Time Management

There is a bank that credits your account each morning with $86,400.

It carries over no balance from day to day.

Every evening it deletes whatever part of the balance you failed to use during the day.

What would you do?

Draw out ALL OF IT of course!!!

Each of us has such a bank.  Its name is TIME.

Every morning, it credits you with 86,400 seconds.

Every night it writes off, as lost, whatever of this you have failed to invest to good purpose.

It carries over no balance.  It allows no overdraft.

Each day it opens a new account for you.  Each night it burns the remains of the day.

If you fail to use the day’s deposits, the loss is yours.

There is no going back.  There is no drawing against the ‘tomorrow’.  You must live in the present on today’s deposits.

Invest it so as to get from it the utmost in health, happiness, and success!  The clock is running.  Make the most of today.

To realize the value of ONE YEAR, ask a student who failed a grade to realize the value of ONE MONTH.  Ask a mother who gave birth to a premature baby to realize the value of ONE WEEK.  Ask the editor of a weekly newspaper to realize the value of ONE HOUR.  Ask the sweethearts who are waiting to meet to realize the value of ONE MINUTE.  Ask a person who just avoided an accident to realize the value of ONE MILLISECOND.

Ask the person who won a silver medal at the Olympics.

Treasure every moment that you have and treasure it more because you shared it with someone special … special enough to spend your time.  Remember that time waits for no one.

Yesterday is history; tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift; that’s why it’s called the present.

Unknown.

“Time is the scarcest resource and unless it is managed nothing else can be managed.”

Peter F Drucker

Management Author

Time management is the key to accomplishing any complex task.  It puts you in the driver’s seat, giving you control over your life.  People sometimes react negatively to the notion of time management, arguing that it is impossible or even wasteful to try to organize their time, but I am absolutely convinced they are wrong.  Time management is the foundation of self-mastery.  It allows you to live your life “on purpose” by giving you control over your destiny like nothing else can.

Think of a scale.  On one side are the hours you “spend” running your business, and on the other side are the hours you “invest” improving your business.  If you are like most business owners, then right now the scale is probably tipped in favour of your “spent”: time.  Your day is likely spent making sales calls, handling customer complains, and producing products.  Our goal through this program is to slowly but surely, tip the scale in favour of your “invested” time, freeing you to do more valuable work.

“Work smarter, not harder.”

To make this happen, you first need to get a hold of your daily schedule.  If your daily routine varies, depending on whatever seems to be most important at any given time, then setting aside time to invest in your business will remain a low priority for you.   Something else will always take precedent. A customer will need to be called back, your employees will need your help, a package will need to be delivered, and so forth.

The backbone of time management is scheduling. Operating on a schedule forces you to make time for the things you know are important, but have trouble getting around to.  This does not mean you can never break your schedule.  You are in charge, not the schedule.  If something new takes priority then by all means, make an adjustment.  Just don’t make it a habit.  When you adjust your schedule you are making a proactive decision.  This is still a form of time management and is completely different from operating without a schedule.  When you deal with things as they come, you are reacting to, and consequently being controlled by, your environment.

There are plenty of things we have no control over, but one thing we can control is the way we spend our time.  It may seem as if you have little control over this as well some days, but in truth, this is the one place you have ultimate control.  Certainly you will be influenced to spend your time in certain ways, but the final decision to act is always up to you.  Cherish that authority; it is the key to personal and professional success.

Track your time

Before we can begin scheduling any of your time, we first need to find out exactly what you do with your time right now.  No doubt you are busy, but what exactly are you busy doing and when are you busy doing it?  To get clear on this, you will spend the next two weeks tracking your time.  It may take a little work, but it’s only for two weeks and what you will learn will be more than worth the effort.

“The first step towards saving time…is to find out how you’ve been spending it.”

William Ruchti

American Management Association.

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 30th, 2009 at 4:38 pm and is filed under financial. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.