Time Management Rule of Thumb

To simplify time management into a simple rule of thumb. Find the few things that make the most difference in what you are about to do and spend most of your time on those few things. It is the Parade 80/20 principle which states that there are usually about two out of ten things that will give you 80% of the results. Find those two things and spend most of your time working on them. Don’t major on minor things and don’t confuse activity with productivity. It has been found over and over again that in a typical list of activities if prioritized properly (as we have detailed for you in the last section Keys to a productive “To Do” list) that by the time you have completed the first half dozen tasks that the latter tasks have changed or need not even be done anymore.

This is a very important point and why you must work your “to do” list in order. The greatest time waster is doing things that don’t need to be done at all. You must discipline yourself to identify and concentrate on the highest priority activities until they are complete before shifting to activities of lesser importance. This follows the statement that there is never enough time to do everything but there is always enough time to do the things that are most important to you. So identify the highest priority activities and start on #1. Tip: If you don’t know the order of which activities will give you the best results then ask an expert, a highly successful person in that area or the boss who can help you prioritize the activities. In fact I highly recommend that you get feedback on your activity list, get some advice and counsel as we suggest in planning and decision making sections.

You probably already fill 24 hr of your day. If you want to do something new you need to ask yourself what are you prepared to give up so that you can make room for this new activity. Again there is never enough time to do everything there is to do, but there is always enough time to do what is most important to us. A real awakening can be taking inventory of how you are using your time now. You can have the best map in the world but if you don’t know where you are then it is unlikely you will be able to find the best route to get where you’re going. You now have clear goals and a good road map. You have to find out just exactly how you generally use your time. A common and simple method is to document everyday for a week everything that takes up your time. How many times did the phone ring and how long was each call, how many times and how long to brush your teeth, reading the paper, walking the dog, etc., etc., etc. How much time do you spend doing things from the time you get up to the time you go to bed.

Make note of them right away, don’t try to trust your memory and record everything at the end of the day for you will not remember everything that you did. Identify your time wasters, and eliminate them or change the habits (see page 61 on “Habits”) that you have formed. Correspondence with people and paper is most people’s biggest time waster. They don’t realize just how much dealing with these items dramatically impacts their ability to perform and be productive. Identify and eliminate.

 

Getting Organized

“To put the world in right order, we must first put the nation in order, to put the nation in order we must put the family in order, to put the family in order we must first cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right.”
Confucius

I will add to Confucius words, you must put your self in order. The truth is that it’s easier to be organized than it is to be disorganized. You receive all the benefits and don’t suffer from the consequences. You have seen in goals, in activities, and in values that the order, the priority is absolutely crucial. Your organization is just as important. You want a life free of stress, then put yourself in order as you did your goals and you won’t believe the difference it makes in your life. You have heard the statement that “What goes on – on the outside is going on – in the inside.” To rephrase this statement it means that your outer world is a reflection of your inner world.

Look around you. What does your outer world look like? What does your house look like, do you have piles of paper on various tables, do you have clutter all over the place. Your garage, your back yard, your car, your car trunk. Every clutter in your life is a reflection of some clutter in your mind. You don’t need to go take these herbs on the market, these brain food tablets that clear the mind; you need to clear that clutter in your house. Organization is a life skill principle and you cannot violate principles without consequences. You are paying for it whether you realize it or not.

Consider these  consequences.

• disorder = chaos, dysfunctional.
• disorganized = blurred or hazy, cloudy, unclear.
• poor order = spinning your wheels.
• poor order = not making much progress on important things.
• poor organization = wasted time.

Disorganized goes hand in hand with some of the biggest characteristics of failure and mistakes.

• lack of discipline.
• lack of focus and attention.
• stress and anxiety.
• lack of priority.
• out of control.

Organization goes hand in hand with some of the characteristics of success.

• order = clarity.
• order = harmony.
• order = function.
• order = control and discipline.
• order = peace and patience.

Good order in your life, is a matter of first clarity of your values, then your goals, then clarity of your activities, then the simple development of habits and practices. You can expect to be more efficient and effective with your goals and more patient with your relationships. Yes, you will find much more patience with people who tend to get in your way (mostly your close relationships) and distract your from your objectives. You can not afford to be disorganized. It is too costly to your performance and your productivity. Worst of all, it is too costly on your relationships. All of you can identify with this.

You know how you feel when you have cleaned your house. You do your major spring cleaning. Your husband cuts the lawn and cleans out the garage. You clean the place from top to bottom. Then you sit down after it is all done and you breath out, haaaaaa. You feel at peace, you’re relaxed, you have clarity and you feel like you’re ready to take on the world and you really can. You can take on your major life’s goals with energy and clarity. You know what I mean, you feel great. Don’t you? Why you would choose to live disorganized is beyond me. You either don’t know the tremendous cost it’s costing you or you don’t believe that order is that important or you have developed bad habits that are ruining your life. Being organized will give you a sense of control and harmony. It reduces if not eliminates stress and anxiety and it facilitates efficiency, effectiveness and helps you to perform at your peak levels.

Look at your computer for example. Windows has a built-in program called  “defrag” when your system starts acting up, when the mouse freezes or when the computer locks up. The first thing technical support will recommend is that you run the defrag program. This puts everything in order, lines all the sectors up so the machine will run with maximum performance and effectiveness. The program can find things quickly and efficiently; it runs more smoothly with less chance of corruption. Similarly, when your environment is set up with order you can expect the same results.