Time is more valuable than money. You can get more money, but you cannot get more time, so guard your seeds, your money, and your time. Plan your time carefully, and don't let anyone waste it.
It's okay to let people take up a little of your free time, but don't let them take your important time. Watch out for anything that might steal your time. Remember, work smarter, not harder.
When I was in South Africa, I learned a saying by Arnold Bennett about time. I won't have time to write it all down, but I'll read it to you, and it'll be on the set of cassettes you're getting for the weekend. Arnold Bennett said, "Time is the raw material of everything.
With it, all is possible; without it, nothing. The supply of time is a daily miracle, genuinely astonishing. Think about it: every morning you wake up with 24 hours to spend.
It's yours—the most precious thing you have. No one can take it from you, and everyone gets the same amount. Time doesn't care how much money you have or how smart you are.
You can't save time for later, and you can't borrow from the future. You can only use the time you have right now. If you don't use your time well, you waste your life.
Time doesn't come back, so it's important to make the most of it. " How you spend your time affects your happiness. If you can't fit everything into your day, your life can get messed up.
We all have the same amount of time, so it's up to us to use it wisely. My father lived to be 90 years old, but it seemed short. In his seemingly long life of 93 years, it was short because it just seems like if we only had more time.
The Old Testament gives us a view of some people who lived to be 500, 600, 700, 800, or even 900 years old. If I had a chance to ask, I would ask, "How come we got short-changed? " Wouldn't that be a good question?
If you had a chance to ask, imagine having 500, 600, 700, or 800 years to watch generation after generation after generation stay healthy and well. I mean, you’ve got to be healthy to make it to 900—you’ve got to take your vitamins. I'm not pushing the Bible; I'm not pushing vitamins.
I'm doing good today, so the key is: time is precious. Now let me give you Bill Bailey's description of time: "Life is not just the passing of time. Life is a collection of experiences—their frequency and their intensity.
Life is not just watching the clock tick away; life is a collection of experiences, their intensity, their frequency. " When my friend Mark died at age 44, someone said, "That's young to die. " But what if he lived four lifetimes in one?
He might not be too young. So here's what: whatever the span of your life turns out to be, here's what you want to fill it up with: experiences and the intensity of those experiences. All right, let's talk about time management.
When should you start your day? The answer is: as soon as it's finished. Plan your day well, leaving room for surprises, but once you've planned for a productive day, start right away.
Your time becomes much more valuable this way. Don't wait around to start your day. Next, don't start your week until you've got it all planned out.
Planning a whole week can be tough, but it's worth it. And don't start your month until you've finished planning it. Think about where you need to go, who you need to see, and what you need to accomplish.
Now here's the big one: don't start your year until you've planned it out as best you can. You can't plan it minute by minute, but think about what you want to achieve over the whole year. January 1st might come, and things might change, but if you've made progress in the first 90 days, you'll multiply your success.
I've experienced this myself. After three months, I'm rolling, making so much progress that I revise my whole plan for the year. But before answering the question of how to manage your time effectively, let me give you just a few tips on time management essentials.
First of all, you run the day, or it runs you. It's pretty simple when you look at it. Starting something isn't hard, but after a while, it starts to control you.
I once told my team it's like giving birth to a tiger: starting it is one thing, but learning how to handle it is another. Days are expensive; when you spend a day, you have one less day to spend, so make sure you spend each one wisely. Think about it: you committed enough time to work already.
If you're putting in 8 to 10 hours a day, that's plenty. Sure, there are times when you need to work longer hours—maybe 12, 14, or even 16-hour bursts. We've all been there, putting in the extra time.
But eventually, you have to find balance. Your health, your heart, your blood pressure—they're all at risk if you don't. You don't necessarily need to work more hours; you just need to use your time better.
As the saying goes, it's not about the hours you spend, but what you accomplish in those hours that matters. Also, you need clear goals written down. Time management is crucial.
If you don't have a list of goals, we'll work on that tomorrow. Prioritize and keep reviewing your goals because that's how you decide where to focus your time. You need a plan to achieve your goals.
Another important thing is to separate what’s important from what’s not. Spend your time on the things that really matter. That's why it's important to think on paper.
Write down your game plan. Plan to make sure you're not spending too much time on minor things. Remember, don't confuse being busy with achieving something.
It's easy to keep busy, but make sure you're busy with the right things. Next, concentration is key; being distracted can be dangerous. Whether you're on the road or in business, you need to keep your mind focused.
I have a little rule: don't start your business day until you're at the office. I used to begin my day in the shower or at the breakfast table, and it caused a lot of problems. Sitting at breakfast, my mind was already at the office.
I even found myself mixed up when trying to relax at the beach; my mind kept wandering back to work. That's being mixed up. We talked about this quote in the evening seminar: "wherever you are, be there.
