Busy? Me too.
I’m in Florida this weekend, speaking at my home church, Christ Fellowship in Palm Beach, FL. Today it’s a leadership conference. Then I’m preaching at Christ Fellowship’s Gardens Campus on Saturday (6pm EDT) and Sunday (9 & 11 am EDT). Visit the church website for directions if you’ll be in south Florida. OR you can view those via live streaming video here.
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It seems that everyone’s busy these days. And life shows no sign of slowing down.
Here’s a harder question: Are your efforts effective?
Are they? Or do you sometimes feel like you’re spinning your wheels?
Now more than ever, we seem to have more work than time to do it. But time, according to Denis Waitley, “is an equal opportunity employer. Each human being has exactly the same number of hours and minutes every day.” So since we can’t increase the amount of time we have, we need to learn how to control our use of it. Here are some tips to help you grow in the area of time management.
Keep a detailed time log of your work. Break down every day for a week into 15-minute increments. Write in every single thing you do. This means what you actually spend time doing – not what you intended to do.
Identify your major time wasters and work to eliminate them. Everyone falls prey to certain time wasters, based on personality or work habits. Use your time log to discover yours. Then target and try to eliminate one each week.
Identify the activities you value. The greatest time management tool I ever learned came from the 19th century economist Vilfredo Pareto. The Pareto Principle (which I quote a LOT) states that if we devote our energy, time, and resources to the top 20% of our priorities, we’ll achieve 80% of the results we desire. Use your time log to clarify which activities are important to you. Then focus your schedule on the top 20%.
Use planning to gain time. Every minute spent in planning saves ten in execution. End each day with just five minutes spent planning and prioritizing for the next.
Create systems to simplify. Here’s a truth to live by: You can’t devote 80% of your time to your top priorities when you’ve just wasted 40% of your time trying to find your to-do list. I’ve created systems for nearly everything in my life. My best rule is to touch any piece of paper only once – then I either throw it away, act on it, or file it.
Become results-oriented. You already know that activity does not necessarily equal accomplishment. If your busyness is not yielding results, it’s time to adjust. Begin prioritizing, planning, and organizing. And use deadlines. They’ll point you toward results.
Heartsill Wilson said, “God has given me this day to use as I will. I can waste it – or use it for good, but what I do today is important, because I am exchanging a day of my life for it!”
When you open your eyes tomorrow morning, remind yourself that it holds incredible possibilities. You can allow that day to slip away from you, or you can use it to make things happen. The choice is yours.
Photo credit: mobjob
19 responses so far ↓
1 Holly // May 1, 2009 at 12:38 pm
Great Advice Dr. Maxwell! I am going to start logging my day because I always so I have too much to do with too little time to do it in. That will help me better prioritize and do only the things I can do and delegate the rest! Thanks a bunch!
Holly
2 Twitted by frobinson // May 1, 2009 at 12:46 pm
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3 Dace Dubrova-Serrano // May 1, 2009 at 12:53 pm
makes so much sense! i have a problem of putting me to do what i planned the night before. my biggest enemy is sleeping
i need to read motivating stuff almost daily to stay motivated. thank you so much!
4 Brandon // May 1, 2009 at 1:44 pm
When it comes to keeping a detailed time-log, a few ideas come to mind. I’ve done both of these and got value out of both.
1. Use twitter (and follow @johncmaxwell!). Tweet what you’ve been doing through the day and you can go back and see what you’ve been doing.
2. If you’d like charts and graphs of what you spend your time doing try creating an account at http://www.TSheets.com You can define a bunch of buckets to capture your time into, and easily switch between them through the day. Later you can run reports and see what you’ve been doing with your precious time.
Just my $0.02
John – It was great seeing you in Vegas last weekend! I’m enjoying your latest book but bummed that I didn’t get it signed
5 Chris // May 1, 2009 at 2:42 pm
I’ve lived the past 10 years by the “Touch-it-once” methodology that you refer to and I can’t tell you how much more productive I am. I also try to be as green as possible, so I’ve eliminated paper notebooks / pad and use a note taking application by Microsoft. Saves me incredible amounts of time.
