Tweet

Five Keys to Controlling Time

Written by: Harlan Goerger

Article Overview: Controlling time seems to be a continuous challenge for all of us, how can we get more control and enjoy the day and life more. Here are a few ideas that work.

Five Keys to Controlling Time

Yep, its 11pm and your still working on the stuff you brought home. The kids are in bed and so is the spouse. By the way, the spouse is not happy about this either.

This is not an isolated situation, rather it is happening more often than not to more people. With company downsizing and the need for getting more from less the pressure is on. The forty-hour week now is stretched to 50-60-70 hours. If you're an owner, you already know about the 60 hours, but 90 plus hour weeks!

The sad thing about all this is how it affects our quality of life, family and personal esteem. When these areas of life become negative, work performance is also declining!

So how do you stop this runaway train that consumes our time!

Here are five simple, yet challenging keys that can change your life!

Either these core issues put people in control of their lives or lack of these put them out of control!

• 1. Focus: It has been proven time and again that we are most efficient when we focus on one task or item at a time. I do not care what they say about "multi-tasking", its BS! Our brain works like a car. If all four wheels are turning in the same direction, we reach our destination in the most efficient way and on time.

Now consider that same car with each of its four wheels going in different directions! Is this going to be a fun drive? A productive drive? How about efficient?

In the second example we use up a tremendous amount of energy and time with very little results! Thus, more hours and exhaustion are the real results.

Dave Lakhani in his book "Power of an Hour" talks about power hours. We can apply "fearsome focus" on a given project for an hour and accomplish more than multi-tasking all day!

• 2. Priorities: This ties into Focus but many will say, "I have so many priorities and demands!" Yes, we all do, the difference is not all are top priorities, they only seem to be.

Gene was a mentor of mine in the 80's and had a unique way of prioritizing things. He had three locations in his office where he put things.

• a. A do it today place for those items he needed to do today and they had importance and impact on the outcomes he needed.
• b. A do it this week place for those items he needed to do but had time or needed to get information or input on. Again, these had an impact on his required outcomes.
• c. A drawer that was very large where he put things that were interesting or he thought might have value but did not have an immediate impact on his outcomes.

Each day he first grabbed the A location and put them in order of importance and then went to work. When he was done with that pile, he went to the B group, prioritized them, and got to work until the day ended or he completed all the tasks. As to the large drawer, on the 30^th of the month he pulled the drawer out and dumped it in the garbage without looking through it. Whatever was in the drawer had not become important and had no immediate value.

The results of Gene's system, he had time to be creative, always seem to have time for his employees and friends and attended most of his children's activities. By the way, he was running six companies at this same time.

Can you set up some type of system to help you prioritize what is the most important in accomplishing your outcomes! Of course, you have to define those outcomes or goals and give them focus.

• 3. Clutter: This is one of the deadliest of time management sins. It is distracting, overwhelming and self-defeating!

An old saying goes; "If a cluttered desk is the sign of a cluttered mind, then what does a clean desk indicate? An empty mind? NO a clear mind!"

Test; if you have stuff on your desk or your brief case or car is cluttered up, simply remove everything. I don't care what you do with it; just get it out of the way! Now take the most important priority and have only that in front of you! Work on it for 55 minutes. How did it feel? How productive were you? What about distractions?

I'll bet it felt different and once you got past the different feeling, your productivity went up.

My friend Vince Harris has a unique way of approaching this. He walks in to a client's office with a large garbage bag and anything that is not of immediate importance is put in the bag. The client now is never allowed to have anything that is not a priority visible at any time. As they gain time, they take one item out of the bag in the closet and complete it. Vince gets nothing but very positive feedback on this approach!

• 4. Do It Now: in the Time Management field, these are the most powerful three words. Yes, you and I are tired, have others demands right now and just do not feel like it.

The ability to focus for that extra 30 minutes and get it dealt with now is the single biggest factor between people who control their time and those that have no time.

This includes those nasty things we all have to do. Deal with that negative person or situation, that issue or task you just hate to do. By doing it now you have eliminated an internal distraction and cleared your mind to focus on the next priority.