" If you're at the breakfast table, be present. When you're talking with someone, be fully engaged. On your way to work, enjoy the journey; look around and observe what's happening.
Be in the moment. Then, when you're at the office, focus on your tasks. Another essential in time management is learning to say no.
It's easy to fill up your schedule and end up with all sorts of problems simply because you couldn't say no when you should have. It's much harder to say yes and then try to back out later. Better to say no upfront than to overload yourself.
As Ron Reynolds says, "don't let your mouth overload your back. " The third essential is to analyze yourself honestly and then either make adjustments or find someone else to handle tasks that you're not good at. For example, my staff discovered that I'm not a good courier.
They gave me a check to deliver, but it ended up getting lost. I promised I'd do better next time, but it just didn't work out. So, we made a rule in our office: don't give the chairman anything to deliver; it won't arrive.
I had to accept that I wasn't good at certain tasks. Instead of promising to change, I found someone else to handle them. I hired someone to take care of reading financial statements and handling corporate matters that I kept putting off.
It cost me a lot in fines and taxes until I finally got someone to handle it for me. Miss Mary, a legal secretary with a real estate license, was a lifesaver. She handled my finances, argued with attorneys, and dealt with the IRS.
She did such a good job that she saved me from paying an extra $15,000 in taxes one year. I even gave her a bonus for her excellent work. If you're not going to change, then find someone who can do it for you.
Analyze your strengths and weaknesses. If you're good at bookkeeping, great—keep doing it. But if not, don't keep promising to change; instead, find someone who can handle it for you, even if it means paying them a small fee.
It’s better than promising to do something and never following through. So, analyze yourself honestly; it's crucial. The last essential is to be more alert.
This means not only staying aware of what's happening around you but also examining your current procedures. You might have outdated methods that are wasting time. Maybe you've been doing something the same way for five years when there's a quicker, more efficient way to do it, like using computer programs or updated tools.
It's easy to accumulate wasted time and motion by sticking to old methods, so take a look at your procedures and see if there are any improvements you can make. Be alert to time-wasting activities. For example, in sales management, you're often taught not to travel across town until you've explored opportunities closer by.
Going 40 miles for a prospect might not be worth the time when there are prospects nearby. Lastly, ask questions. When you're about to talk to someone, ask questions to understand their situation better.
This can save you a lot of time. People often don't disclose the real problem at first, so asking questions helps you get to the heart of the matter quickly. And don't just stop at one or two questions; keep asking until you're sure you understand the situation.
Having game plans is crucial, too. Whether it's for the next six months or a year, laying out your plans helps ensure things get done. This is especially important for businesses with international operations or multiple corporations.
Thinking on paper is key to effective time management. If there's one thing to take away about time management, it's the importance of having clear plans laid out. So, how to manage your time effectively?
First, ignore the subject. I mean, that's good advice. Don't let anything overly bug you because remember, now you don't have to do anything.
So if you've got to get a handle on your time, the answer is no, you don't. If you want to let it all go, you can let it all go. I mean, this is good advice.
Somebody says you ought to jot this down: ignore all the "you ought" or "you shoulds," only if they're giving general information. It's better to say, "if you're teaching, we should" instead of "you should. " Then you let me listen in without it being too confrontational.
If everyone did this, see, that'd be great, and then you give a person a chance to choose to do it or not do it. But when you start with the "yous," you are now creating some tension and maybe some problems. "You" statements seem to always create problems—when you're talking to your kids, for example.
You say, "if kids would do this," not always saying, "if you did this, life would be better. " Instead, say, "if kids did this, life would be better. " It's like making a little talk.
Letting them listen in, and then it's a little less confrontational. It gives us a choice. In one of my seminars, here's what I teach: all life forms strive to the max of their potential, except human beings.
All life forms strive to the max of their potential, except human beings. How tall will a tree grow? As tall as it possibly can.
You've never heard of a tree growing half as high as it could; no, trees don't grow half. A tree drives its roots as deep as it can, reaches as high as it can, produces every leaf it can, and every fruit it possibly can, to the max. Every life form strives to the max, except human beings.
Now, why not human beings? Jot this down: you've been given the dignity of choice. You're not a robot; you don't have to repeat this year the same as last year.
You can tear up last year's plan and develop a new plan, so the dignity of being a human being. Now, here's the true choice on being a human being: to be part of all we were meant to be, or to strive for all, or half, or part, or some. The choice is up to you: to develop one skill or ten skills.
Some might say, “Well, I’d be happy with just one more language,” while others might say, “Hey, I’m going to learn six or seven. ” This is all a matter of choice, and when someone says, “No, you ought to learn four,” you've got to resist all that because this is personal dignity. You don’t want to destroy someone's dignity by doing all the A's while they feel reluctant to do it.
