Stop Trying to Manage Time — Start Managing Yourself!

Why do some people seem to get more than 24 hours out of a day but others seem never to have enough time? There are those (usually busy) people who do so much, and others who seem to squander their time.

The library shelves are filled with books ontime management andorganizing for success. After watching successful people versus not-so-successful people, I believe it isn’t a matter so much of who canmanage time but rather who best understands, and can manage, themselves.

When you think about it, we can’tmanage time. It’s a manmade construct and it doesn’t change no matter what we do to it. Yes, we can figure our own personal peak hours (I am definitely a morning person and not an evening person, for example) and we can rush around trying tobeat the clock, but fundamentally we can’t change what’s being given to us each of us works with a regular 24-hour cycle.

The people who manage to accomplish more of what matters are those who have learned how to manage their personal and professional lives. What do the people who have learned to make the best use of their time do differently than others?

  • They set goals and know what they need, and want, to accomplish
  • They know what they enjoy and what they are good at and they know where they may need some help or assistance
  • They have clear priorities about what matters each task is looked at with regard to its importance relative to overall priorities
  • They have learned to sayno they don’t let others steal their time
  • They don’t rush around they are careful and organized in their day, and know why they are doing what they are doing at each step
  • They break tasks down into discrete steps they don’t work from overallto-do lists but rather view an overall task, and then break down the individual components so they know exactly what they need to do
  • They delegate! In addition to knowing where they need assistance, they know enough to ask others for help
  • They don’t waste energy onmartyr syndrome orI feel sorry for myself syndrome. They conserve their energy, instead, for those things that matter
  • They celebrate their successes even the little accomplishments are important and help keep them focused on the bigger goals
  • They have some sort of organized plan or approach be it a calendar system, a PDA orreminders. They have some way of keeping their day, their week and their lives planned so they don’t miss things
  • They are self-aware they know their strengths and their weaknesses, and they are able to capitalize on their strengths and minimize their weaknesses

Truly successful,accomplished people don’t find excuses for why they haven’t been able to meet their goals, or accomplish their desires. They identify what they want to do, examine their own capabilities and create a plan with a well-defined set of objectives and associated priorities. They always know, when they take on a task, whether it fits within their priority list. They keep moving forward, confidently, in the direction of their dreams!