Time Management Isn't About Managing Your Time, It's About Getting Control of You

Do you start off a day with the idea of getting certainThe idea is to do the hard stuff, and more important
things done and by the end of the day you haven'tstuff first. Get them out of the way. When doing the
even gotten to the things you wanted done?easy and fun stuff first you never get to the stuff you
Then you should be working on getting control of you,should be doing.
getting control of how you manage you.Keeping a time log of what you are currently doing will
What is getting in your way, getting between you andhelp you find where your time is going. Make sure to
those things you intended to do?write everything down.
Is it easier to do things that are easier or more funMany times I am totally amazed seeing people coming
first?back from doing their time log for just a week. 80-90%
You look up at the clock and it is break time, so youof their time went to the low priority stuff, not the
go take a break, grumbling that you didn't get to thethings they should be doing, not the things that are
things you really needed to do. After returning to work,important.
of course there are a couple of those fun, easy thingsI assume that:
that you can do before you start on the tough stuff."Over 95% of everything most people do, even people
Doing the easy things first is poor time management.who seem to have it together, is wasted time." Just
It's a habit, but habits can be changed.think about that! If 95% is waste, then what would
Do you have a priority list but things lower in priority gethappen if you put ALL of your time, or ALL of your
done first because of excuses like these:employees' time into the 5% where you should be
- This one is easy, I'll do it first to get it out of the way.spending your time. Doesn't that say that you
- The whole list of things that won't take as long canSHOULD be able to do 20 times as much as you
be done fast, so I'll start there.currently are?
- This one is not as difficult.....Sounds rather far out doesn't it? Well it's not too far
You get the idea. Things that you'd rather be doing,out. If we assume that 20 times is the ideal, just how
things that aren't as difficult or challenging you'd ratherhard do you think it would be to increase your results
do first.by 50-200% when 20 times is a potential? Pretty easy
I believe it was Brian Tracy that said, "Eat the frogreally. So, start off by tracking where you are spending
first" Swallow the things you don't like to get them outyour time now, looking for the right things to be doing,
of the way.and where time is wasted.