In a previous post, the topic of having 3 banner goals was introduced. Some of the leaders I have coached over the years have needed help with what they refer to as time management. After asking insightful questions about their situation, they generally come to realize it is not a time management issue they have; rather it is a decision making issue that is holding them back from accomplishing great things. You see, we all have 168 hours in a 7 day week. It is against the laws of nature for you to add more time to your week. What you can do is to make better decisions as to how you spend that time.

Dan Kennedy has said, “You could reasonably argue that if there were one time management system that worked perfectly for everybody, there’d be only one system.” He is absolutely right – it is not a time management issue, it is a decision making issue. Once you see this light and insight, you can focus on making better decisions about how to spend your time. Time is the most precious asset we have and once spent, we cannot get it back. Remember this as well – when you say yes to one thing, you are saying no to something else.

Jim Rohn has said, “Never begin your day until it is finished on paper” advising that identifying and planning exactly how you will allocate time each day to your banner goals and other important priorities before you begin to work on anything. This is where better decision making is required. How many times do we start the day by looking at what has arrived in our email box since yesterday and react to what other people want us to do? When this happens, we tend to give up on our intention to work on our goals and giving our best time to reacting rather than proactive goal movement.

If you allow yourself to think about how you can best spend the day, you will be addressing your priorities first. In this way, you can review the results you want to obtain and plan time in your schedule to devote to those items. Will this prevent the pop-up of crisis situations that will require your attention – unfortunately, no. However, you can weigh the importance of those crisis situations against your intentions to determine if you need to make an adjustment. You have important criteria to use in making that decision. Once again, it goes back to the quality of your decisions to move along your banner goals vs. being subject to other people’s priorities.

Immediate Action:

1. Identify your three banner goals and what needs to be accomplished this week to move them along.
2. Don’t look at your email until you have planned out how you will spend your day.
3. Finish each day with planning your schedule for the next day’s activities.

Photo by: Sebastien Wertz