Posted: January 10, 2019 | Categories: Time management

Do you manage your time well?  Would you like to manage it even better?  Being honest with yourself, consider how you align with these habits:

• You have a vision for your life.
• Your goals are written down, specific, and time-related.
• You plan your day and work in order of your priorities.
• You focus on what is most important, and do not allow yourself to be distracted.
• You are almost always five minutes late.

Notice the last habit.  Does that seem out of place?  In my coaching experience, I have found that some of the most focused and hard-working people struggle with being on time. You know how it goes…you have a meeting scheduled, and you notice you have an extra 10 minutes before you need to leave.  Being a good time manager, you cram something else in.  Perfect.  Now you get in your car and take off for your meeting.  Things are going fine until you hear the clanging of the bells and flashing of the lights.  It is a long freight train!  You weren’t expecting that.  You end up five minutes late to your appointment.

A few years ago I was attending a time management seminar, and the subject of punctuality came up.  There was an audience of about 80, and the speaker asked how many had been on time to every appointment the past year.  Three people raised their hands.  The speaker asked how they did it.  They all came up with the same answer:  They leave early.  

But isn’t that wasting time?  No, it isn’t.  When we make an appointment, we set a time.  We have committed to be there at that time.  We haven’t qualified our commitment.  We have given our word.  If we are late, we have fallen short, and I can assure you, the person who has had to wait is not interested in our excuses.  We have not respected  their time.  The same is true with meetings.  If we are late, we are not respecting the time of others.  It is just that simple.  People will respect you less.  (Oh yes they will!)

Years ago, I worked for a company that had meetings with each employee once a month.  For 12 straight months, I would leave 20 minutes early for the appointment with my boss, and would ended up arriving 20 minutes early. One time, I decided to leave just on time.  Wouldn’t you know it…that was the day of the long freight train!  I was five minutes late.  I made no excuses.  I apologized.  I still had my job, but my being late wasn’t a plus.

Leave early and always be on time.  You will gain more respect, and be more professional.

Posted: June 27, 2018 | Categories: Time management

If we want to manage our time well, we need to be good at planning.  Is it possible to over-plan?  Yes and no.

The past week I was working with a client on more effective time management.  We’ll call him Roger.  The area he was working on was weekly/daily planning. He was frustrated that he was not executing his daily plans well.  I asked him a few questions, and discovered that he had planned 100% of his time.  He had everything figured out to the minute.  The problem is that in the real world, things often don’t fit into a neat little package.  Stuff breaks, people are delayed, and problems and obstacles are many.  Roger was frustrated.  What is the antidote?  Plan only 70% of your available time.  If you have planned well, you have determined your priorities and the order in which they need to be done.  It is easy to determine a priority.  Just ask one or both of these questions:

1.  How much will I benefit if I do this?

2.  How much will I suffer if I don’t do it?

If the answer to either of these questions is strong, you have an “A” priority.  Once you determine your priorities, now comes the most important planning:  What are the most important things I need to accomplish today? Ideally, this planning should be done the day before.  Start with your A-1, stay focused and do not allow a distraction unless it is an even higher priority – like a customer who is having a crisis.  If we do get such an interruption, we have allowed for it because we only scheduled 70% of our time.  To be focused and remain flexible in managing our time, we need to:

1.  Know our priorities

2.  Plan only 70% of our time.

3.  Enjoy a relaxed, fulfilled feeling at the end of the day.

Posted: November 16, 2017 | Categories: Leadership, Management, Time management

If you are like most of us, when you look at your personal life, there are a few things in the “toleration” category.  Here are some examples:

• Being overweight
• Not eating right
• Office clutter
• A half-finished project

This list can get pretty long.  Let’s face it, there are some tolerations we just never get around to attending to.

There are also tolerations in business.  Read More…

Posted: July 17, 2017 | Categories: Leadership, Presentation skills, Time management

“You’ve got to ride the horse in the direction it is going” -Old Texas saying

One of my clients is in a key position with a start-up company.  He is an exceptional leader with boundless energy and focus.  As you can imagine, it is important for Ray to continuously sell ideas to his very busy boss.

At first it was frustrating trying to corner his boss for a quality conversation.  It seemed like the boss was always distracted.  Then Ray got wise: Read More…

Posted: October 17, 2016 | Categories: Self-Improvement, Time management

I know.  That title sounds like a bunch of hype.  Stay with me on this:  30 years ago I took a course in time management.  There were two terms that I internalized, and my ability to manage my time increased dramatically.  Read More…