you need to choose your friends carefully.  You especially need to choose your mate wisely.
• The wrong job or career.  If the only reason you are in your present job/career is to get a paycheck, you need to re-evaluate your situation.

In each of these cases, if you make poor choices, you wont just waste a few hours or days, you risk wasting years of your life going in the wrong direction.  If you study the wrong major in school, you may be wasting tens of thousands of dollars and years of your life.  First, you will waste the time and money in school.  Second, you will have to spend more time and money re-training yourself for what you really want to do.

If you are in the wrong relationships--especially a wrong marriage--you will probably have to endure years of unhappiness.  If you have friends that are excessively negative, they could add years of negativity to your life.  I'm not saying that the answer is always to get a divorce or abandon your friends.  I'm only pointing out that you need to make these choices carefully, otherwise they will steal your life, not just your time.  Yes, sometimes you can turn the other person around by the strength of your positive nature.  And often times you should try.  But that can often be a colossal waste of your time and result in very little change in the other person.

If you are in the wrong job/career, you could be in a tough spot that steals years from your life during your most productive years.  You have to develop the personal strength and skills to be able to pursue your dream.  Even if it means creating your own job by starting a business.  This is also one reason you must manage your finances effectively and avoid excessive personal debt.  If you do, you will have a lot more financial flexibility to pursue what you really want to do most in life.

The moral of this article is to excel in both managing your time, but more importantly your life.  Always keep your eye on the big picture even as you manage the daily activities.  This means you must carefully determine your Definite Major Purpose in life and your most important values and allow them to guide your most important decisions.

One of the primary ways I personally do this is through my daily Results-Action-Plan.  You can read more about this at http://www.poweraffirmations.com/RAP.htm.  It's a deceptively simple, cheap (all you need is a notebook or regular planner), but very effective.  Everything you need to know about this system is outlined in the short article.  No audio program.  No seminar.  No special planner.  Just free quality information.