6 Lisa Creasey // May 1, 2009 at 9:04 pm
I need to put the touch-it-once methodology to work in my daily life. I find myself putting things to the side thinking I’ll get to it later and before I know it, I just have a pile of papers,etc… that I haven’t gotten to. Making lists do help keep me on task, but sometimes get interrupted or side tracked. Thanks for the Great advice. Just got two of your books, Make Today Count and Put Your Dreaam To The Test. Can’t wait to get started on them and put them into effect in my life. Thank You for using your God Given insight to help others. : )
7 Lori // May 2, 2009 at 7:44 am
Great Seminar yesterday putting Your Dream to the test. I just sat down with my 11 year old son. He made his dream list and his rule of 5 on how to get there. Thanks to Dr. Maxwell I hope to raise a leader of character and faith! God Bless you, can’t wait to hear his teachings tonight at Christ Fellowship PBG! http://www.gochristfellowship.com
8 Michele // May 2, 2009 at 7:53 am
Great post! I am goping to come back and reread and do an analysis of all of this and put into action. But for right now I am just sooo excited to wake up and read that you will be in S FL tonight that I have to rearrange my day and plan! Sat night service is typically the time I set aside froms erving to worship at my own home church but knowing you will be an hour away, I’ll do that at one of other 5 services
Cant wait to hear you teach and absorb all I can. The only thing better than this would be if you could make a stop to my home/mega church Flamingo Road Church! Thanks for all you do
In Christ
9 Twitted by tpagirl // May 2, 2009 at 8:10 am
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10 How I Lost Thirty Pounds in Thirty Days // May 3, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Hi, good post. I have been wondering about this topic,so thanks for writing. I will certainly be subscribing to your posts.
11 Evan Money // May 4, 2009 at 2:59 pm
Thanks for such a quality blog John. Really enjoyed the live teleconference last week. As you talked about in your recent Maximum Impact CD regarding mentors; here is a great program for those who are looking.
12 Evan Money // May 4, 2009 at 3:02 pm
Thanks for a quality blog John. Enjoyed the teleconfrence last week.
13 Paul Gardner // May 4, 2009 at 3:29 pm
I’m heavily into productivity. Personally I use eProductivity on Lotus Notes to achieve a GTD like methodology.
Here’s the thing… I was trying for years to put GTD into effect but it never worked. Everything I tried was too complex and my systems and processes would fall over very quickly.
Now I realise just how right you are when you say Create Systems to Simplify.
If I could state the most important point of all time management principles, this would be it.
14 Guy Walker // May 5, 2009 at 9:44 am
Thanks. I’m going to try this for the rest of the week
15 Stephen Blandino // May 7, 2009 at 7:26 pm
Great thoughts! I’ve found that anytime I practice the time log, it always reveals areas I can tighten up. It’s definitely a worthwhile exercise. I’ve also found these six time management ingredients to be essential (Purpose, Values, Priorities, Roles, Planning, and Boundaries). Read more at http://bit.ly/hULKd
16 Ralph // May 16, 2009 at 9:18 pm
These are some really awesome, helpful tips! I think it’s really helpful to learn to become results orientated – it’s crazy how easy it is to continue doing the same thing (that isn’t producing results) and expecting different outcomes. It really is so important to keep track of what results one’s efforts are producing. I really enjoy your work – I just found “There’s no such thing as business ethics” (which I haven’t read yet) as an audio book on http://www.audiobooks.net which I’m really glad about as audio books save so much time!
17 Ron Edmondson // May 30, 2009 at 1:22 pm
I love these points and agree with them completely. I have tried #1 several times and I am always amazed at how I can waste valuable time.
I posted a couple of similar thoughts previously on my blog.
http://www.ronedmondson.com/2009/05/simple-time-managment-system.html
http://www.ronedmondson.com/2009/03/how-to-make-better-use-of-time.html
18 PETER OGBEBOR // Jun 9, 2009 at 3:38 am
Thanks alot John, i’ve read quit much on Time Management but this article makes me feel i haven’t. I’m going to set my priorities right to ensure maximun results.
19 Mani // Jul 11, 2009 at 9:32 am
John, thanks.
Now seeing the things in world that how we can make us more effective. Good post again.