Now, we've got problems. So, if you want to just ignore this subject on time management, step down to something easier. The guy in sales says, "Oh, I want to own the company.
" Finally, he owns the company. Now, he's got no time to play golf. He says, "When I was in sales, I was making big money playing golf three days a week.
Heck with this owning something; heck with managing. My life was never my own. " After I started to manage, I'm going back to sales.
See, this is the key: if you’re getting too pressed, you might consider stepping down to something with a little easier time pressure. A little girl says to her mother, “Daddy comes home, brings his briefcase, pats me on the head, and says hello, but then he disappears and works on these papers. How come my Daddy doesn't play with me?
” Her mother said, “Look, your Daddy loves you very much, but he's so busy at work he can't get it all done. He has to bring it home. He loves you, but that's why he can't play with you.
” The little girl said, “Why don't they just put him in a slower group? ” If you don't have time for your kids, you might consider joining a slower group. Remember when I said some things I went for cost me too much?
So, reconsider. The next key to time management is not to work longer and harder. There’s a limit to that.
I almost lost my health the first year I went so crazy about personal development and achievement; I just went bonkers. You know I told you I was skinny, but by the end of that first year, I was a walking shadow. Then it suddenly occurred to me, what if I got rich and too ill to spend it?
I mean, that was a shocker. So, I started developing a little more reasonably because I said, "If 12 hours won’t do it, I’ll work 14. If that won’t do it, I’ll work 18.
" I mean, however many hours it takes. And sure enough, it cost me too much. So, working longer and harder for some might be appropriate.
You know, if you're just sitting around not doing that much, this might be good. Work longer and harder, but you can only work so hard. Here’s the key: not to work harder but smarter.
When you've worked as hard as you can, doing the best you can in terms of physical output in a reasonable time, the ultimate in the management of time is that you simply become more skillful. When I first got into sales, I was around people who could get 9 out of 10 or 8 out of 10. When I first started, I could only get one out of 10.
But here’s what I did: I worked around the clock so that I would make up in numbers what I lacked in skill. That’s good in sales. You got to jot that down: when you're new, you make up in numbers what you lack in skill.
Now, when you become more skillful, the numbers can go down because now your persuasive ability and all of that is so high that you don't need to put as many numbers out. But at first, if you want to compete or if you want to really get good, you got to put in the numbers. But if you get more from yourself and develop more of yourself, now time management becomes an easier task.
The most important time management is when you work, work. When you play, play. Don’t mix the two.
Don’t work at play. I used to take my family to the beach and I would bring my briefcase. I learned not to do that.
At the beach, I’m thinking I should be at the office. Now, my family's upset because I’m at the beach, and I’m thinking office, office, office. Now, when I'm at the office, I’m thinking I got to get my family to the beach, the beach, the beach.
So, things are not going too well at the office. Because I'm thinking about the beach and things are not going too well at the beach, because I'm thinking about the office, here's what I've learned: be at the beach at the beach, be at the office when you work, work; when you play, play. Don't mix the two.
Don't work at play and don't play at work. Work is too serious; you don't want the reputation of being the office joker. It's not a good one.
Yes, there's time for some pleasant stories. Yes, there's time for a little humor. Yes, it's best if it's a happy office, of course.
But I'm telling you, you've got to be serious about work because you're parting with a piece of your life for the work you do. Your work costs you a piece of your life. Here's what it's called: serious business—not grim, not unhappy, but serious.
Key: don't play at work. The only phrase I don't think we use anymore is "horse around" at the office. Play around, play jokes, play tricks?
No place— not at the workplace. At the beach? Yes.
At the bar? Yes. Somewhere else?
Not at work. You've got to treat work with all due conservative passion because it's leading you to your future. All work is good.
You may not like your job, but if it's the stepping stones to get you to where you want to go, you've got to appreciate your job. You don't have to have a passion for your job. Here's the ultimate passion: a passion for incredible success in every department of my life.
That's the passion. But don't look down on some menial job you have to do to finally get you to where you want to go. No job is menial; no, every job is noble.
Trading life for pay, making a contribution to society, it's important for everyone to understand how valuable time is, prioritize what they do, and try to make the most of each moment. This way, we can live a more meaningful and fulfilling life, reaching our full potential and leaving a positive impact for the future. In conclusion, effective time management is essential for success in both personal and professional life.
By implementing the key principles discussed, such as prioritization, focus, delegation, and staying alert, you can make the most out of your time and achieve your goals more efficiently. Remember to analyze your current practices regularly and be willing to make adjustments to improve efficiency. Asking questions, making plans, and writing things down can all help you stay organized and save time.
Managing your time isn't just about doing more; it's about feeling less stressed and having a better balance in life. So take control of your time, be proactive, and watch as things start falling into place.
