Three Aphorisms About Time

1. You will never find time for anything
2. If you want time, you must make it
3. You cannot add until you first subtract

Stop trying to 'find' time, and concentrate on how to 'make' time. Making time is largely a matter of reducing or eliminating activities. If you're unwilling to give up anything, you will never have time for something else. Do your adding and subtracting on the basis of importance. Ask yourself: What will contribute the most to what I'm trying to accomplish?

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy

We all need some time off to recharge our batteries. There are times when we ought to ease back and relax. No one should work all the time. Take lots od "vacations". An increasing number of people spend too much time with their jobs, and not enough time away from the job. And, when you do get away, don't take any part of the job with you.

Nothing happens in your life unless you create the space for it to happen in

Life is a zero-sum game. Here you are, spending all the time you have on something that's really important, but it's impossible to add a new activity into your life until you first subtract an old activity.

To find the time for the new thing, you have to reduce or eliminate the old thing. If you pick a specific time for doing the new thing, you increase the probability that you will actually do it.

There are two rules for achieving anything....

Rule No 1: Get started

Rule No 2: Keep going

Lots of people say they intend to get something done, but for one reason or another they never get around to it. Some say they are waiting for the right moment, but that moment never seems to arrive. And there are some people who quit when the going gets a little tough. When the chips are down, it isn't talent, brilliance, or education, but persistence that pays off. Develop the habit of persistence and there will be very little that you can't accomplish.

Just because it's urgent doesn't mean it's important

Most of us have learned to respond to urgent activities, but not necessarily to important activities. To break the tyranny of the urgent, learn to distinguish what is :

a. important and urgent
b. important, but not urgent
c. urgent, but not important
d. neither important nor urgent

The highest payoffs and greatest opportunities are usually important, but not urgent. Focus first on what's important, not whats merely urgent.

Time is basic; unless it is managed, nothing else can be managed

Peter Drucker points out that time is all you have to work with. Saying you didn't have enough time is probably admitting that you didn't manage the time you had. However, when you're out of time, all your other skills are of no value. You simply have to control time to get good results. The familiar term "time management" is actually a misnomer, because no one can mange time. What you really manage is yourself. Managing time simply means managing yourself in order to accomplish your goals within the time available.

Winners focus,losers spray

Winners focus on the results they want to achieve. In so doing, they are able to see what does or doesn't contribute to their goals, and avoid the things that don't help. Losers, on the other hand, focus on all the tasks in front of them. Without a clear-cut way of sorting through all the trivia, they wind up being pushed and pulled by whatever happens. The key to staying focused is having a clear vision of what you're after, and ignoring everything else.

Six cliches About Time

Time Flies.

Time is money.

Time marches on.

Time and time again.

Time heals all wound.

Time waits for no man.

You can't no more do what you ain't prepared for, than you can come back from where you ain't been

Good results depend less on luck and more on planning. Actually, chance favors the person who is prepared. Forget about luck and learn how to plan better. For starters, write out a weekly plan. Answer these five questions:

1. What results do you intend to achieve this week?
2. What must you do to get these results?
3. What are the priorities?
4. How much time will each activity requires?
5. When will you do each activity?

Keep interruptions short and you will solve a huge part of your time problem

You can't stop interruptions from happening, but too many routine disturbances will ruin your plans for the day. While you can't prevent all interruptions from happening, you can help determine how long they last. Try all kinds of strategies. Stand up, put a big clock in your work space, tell people you're busy, ask people to bunch things together, and close your door. Consider asking the people who interrupt you the most for their input on how to minimize disturbances.