By: Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
What would you do to get a few more hours in your day? How much more could you accomplish and enjoy at work and at home? What about being able to spend more time with your family, friends and hobbies?
I don’t really believe in time management. Time goes on whether you manage it or not. I think what you can do is manage yourself in relation to time and that’s a whole different concept, isn’t it?
And I’ll tell you what time management is not. It’s not doing the wrong things quicker because that just gets you nowhere faster. During my thirty years of studying this topic, I have learned that time management is doing more of the right things in your life each day in both your work and personal life.
You probably have more to do than time allows and that says a lot of good things about you. Obviously, many have entrusted much to you. But that means you will never get it all done. You will only accomplish but a tiny fraction of what you have been asked to do and what you want to do. So, use time management as a tool to get more of the important things done.
Why? Because you will serve others more effectively, enjoy greater results and you probably will live longer. Productive people generally live longer and more satisfying lives and why would you want to compromise the gift of your life for anything less than that?
Time management tools then are used for getting more done in your work life and your personal life and that begins by creating solid work/life balance in your life every day.
Your life operates within the Seven Vital Areas of Life. They include your health, your family and your financial dimensions. And they also include your intellectual, social, professional and spiritual categories as well.
While you won’t spend equal amounts of time in each area or time every day in each area, if , in the long run, you spend a sufficient quantity and quality of your time in each of the Seven Vital Areas, then your life will be balanced, building a solid foundation for your permanent success.
But look what happens if you short-change any one of those Seven Vital Areas, never mind two or three. Take your health dimension, for example, and the simple need to get a good night’s sleep. 75% of people complain that they are flat-out tired during most of their days. If you are flat-out tired, that impacts on your family life and impacts on your social life. And if things aren’t going the right way in your financial life it will hurt your mental health, your family and your ability to focus on your professional responsibilities.
So effective time management is more than just making up a “to do” list. Effective time management is really the art, the science and the practice of gaining better control, not absolute control, over the entire twenty-four hours in every day because the simple truth is, if you’re not in control of your time, they are. Your job will take all of your time if you let it. Your friends and family will take all your time if you let them.
It doesn’t make any of those influences bad, it’s just that, if there is a void of leadership in your time management day, lots of outside influences will step up to lead where you fail and that will not create the balanced, productive life you so richly deserve.
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Dr. Donald E. Wetmore
Certified Executive Coach, Consultant and Trainer
Author, “Organizing Your Life” and “The Productivity Handbook”
Productivity Institute
Personal Productivity Solutions to Leverage Your Impact
127 Jefferson St.
Stratford, CT 06615
(203) 386-8062
(800) 969-3773
info@balancetime.com
https://www.balancetime.com
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