14. |
Learn to Manage Your Time |
It seems as though everyone I talk to these days is stressed-out trying to accomplish all the things their busy lifestyles demand. Between working long hours, attending endless meetings, managing multiple projects (each with its own stressors), dealing with the never-ending onslaught of email, maintaining our business network and connections on social media, and, oh, yeah, trying to have some semblance of a personal life, we are all stretched to the limit.
How is it, then, that some people seem to have plenty of time to accomplish everything, with time left over, while the rest of us rush around all day and never seem to have enough time?
One of the areas a lot of people, including myself at one time, seem to have trouble with is finding time to exercise regularly. With all the demands being made on us daily, exercise is often the first thing to go, when in fact it is one of the most important things we can do for ourselves. When I was having difficulty making time to take care of my physical health I did what I typically do in these situations: I sought the advice of someone who was achieving excellence in this area. In my case, I went to my friend Jim Sutton. Jim is a very successful and busy attorney yet manages to find the time to work out almost every day. When I asked him how, with all his other responsibilities, he could find the time to work out so often, his answer was quite simple. He said, “I make it one of the three most important things I must do each day.” There’s his secret — priorities! Notice he didn’t say it’s one of the items on his ten-item to-do list. It was one of his top three.
Many busy people tend to make long lists of what they need to accomplish in a given day. They then become totally stressed-out trying to accomplish more than is reasonably possible in the time allotted.
If you study highly productive people you’ll find that most make a list of the five most important things that they need to do that day, and do nothing else until those five are completed, instead of writing long lists and then becoming frustrated when they can’t get it all done.
Each week I meet with my friend and coach Ski Swiatkowski, and we coach each other on what needs to happen for us to reach our goals in our respective businesses. An important component of this process is making a commitment to doing certain things in the upcoming week. A huge benefit of having a coach is accountability to another person for doing what needs to be done. In our sessions we each commit to at least three things that will have the greatest impact on our success.
If you want to accomplish more, feel better, and be less stressed, make a habit of writing down the three to five most important things you need to do each day to achieve your goals — and do nothing else until they are completed.
This seemingly simple act can greatly boost your success and enable you to accomplish the tasks that are truly important to your future. Each day, make a list — in your journal, your tablet, or your computer — of no more than five tasks that are the most important for you to do that day. Do them before anything else, and watch your productivity soar.
Another great productivity tip, taken from Brian Tracy’s book Eat That Frog, is to do the one thing that you’d rather not deal with before you do anything else. The personal power you’ll feel when you do this will motivate you to take on the remainder of your tasks for the day.