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Great News Time Management is Impossible

Written by: Craig Jennings

Article Overview: No wonder most of us are dissatisfied with our efforts!

Great News Time Management is Impossible

No wonder most of us are dissatisfied with our efforts!
Why impossible? Although you've heard people say "I don't have enough time," not only do we all have equal amounts of time, we all have all the time there is. So there's nothing we can do about managing time itself. Which leads us right to the

Bad News! Time Management is a sneaky substitution for "You Management!" Managing yourself in time is a real handful. Almost everyone I know struggles with it, is displeased with the results.

If you're one of those amazing people who have mastered the issue of getting the right things done at the right time, this newsletter is not for you. However, if you think you're not performing as well as you should, you're probably right – so read on! In the interests of time, I'll keep this brief!

Whichever we're managing, Time or You, what we want to see is that we got Task #1 done on Monday, Task #2 done on Tuesday, and by the end of the week, the whole thing is wrapped up. What most of us see instead–

We forget what we were going to do on Monday and just handle what comes up. or...
Something far more urgent than what we'd planned appears. By Wednesday, Task #1 doesn't have the same appeal it did on Monday morning, even if it's two days delayed! And there are still more urgent things to do.
Maybe we get Task #1 done by Friday. And perhaps the whole package has now been downshifted to a once-a-week process rather than a once-a-day process. Or it may have been "temporarily" set aside until a "better time."
Is this familiar? What's going on?
Covey has written about the triumph of the urgent over the important, and he was not the first. Is that what happened? Did we allow urgency to set our priorities for us, ignoring that which is important? I don't know about you, but I do it all the time!

Others have spoken about "the path of least resistance." Do we just do the easiest thing? How about those calls where you might encounter rejection. You made them high priority. Do you do them first?

In any case, it isn't time that's the enemy. Charles Schultz put some amazing words in Pogo's mouth: "We have met the enemy, and they is us!" Joseph Campbell, the myth-maven wrote: "If I swallow my demon, I gain his power" Call it enemy, call it demon, call it a moment of weakness, but many of us discover that some process keeps us from acting in what seems to be our best interests. You could call it resistance. Pretty amazing, when you stop and think about it. We're resisting what's in our best interests!

Not only that, but many of us have a list of tricks we play on ourselves (I'm not the only one here, am I?) to avoid tasks and effort which are not all that difficult. Sleazing out? Ducking, dodging, avoiding?

What's going on here? Why can't we manage our time, ourselves, the enemy, our demons, satisfactorily?

One point of view, from The War of Art, by Steven Pressfield, is that resistance springs from fear – fear of the consequences of following our heart, fear of not looking good, fear of not pleasing others, of madness, death, etc. And of course, the mother of all fears, the Fear That We Will Succeed!

Is it possible that this is what's going on for you and me? But this newsletter is not about remaking yourself and removing your fears, however desirable that might be. It's about getting stuff done, no matter what.

So, here's a procedure you can use if you want to improve your results.

Step 1. Create an attractive possibility/result and commit to it.
Step 2. Build a fire and hold the demon's feet to it.

Step 3. Keep score. Us – XX, Demon, YY

Explanation of the steps.

Invent a result. What would be possible if such and thus actually happened, and then, what else would be possible? Paint yourself pictures of success and its outcomes. Spend a minute in the future. Get your subconscious working for you. Imagine until you can see, feel and taste the result you want. Describe the impact of this accomplishment. Answer the question, What's in it for me? Actually do this each time you have something you want to accomplish. It may take 60 seconds. Can you imagine what would be possible if you simply said you were going to do something, and then you did it! .
Hold the demon's feet to the fire! Describe the new success and commit to it. Write it down. Speak it to someone else. Put it up on the wall. Get a performance partner to work with. Create a plan with no wiggle-room or escape. Then act! Notice what happens – wiggling and escaping, or results? Hint: Start out with just 1 assignment a day – make yourself just one promise of success.
Keeping score. Somebody at IBM once said, "The way to change behavior is to measure it." As you begin to recognize and identify your demon, you'll win some and lose some. Create a scorecard. Post it on the wall, the bulletin board, in your wallet, etc. If you keep score, Us – XX, Demon, YY, you'll find that the balance begins to shift in a positive direction over time.
Is this reality, or fantasy?

You have the last word on this subject, because this is all totally within your control. (After all this confusing behavior, that should be a relief!)

Fantasy: You decide that this is interesting and you file it for future use; or you decide that it's "just not you," and you click it into oblivion. No constructive action, no results.

Reality: You decide to try it on. Now? Yes, now! Go ahead, find yourself a task – a relatively easy one for starters. Run the three steps on it. It'll take 2-3 minutes at first, and get faster later.

Did you just try it? And the score is: ___ ?

A win for you. It takes place when you know that you can identify any task and get it done.

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Article Tags: great news, time management



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