I once saw a woman in a parking lot throw pennies on the ground. When I asked her what she was doing, she told me she’d just read about a multimillionaire who had calculated his worth, and based on the value of an hour of his time, he determined that it wasn’t worth the few seconds it’d take for him to pick up a dollar bill from the sidewalk. She, however, had decided that although it was worth her time to pick up a dollar, she could afford to part with a few pennies.
I think she missed the point, but there’s a lesson in this experience: You’re always on the clock. Time is money, and yours has a value. Giving away your precious time without a sense of its value is like throwing money on the sidewalk. By knowing what your time is worth, you can prioritize those tasks that yield the greatest return, delegating or eliminating those tasks that provide little to no return on your time investment.
Identifying your rhythm to get in the zone
Athletes talk about being in the zone, a place where positive results seem to stick like a magnet. Well, I’m here to tell you that the zone isn’t some magical place where wishes come true. Anybody can get there, without a lucky token or fairy dust. What it takes is focus, singular focus.
If you know your rhythms – when you’re most on, what times of day you’re best equipped to undertake certain tasks – you can perform your most important activities when you’re in the zone. Everyone works to a unique pace, and recognizing that rhythm is one of the most valuable personal discoveries you can make. Some of the aspects you need to explore include the following:
✓ How many hours can you work at a high level each day?
✓ What’s your most productive time of the day?
✓ How many weeks can you work at high intensity without a break?
✓ How long of a break do you need so you can come back focused and intense?
About ten years ago, as I was evaluating my sales results, I puzzled over a drop in my numbers at the tenth week when I’d been working without a break. It didn’t take me long to realize that my lower results reflected my drop in focus. And it’s a pattern I could see in previous months. I realized the best course of action, rather than gutting it out, was to get out. I needed a vacation.
I also found that I didn’t need a full week’s vacation to return to work revitalized and refreshed. I simply needed a mini‐break, about five days over the course of a long weekend to step away from the work routine and see the world through another lens, whether holing up with my family or making an escape to the beach. In the last few years, I’ve recognized again that span of time spent at work has been reduced from ten weeks to a nine‐week schedule. It could be attributed to age, increased responsibility, pre‐teen and teen children, or a couple of ongoing health issues. I have learned that getting out is still the best course of action.
To this day, I lay out my whole year in advance, now based on the nine‐week rhythm. This ensures I use my time for maximum benefit. I’m either working at a high level, or I am out recharging myself for five days to come back strong.
Effective time management requires more than good intent and self‐knowledge. To keep your time under careful control, you need a framework. In your arsenal of time‐management ammunition, you want to stock organizational skills, technology that helps keep you on track, and planning tools that help you keep the reins on your time, hour by hour, day by day, week by week, and so forth.
Establishing a solid system you can replicate is a key to succeeding in managing your time. Systems, standards, strategies, and rules protect your time and allow you to use it to your best advantage. These skills are applicable whether you’re the company CEO, a salesperson, a midlevel manager, an executive, or an administrative assistant. No matter your work or your work environment, time management is of universal value.
Scheduling your time and creating a routine
Sticking to a time‐scheduling system can’t guarantee the return of your long‐lost vacation days, but by regularly tracking your meetings, appointments, and obligations, you reduce your odds of double‐booking and scheduling appointments too close. And by planning ahead, you make sure to make time for all the important things first.
For years, I’ve followed the time‐blocking system, which I detail in Chapter 5. The system ensures that you put your priorities first (starting with routines and then moving to individual tasks/activities) before scheduling in commitments and activities of lesser importance.
Such time‐management techniques are just as applicable to the other spheres of your life. There’s a reason why I advise you to plug in your personal commitments first when filling in your time‐blocking schedule: Your personal time is worthy of protection, and you can further enhance that time by applying time‐management principles.
Too many people feel that all this structure is too restrictive. They think the freedom they seek with their schedules and their lives is contained in a more flexible environment. They’re afraid establishing a routine will keep them wrapped in the chains of time.
However, most people waste too much time figuring out each individual day on the fly. They react to the day rather than respond. Reacting is a reflex action that turns over your agenda to others, and that can’t possibly lead to freedom. Responding is a disciplined act of planning that determines where and how you’ll invest your time.
For example, suppose you have a set place in your schedule to respond to phone calls and problems. You’ve established the routine of dealing with these issues in predetermined time slots. You can hold off on your response until later – when you’re calmer, more focused, and in a problem‐solving mentality – instead of reacting because you’re dealing with the issue now.
Planning how to spend your time, which at first glance seems opposed to freedom, is the only pathway to the true mastery of time. With the right routine come simplicity, productivity, and freedom. The “what am I going to work on today?” or “what’s my schedule today?” never happens. And when you get the important work out of the way, you free yourself to do what you really enjoy.
If you’re a free spirit and what I’m suggesting just fried your circuits, start with a small amount of routine. Ask yourself, “Can I establish a daily routine to try it out? What can I do without having it send me into withdrawal?” Then implement a new routine every