I need more time.
How do I get more time?
Where did all the time go?
Why do I never have enough time?
Time. Time. Time. We’re obsessed with time.
It’s consumable, we always want more of it, we don’t know where it goes or how we spent it.
Yet we all have the same amount of it and we all know people who use it more wisely than others. How is that possible? What’s their trick?
Despite the title of this TPF, there is no trick to CREATING time. There is a trick however to MAXIMIZING time and using time effectively for our PURPOSES.
A while ago I had the opportunity to listen to John Assaraf, researcher, lecturer, author, and entrepreneur. The simplicity of how he maximizes his time made such an impact on me that I’ve been sharing his tool and philosophy ever since.
A major key to his successful productivity is to “do more of what you love, less of what you tolerate, and none of what you hate.” (Disclaimer: this is not always 100% possible, but go with me on the bigger picture here.)
When we are faced with a task that we don’t enjoy, have difficulty doing, or is not worth the ROI we need, we procrastinate. We don’t spend our time wisely; we waste it. We’re not productive on the most important things and our overall results are always poor.
So how do we get more done? How do we get the most important things done? How do we ditch the things that aren’t WORTH our time and how do we enjoy the time we have? We get honest with ourselves and our time.
What if we were RADICALLY HONEST with ourselves and looked at today’s to-dos and forced ourselves to make three lists? Right now.
1. DO IT – What do I need to do TODAY?
2. DELEGATE IT – What is the job/task/project and who is going to do it?
3. DUMP IT – What is not WORTH the time and effort for me to do?
How quickly were you able to create focus, identify your immediate DO IT list, and add back all the time you’ve discovered by dumping non-essential meetings, tasks, and commitments?
Now look at the delegated items someone else CAN and COULD do; add back all the time you discovered there too.