Time Management

Welcome to Focus Forward and module three of showing up as your best self.  This lesson is going to really give you the opportunity to change up how your entire day and week look.  I know how frustrating it can be to start off your day thinking that you have a clear picture of what you need to get done and even have it in your head exactly how the day is going to play out, just to walk into the office and be ambushed by everyone else’s needs.

This happens constantly and there does not seem to be an easy solution.  After all the people on our team or in our division have their projects that they are trying to move forward as well.  So, what can we do about it?  We have to set boundaries and put a time management system into place that unless the building is burning, or someone is bleeding…badly that the boundaries are immovable.  

Now I get it…people do need a piece of you and your time.  Yet, we cannot let them control the day.  Setting times aside for those conversations or establishing a different way of communicating with you that allows you to check in when it is scheduled time has to be a priority.  What I have found, and most high achievers have realized, is that when most people have to wait just a bit for their emergency to be dealt with, they often come up with their own solutions.  By doing this a couple of wonderful things have happened.  Number one your time is now opened to do the items that you need to make happen and number two the other person has likely learned something that they will be able to use or pass on to someone else in the future.   

I am going to share a system of time blocking that is a major step in successful time management.   I challenge you to go through this exercise in its entirety.  I know that you are going to push back on some of this, but I really want you to humor me and go with it.  Set some time aside when you can focus on this activity and really give it A+ effort. The highest achievers in the world are amazing at so many things, but one thing that they are masters of is time management. Controlling your time is one of the best gifts you can ever give yourself.  If you truly want to move to the next level, the level that you have envisioned for your career, your family and your future then why would you not follow in the path of success that has been proven over and over to work at an extremely high level?  You wouldn’t of course, so let’s jump in and change up your days.

The first thing that I want you to do is determine if you have not already, the calendar or planner that works well for you.  As you have probably heard me say numerous times, the best system is the one that you will use.  If you struggle with it, or it just causes you great stress, then you will likely give up on it before it even has a chance of being helpful.  I know that we all have calendars on our phones, but I do encourage you to use some sort of written planner.   Having that constant reminder of what you so carefully planned out right in front of you tends to keep people on task  more consistently.  It is also a great reminder when you get off task of what is still lying-in wait for you to accomplish.

Next, I want you to take a step back and look at your next 12 months.  This will work if it is January 1 or June 15th.  I just want you to look at the next year from wherever you are today.  Now, I want you to block out your down time or vacation time.  Please remember that you are going to humor me and do the exercise.  This can be the hardest piece and is usually where I get the most resistance from coaching students, as they either don’t or won’t acknowledge that taking time away is beneficial for their goals and their overall well-being.  It doesn’t matter how much time you block out, although, I do recommend a reset of some sort every 90 days.  A weekend away can be an amazing chance to clear your head, get some good fresh air and come back revitalized.  I also want you to put any longer vacations on here…you don’t even have to decide where you are going, just that you are off the radar.  It could be a long weekend, 2 weeks or a month…the choice is yours.

Now that you have your time off blocked, we know what we have left to work with.  What I want you to do at this point is to put any obligations that you have previously committed to on your calendar.  Examples of these might include doctor appointments, speaking or educational seminars.  

We are now to the point where we are going to scale way down to the next 30 days.  Going out much further than this, things tend to change, so it can be useless.  This is where you are going to put things like family obligations, kids’ events, golf league, etc.  This is also where I want you to plug in 2 things that people tend to never put on a calendar and try to squeeze them in wherever they may fit, which we all know means that most of the time they don’t happen, or they get scheduled over.  The first one is date night or maybe girls or guys night out.  The second is “you” time.  That might be a spa day or something as simple as an hour at the park walking or reading, this is also a good time to put your workout time in. These are both things that are critical to good mental health and are that essential reset that we all need that leads to more productive, high performance which in turns gets us to goals faster and with less stress.

I am sure by now you are wondering if we are going to put any work on this planner.  Patience…. We are getting there.  If you look over the scope of the whole year that we are working with you have not really taken much time away from where we can now plug in our most productive hours.

I would like you to next write down your big rock goals for the month.  Likely you have your annual goals written down, so now it needs to be broken down into monthly chunks. These are the projects that are going to move you forward in your pursuit of that bigger life, more successful career or maybe the building of a new venture.  

Once you have those written down, divide each of them out into smaller more attainable pieces.  Depending on the size of the project you may have 5 pieces or 20 pieces.  That part is entirely up to you to construct.  The goal is to be able to take these pieces and plug them into your weekly calendar which in turn makes certain that you are moving the needle forward towards the big picture and not getting overwhelmed with the huge end result.

Finally, you are going to look at that list of weekly goals that are the smaller bites of the big reward at the end and divide them one more time into events for each day of that week.  

Here is the part that makes all of this work.   Take that very achievable project for the day and block out a 50-minute solid uninterrupted piece of time to work on it.  This is where the boundaries that we spoke of earlier must come into place.  There must not be any distractions to pull you off the mission.  This means no email, phone, text or social, as these distractions will entirely defeat the purpose of your plan.  At the end of 50 minutes regardless of where you are at on the project you are going to stop and take a short break.  This is not negotiable; you need to stop what you are doing and take just a couple of minutes to reset.  That may mean getting up, taking a short 5-minute walk around, getting water, getting some food, and doing some stretches.   If you can build 2 to 3 of these 50-minute sessions into your day, to give yourself some concentrated time on items that are of the biggest importance to your success you will be astounded at the results at the end of the week.

By doing this and putting those blocks of time on your calendar you will realize that you still have plenty of time to meet with the team, check email and do the daily tasks that need to happen just to keep things from falling apart and at the end of the day you still leave feeling that you had a highly efficient, productive day.

By now you should have a beautiful plan for your week and what you will quickly realize is that you have gained back time and achieved the items that matter most.

I hope that this has been helpful and changes the results that you see in your life.  Please share this with 5 people that you know would embrace change and are looking to be more efficient in less time.

Please put any questions or comments below so that our team can answer each and every question individually.

I will see you in the next module and remember it is always your choice to Focus Forward.