Reassess Your Time Commitments
AFFIRMATIONS
for
Meditation and Reflection
I am creating superior results by maintaining balance between time spent at work, time with my family, and time just for me.
I highly value my Free Days and Focus Days, using my Buffer Days to plan, prepare, build new skills, and delegate nonessential tasks to others.
I am joyfully structuring my time to get the most out of my Focus Days with abundant time to pursue my personal interests.
The world is entering a new time-zone and one of the most difficult adjustments people must make is in their fundamental concepts and beliefs about the management of time.
—DAN SULLIVAN
Founder and president, The Strategic Coach
This Principle, which is based on the work of Dan Sullivan, president of The Strategic Coach, will help you approach time management and scheduling differently. First, let’s look into “vacation time.”
According to a study by the U.S. Travel Association’s Project Time Off, 54% of employees ended 2016 with unused time off. Not good—and here’s why: If you don’t take your time off, you are more likely to get burned out, get sick, and have your relationships suffer. The problem is not just unused vacation days; people are also reluctant to take any days for themselves—even if it’s on their scheduled day off. Everyone needs a complete Free Day now and then—free of business-related meetings, reading, phone calls, and emails—because those days allow you to return to work refreshed, more creative, and more enthusiastic. And that benefits you, your family, your colleagues, your clients, and everyone else you interact with.
I am creating superior results by maintaining balance between time spent at work, time with my family, and time just for me.
If you really want to make the most of your time and talents, you need to look at how you use them. My second recommendation is to schedule Buffer Days.1 In a five-day workweek, you need to schedule a day or two for doing things that prepare you for your Focus Days—days where you focus on using your core genius to produce bottom-line results.
Buffer Days are set aside for doing things like traveling, training, scheduling, attending meetings—any task or activity that will free your time and help you make your Focus Days as productive as possible. For me, a Buffer Day might include outlining a new speech, taking a seminar to improve my training skills, planning how to maximize sales of our books and audio programs at my next training, conducting research, or any number of projects that support me in working on my core genius during my Focus Days.
What are some of the projects that would fall into your Buffer Days? The key is to do things that will free up your Free Days and your Focus Days so you can use them for what they were intended—producing your most important bottom-line results.
I highly value my Free Days and Focus Days, using my Buffer Days to plan, prepare, build new skills, and delegate nonessential tasks to others.
Now, let’s take a look at Focus Days—where you focus at least 80% of your time on your core genius. These should be incredibly exciting days, ones you look to with anticipation and passion. These are your money days when you get to practice the skill that you are best at—the one you love, the one you were born to do.
The key to getting more Focus Days and Free Days is to schedule them . . . in ink. First, let’s do a short but helpful exercise for clarification: 1) List the three best Focus Days you’ve ever had. 2) Write down the common elements. 3) Plan more perfect Focus Days—you now have excellent insight as to what made them so great. (You should do this with your Free Days also.)
The key to all of this is to be more intentional in the way you structure your time. Start today and take control of your time and your life so you maximize your results and income—make every minute of your days count. Only you have the information you need to succeed—your goals and dreams, your natural talent, your self-confidence, and your belief that you can accomplish anything that you set your mind to do.
One final suggestion: Begin by scheduling four vacations over the next year—from a few long weekends to your dream vacation. It won’t happen unless you sit down and make a plan!
I am joyfully structuring my time to get the most out of my Focus Days with abundant time to pursue my personal interests.
1 Free Days, Focus Days, and Buffer Days are registered trademarks of The Strategic Coach, Inc. All rights reserved. I am grateful to Dan Sullivan for his Entrepreneurial Time System that teaches these concepts. For more information on The Strategic Coach Program, go to www.thestrategiccoach.com.