Managing Your Time for Results

Managing your time, leads to managing your life. Real time management is self-management. Talent, information, and desire are not enough to be successful in a career.  Your personal habits rule your behavior. A change in self-perception and behavior is required, especially in implementing new approaches.  But do not worry.  Big changes aren’t usually required.  It is the little things, if changed that begin to make a difference.  Everyone has comfort zones and blind spots. Often, small things done consistently in strategic places create major impact.

For example, quickly count the f’s in this sentence:

“Finished files are the result of years of scientific study of a few dedicated experts.”

How many f’s did you get?  Most count five; some get six, and a few, seven (on the first try).  There are seven f’s in the sentence.  Sometimes we miss the obvious.

Read aloud the sentence in each illustration below–quickly.

Did you just read the sentences as you remember them?  Notice each has an extra word – the, a, and the.  Most people do not see this the first time.

Here is the point: What are you missing that is right in front of you?  Sometimes its solutions to present problems, ideas, and answers to future issues.  What you need is often in front of you, but you don’t see or use it.  Why?  It happens to everyone.  It has much to do with conditioning, and blinders we put on caused by the beliefs we have learned over the years.

• I cannot change!
• I am what I am!
• I’m not that kind of person.
• That is not me.
• I always do it this way; it has worked before.
• I am not educated enough.
• As on manager said, “Everyone gets more than I deserve.”

Everyone has their problems. However, personal excellence requires a willingness to change or try new things if it will get better results.  Top performers will shed old habits and beliefs as easily as leaves fall from trees in the autumn.

4 Successful Techniques to Manage Your Time for Results

You cannot really manage time because it is constant.  You can manage yourself!  According to high performance research, self-management requires you to: expand your comfort zone, build positive beliefs, increase your productivity, and be satisfied with your life.

Expand Your Comfort Zone

 All of us put blinders on to our self-imposed limitations.  Don’t stay a creature of habit.  To expand our potential, all managers need:

• Feedback – positive and negative; ask for it!
• New ideas – try different methods, brainstorm.
• Failures – Andrew Carnegie said the way to succeed is to fail more.
• Change – make a new habit or action step and stay with it for 30 days.

Build Positive Beliefs

 You do want to increase your performance, energy, and success, don’t you?  Never forget that talent, knowledge, and desire aren’t enough to achieve that.  You must change your beliefs as well.  Your beliefs affect your attitude.  Your attitude determines if you use your talent, knowledge, and desire.

Here’s how to build positive beliefs:

1. Focus on positive results.  Sounds simple, but psychologists tell us 85% of our thoughts are negative.
2. Use mental rehearsal.  Pre-play positive results on sales, goals, and customer contacts. Olympic athletes do this.
3. Try self-talk or affirmations. Take time to put positive info words in your mind.  Do positives, positive our (PIPO), not garbage in, garbage out (GIGO).

• Try affirmations like these:
• I am an excellent manager!
• I am healthy and fit!
• I communicate well and with sincerity!

Write a few of your own affirmations.  Make them present tense, positive and about yourself.

Increase Your Productivity 

Most of us, leaders included, spend most of their time on the urgent, or crises or problems.  Schedule and invest more time on organizing, planning, thinking, tracking, communicating, training, and learning.  Your true payoff activities involve these functions.  Be a pro; make the time to get them done.  Eliminate the word “can’t” and in the words of Winston Churchill, “never give up, never, never give up.”  Implement these peak performance techniques:

Follow a personal management system – for organization, scheduling, goal tracking, and time management. Multiple apps and smartphones have this capability.  Each must include these key elements:

• yearly overview calendar
•  monthly overview
• daily calendar (to do list, calls, and appointments)
• project list
• telephone log
• notes section

Find one planner and use it.  Don’t use two or three; you’ll be ineffective.  Also, if it’s important, write it down or log it. (Meeting, ideas, activity, goal).  Initiate this concept in a personal planner and you’ll literally save an hour a day. In addition:

• Write personal and career goals and action plans. Again, if it isn’t written down, it’s not important to you.  All great achievers are great planners.  Chance favors the prepared mind.
• Keep learning. Read, listen to tapes, and take courses on management.  No matter how successful you are now, you will limit yourself if you stop learning.

Be Satisfied with Your Life

This involves living each moment to the fullest on the things that matter most.  Always ask these questions, what is most important to my family? My team? (If you have one) and my career?

Plan for tomorrow while you get things done today. To be successful also means self-development.  However, it’s easy to get trapped by a whirlwind or grind and never enjoy or appreciate who you are or what really is important.  Remember these ideas as well:

• Do what you love.
• Nurture your relationships.
• Do nothing sometimes.
• Have alone time.
• Help others.

In conclusion, remember these words by Benjamin Franklin: “Does thou love life?  Then don’t squander time. It’s the stuff life is made of.”

Also, see this for your personal development

In addition, go here for our RealTime Learning & Training leadership and personal development website. Over 250 micro-learning and career development resources at your fingertips!

Finally, do you want to accelerate your leadership success and learn more about Servant Leadership? Go here for Rick’s newest book plus a complimentary 21 Lesson Servant Leadership Training, The 5 Dynamics of Servant Leadership: Inspire Your Team to Achieve