The old saying of "Start everyday by swallowing a frog" is really about the do it now aspect. When those challenges come up, take a deep breath, smile broadly and go after it. You are now in control rather than the fear being in control.

• 5. Schedule Dates: If there is one thing I hear from almost everyone, it is more time for family or self. The guilt associated with not being with family or having self-time is a strong internal distraction. So how do you combat this distraction and guilt?

A psychologist I knew took a calendar and put all the family activities on including dates with her spouse and friends. Then she put in all the projects and business appointments she had to do in the open spaces. There were some compromises and yes, she did some evening and weekend work.

What she found out is she easily got her 40-50 hours of work in and the majority of her family events as well. She also found she was far more productive during her work time and far more relaxed during family events. When asked what changed, the response was "no guilt"! She had eliminated the internal guilt and distraction.

Now you may not have the flexibility the psychologist has, but setting "dates" with those important to you can go a long way to eliminating the guilt feelings that can occur and distract us.

There you are, five key areas that can help you take control of your time and effectiveness. Be creative and apply them to your work and life. See what happens!

Related Articles
  The Art of Manifestation: When It Is Loving to Be Controlling
  Single Parent Online Network Marketers – Controlling Your Time – The Basics – Part Two
  7 Keys to B2B Social Media Success
  Reminders Put Your Keys in Your Fridge
  Find New Customers releases “7 Keys to B2B Marketing Success” - a new free "cheat sheet"

Article Tags: brain, bs, company downsizing, core issues, dave lakhani, exhaustion, four wheels, multi tasking, nbsp, personal esteem, priorities, quality of life, runaway train, sad thing, ties, ul, work performance



Related Forum Posts
Re: How do you back up your computer? - I am a backup-olic. I use several Disk-On-Keys and I also back up on a DVD.
Re: UPDATES: New Campaign! New Layout! New Ideas! - We've also expanded the list for Contest and All-Time Leaders. It's great to now see David and Yinka on the All Time list and recognize the contributions they've made to the forums!
No B.S. Time Management - A great book I read on Time Management is No B.S. Time Management for Entrepreneurs by Dan Kennedy.
Re: Has anyone a good idea to sort this problem? - HI Michelle....... Keys and cellphones always end up at the bottom of the purse! That happens to me and other woman most of the time, for sure. So I would say put it in the side zipper area inside of the purse. Most Purses have that compartment. That usually helps it separate from all the other bulky things we carry in our purses, like make-up- bag, day minders, hand santiizers (whatever!)
Books that should be written - [quote:1m0dcpd7]"The Idiots Guide To Sticking With One Thing At A Time and Not Doing Something New All The Time" [/quote:1m0dcpd7] I myself am a 'constructive' procrastinator... I don't know if I'm alone in this. I have about six or seven projects I'm working on at any given time. I get one project almost done... then my interest is piqued by another project and I work on that... I get burnt out and move to another...I know I do this so I have it arranged such that once I get bored or burnt out with one project, I can step right back into project 1 - or 2 or 3, and get that a little bit more done before moving on to something else. As long as you're organized and know where all your reference material/idea sheets are when you're ready to get back to work on each project, it should be fine. I also find that by stepping away from a project - I still work on it in the recesses of my mind so that when I go back to it - it's with some good ideas that I wouldn't have had if I'd continued on with it originally. Maybe I should write a book on how to Procrastinate Constructively... I've actually thought about doing that...because most people procrastinate, don't they...and very few are ever able to stop.


Share this article with your friends. Fund someone's dream.

Leave a comment below or share on the left and you'll help support entrepreneurs in Africa through our partnership with Kiva. Over $50,000 raised and counting - Please keep sharing! Learn more.

Tweet

Newsletter

Get advice & tips from famous business
owners, new articles by entrepreneur
experts, my latest website updates, &
special sneak peaks at what's to come!

Name:
Email:

Popular Articles

Life is a Balancing Act!

Your Local Small Business Online Marketing Funnel

B2B PR – Planning for Success

Suggestions

Email us your ideas on how to make our
website more valuable! Thank you Sharon
from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for
your suggestions to make the newsletter
look like the website and profile younger
entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez.