We have discussed the problems with trying to manage time on several occasions in the past You Can’t Manage Time But You Can Use It Better and so we are all too aware that everyone on the planet has the same 24 hours in a day. We all spend those 24 hours doing something, working, sleeping, watching television etc. If we want to free up time in order to achieve our objective, we need to reclaim time from those things that are preventing us moving forward. That’s why effective people don’t manage time – they reclaim it.
In order to reclaim time from the “time waters” in our lives we need to first identify where we are spending our time and what we are spending it on. We looked at an effective way of doing this using the Four Coloured Traffic Lights and this gives us a great start.
According to information from Harvard Business Review 80% of adults say they have too much to do and not enough time to do it. We can’t do anything about the amount of time available to them or us – that’s fixed at 24 hours. The problem is a combination of wasted time and unrealistic expectations as to how much a person can do in the time available. we live in a “you can have it all and do it all society” and that’s simply not true. Anything you decide to do comes at the opportunity cost of something else To Be Effective You Need To Understand Opportunity Cost .
Both in business and personally we must seek out the time wasters, those mindless things we do and those things that move us away from our objective and reclaim the time they have stolen from us.
If you want to lead a healthier, happier and more fulfilled life. If you want to have an organisation that constantly moves toward the goal, then you have set then you must reclaim time.
As you might imagine, I would recommend The Ivy Lee Method – How To Have An Effective Day as a great place to start if you really want to reclaim time.
Once you have finished reading this blog, identify two things that you were going to do today that are time wasters and reclaim the time from them. Don’t worry that it may only be a few minutes that you have reclaimed. Great projects start from small beginnings and remember 5 minutes per day reclaimed out of a total of 1,440 minutes per day or just 0.3% gives you an extra 30 hours per year or most of a working week. Which would you rather do, waste 5 minutes a day or take an extra week as holiday?
It’s your time – reclaim it. Don’t let the timewasters steal any more.
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