The Value of being a TIME management Fanatic!
Ok, I admit it. I am a TIME MANAGEMENT fanatic!
This is the one key skill that I’ve learned over the years that has had the greatest value to my success in life, in business and as a successful business coach. It is a skill that is a learned skill and one that anyone can learn and master. It is a skill that will impact a mother as much as a CEO. And it is an essential skill set for anyone that wants to excel at entrepreneurship. And, by the way, the lack of this skill set is also one of the essential key factors for failure in business and sales.
It’s interesting, as a working Business Coach, I coach all types of people, in all types of businesses, every day, every week from all over the world. The only consistent issue that I deal with is time management concerns. I see this as one of the, if not THE biggest challenge for everyone that I work with regardless of age; experience; income levels; education or title. It is an issue that for some reason people, knowing that they have the issue, will do nothing about. Mastering your time can mean the difference in doubling your income or more! It will change your life. But why, in our grade schools, high schools and colleges and their advanced graduate programs is the subject of time management not taught? It baffles me. But that’s also true for goal setting and sales…but I won’t preach about that today!
I call it a skill set because what most people don’t understand is that management of your time requires a number of skills. One of those key elements is learning a system to PRIORITIZE all of the tasks that a person needs to do, and then once prioritized, understand how to manage those issues and tasks. There are some fabulously simple systems that anyone can easily implementThey’re easy to learn but immensely difficult to commit to! And that’s the key! Planning and managing your time is something that you have to do every minute of every day, without fail! It’s a commitment to yourself that if done will have an immediate payback.
Here is just one example of the power of Time Management. Brian Tracy, the internationally acclaimed business development expert and author considers time management as the central skill of success. He says, “Your ability to manage your time, to focus and channel your energies on your highest value tasks, will determine your rewards and your level of accomplishment in life more than any other factor!”
Mr. Tracy offers a powerful example of the value and opportunity of using time wisely. He says,” You must be continually working to increase the quality of your thinking. One of the best ways is to turn driving time into learning time. Listen to educational CDs in your car. The average drive, according to the American Automobile Association, drives 12,000 to 25,000 miles each year, spending 500 to 1000 hours that in your car each year. That is the equivalent of 12 ½ to 25 forty-hour weeks. This is the same as two full university semesters spend behind the wheel of your car each year!” Powerful!
We’ll be talking about other examples and strategies on managing and prioritizing time in future blogs, but for now just challenge yourself. It’s just too darn easy to tell everyone how bad of a time manager you are and how scattered you are and laugh it off. Each one of those chuckles is worth a whole bunch of money in lost opportunity. It’s worth your time to learn how to manage it.
Of course if you need some help, give me a call! As always….
BE GREAT!
Coach Dan