COULD YOU BE SPENDING YOUR TIME MORE WISELY? o:p>

1. Value Your Time As Precious & Invest Accordingly

Time can be viewed as an asset and unless we invest it in activities that have the optimal ‘return on investment’ we won’t be as successful as we could be.  If you look at any person who is successful in their chosen field you can bet they all manage and invest their time prudently. The fact is, if you want to be successful at whatever it is that inspires you, you can’t afford to waste your time. If you do, you are also wasting your skills, talents, knowledge and experience and not only are you, but the whole world, is missing out. Only by valuing your time as a precious and finite commodity can you use it responsibly.

2. Balance Your Time in Alignment with Your Values

I like that saying, if you want to know what someone’s values are ask them where their bum is – if you're in the office 80 hours a week then you need to take stock and bring your values (and time with ‘who’ you value) into alignment with how you spend your time. 

At work we can think in terms of ‘quality time’ – have we spent it efficiently and on things that produce the greatest measurable results.  On the home front you need to think of it in terms of ‘quantity time’ – how much of your time are you spending with those you love.  Professional success at the expense of one’s family or personal life is not true success. Balance is the key.  This is the principal underlying my 7 Step Coaching Program.

3. Invest in Your Relationships

We don’t view goals in our personal lives as the same as work goals because they are largely about our relationships; they have softer edges. However the same principal holds true - your time is your most precious asset and how you spend it will impact the results you get.  

When it comes to those in your life who you care about most, the gift of your presence is the greatest gift of all. This holds particularly true for your children.  You may not be able to measure your results quantifiably but you can definitely feel it in terms of the quality of your relationships. They are rich in joy, love, laughter. They are open, intimate, honest and extremely rewarding.  Like all things in life, you get back what you put in and your relationships are no exception!

4. Plan Ahead & Prioritize

There will never be enough time to do everything but there will always be enough time to do the most important things.  However you cannot optimize the use of your time without prior planning and as you do continually ask yourself:

• What is the highest value use of my time?
• What can I do that will make the biggest difference – at work or home – in the longer term?
• What are the consequences of not doing this activity?

Needless to say, if something has very low consequences if you don’t do it (short & long term) then you need to think twice about whether its worth your time in the first place. What else could you be doing with that time?

5. Focus on the Important – not just the Urgent

Too often we get caught spending our too much of our time ‘putting out fires’ and not enough time putting in fire breaks! You may have heard of the psychological term “Delayed Gratification”. This basically means that we put in effort up front for benefits in the longer term – we delay gratification.   There will always be urgent matters to attend to but by allocating time to important – non urgent – matters there will be fewer urgent issues to deal with in the longer term.

For instance:

• taking better care of your health & wellbeing through exercise and eating better (you can’t be productive if you’re tired or bed sick!)
• having a night our with your spouse to share where life is really at for you and keep the lines of communication open
• self-education to keep you abreast of knowledge & skills in your profession
• improving systems & processes at work to increase long term efficiency
• addressing a performance issue with someone whom you work to increase their productivity

All of these are important but rarely immediately pressing however if you don’t put time into them upfront the long consequences can be dire.

6. Organize Your Environment

Having an organized work space and home allows you to use your time better. Organizing a good filing system so you can quickly find things will save you wasting a time (and getting stressed) looking for them later on. If you haven’t needed something for 12 months you probably won’t so throw it out. Same applies to your wardrobe – clear out those clothes that haven’t seen the sunshine since the 90’s!  Studies by time management experts have found that disorganized people spend up to 30% of their time looking for things and when messy people are forced to clean up their work space their productivity increases by up to 50%!

7. Focus on the ‘Vital Few’

The Parato Principal or ‘80:20 Rule’ holds that 80% of what we do contributes to only 20% of the results we achieve and only 20% of what we do contributes to 80%.  So according to this rule we need to consistently assess and focus on the  vital few things that make the biggest difference to our desired outcome. How much time do you spend on the 80% that contributes the least to accomplishing what you want to achieve?

8. Single Handle Big Tasks without Distraction

Avoiding distractions that necessitate you having to do a project in multiple goes greatly decreases the amount of time it takes to do it.  How often have you started a task, found yourself distracted and then had to almost start from scratch when you got back to it (if you ever did get back to it!)?  You can  avoid wasting a LOT of time by staying at important tasks – without distraction - until they are completed. Andrew Carnegie, the great steal baron, attributed his success to focusing without diversion on the most important task at hand.

9. Work in your st1:place w:st="on">Energy Peaks

Do those things that require the greatest concentration during those times you can concentrate best. If you  work at your energy peaks you can get more done in the time you have. For instance, I am writing this in the morning because I’m better able to focus in the morning. I save the afternoons for things that require less mental energy like returning phone calls.

10. Value Others Time and Ensure they Value Yours

How others value your time will reflect directly on how you value it yourself. If people don’t value your time as highly as you think they should you need to let them know. In doing so you may well give them cause to reflect on how well they are spending their own time. You might also reflect on how well you respect and value the time of others – particularly if you are forever keeping others waiting on you!

11. Do What You Love!

Of course the greatest time waster of all is to spend every day year in, year out doing something you don’t enjoy. If you are not enjoying what you do everyday I strongly recommend you invest some time to consider the personal price you are paying for staying where you are and what you would really love to be doing. Ultimately the choice is yours but appreciate that every day you spend doing something you don’t love is a day that can never live again.