Time management is not just a buzzword that you can throw around but never dig into. It’s also not something you try on for a week or two and become instantly successful at. If you want to truly accelerate your workday efforts and get more done in less time, it will require discipline and humility.
The rewards though? They are well worth the sacrifice. In addition to having more mental and physical bandwidth for the people and projects in your life that you truly care about, improving your time management gives you mental space for a renewed passion for your business and increased patience and resilience for the difficult things your workday throws your way.
While there are many different principles that you can focus on that will help move you closer to a more productive schedule, these four time management principles are guaranteed to help accelerate your results and boost your productivity. The catch is that they all require intentionality.
These principles will not work unless you do, which is both liberating and limiting. However, if you are ready to find freedom and move beyond being a slave to your business and your to-do list, then roll up your sleeves and get ready to dive in.
- Remove Distractions – Even the Good Ones
Perhaps one of the greatest workplace myths is the one that says we can multitask well. We may be multitasking, but the ball is always getting dropped somewhere. Our brains are only hardwired to be able to handle one thing at one time. We are fooled into thinking we are doing multiple things at once, but really our brains are just swapping back and forth at tremendous speeds.
Adding more to the already spinning plate just makes it more difficult to gracefully switch to something different when the time comes. Not only that, but it actually takes longer to complete tasks this way. When was the last time you found enjoyment and success while trying to simultaneously eat a waffle and go for a jog? The answer is never – you would never try to overlap those two tasks because of the sheer impracticality of it all. Multitasking in business may appear to be more practical, but don’t be fooled. Dialing in your focus on one thing at a time whenever possible is a truly simple way to see amazing time management and productivity results.
- Track Your Time and Then Honestly Evaluate How You Spent It
In order to truly accelerate your time management efforts, you need to have a solid understanding of where you’re missing the mark. The only way to do this is to be able to honestly evaluate the time you spend each day. This is where time and task tracking comes into play. You could keep a bullet list on a notepad of everything you do and how long you spend doing it, or you could jot down voice notes on your iPhone. Or you can download my complimentary Time Log Sample and help you be even more time efficient, so you are in a higher probability position to achieve your goals, go to: https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/time-log/. Simple instructions come with the sample document to help you know how to complete the time log.
How you chart everything you do is irrelevant – just do what is the easiest for you to do consistently. The important thing here is to write down everything. Including the time spent on social media during your commute, or the time you spent checking emails while on the sidelines of a child’s game. Don’t leave out things you are not proud of having spent time on. This process is meant to illuminate areas of your day where time is being wasted instead of intentionally spent, and then finding ways to redeem that lost time moving forward.
- Find Accountability Partners
One of the biggest enemies of progress is our own subconscious self. We are excellent self-saboteurs and are able to talk ourselves out of or into things that we would never allow for someone else. The best way to silence your inner critic and set yourself up for long-term time management success is to allow a few people into your life as accountability partners.
High-powered execs, small business owners, and even individuals alike are flocking to accountability coaches in droves, and one of the main reasons for this is the ability of an outside figure to help you break through mental barriers. They see your life from a different perspective, and are able to challenge you in ways you could never challenge yourself.
To review 4 different types of accountability coaching options and decide which one might be of the most value to you, so you can achieve your goals and enjoy the kind of business and life you truly want, go to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/coaching/. If you have more questions, you can always reach out to schedule a complimentary consultation with me. I’m here to help you in any way that I can.
- Don’t Confuse Busy Work with Truly Important, Dial-Moving Work.
We’ve all been there: caught up being busy only to get to the end of the day and feel the crushing guilt that comes with not having accomplished anything of real value. Whether it is office chit-chat or a meeting that goes on way too long, there are pockets of time in every one of our days that are no doubt spent being busy instead of actually being productive.
How can we avoid this? The first step is to honestly evaluate where your greatest value and benefit lies. What can you do that someone else cannot? Once you start identifying the areas in your business where your skills truly shine, you can begin to move away from those areas that don’t require your best self to show up. At the end of the day, we all want the work we do to be meaningful and important. We want to go home feeling like what we did mattered and moved the needle forward. Do what only you can do and delegate everything else, even if you don’t mind doing it.
Download my Free Delegation List Sample to help you identify more activities to delegate, by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/delegation-list-sample/. Delegation helps give you more capacity and bandwidth to do what you need to do that nobody else can do.
Remember: Progress Equals Freedom
One of the thought leaders in time management and habit formation, Brendon Burchard, says, “Everybody hates talking about time management…there’s no such thing as true work-life balance. But if you’re not making progress in your life, you’re not happy. And worse, without time management you’ll never find freedom. You want more freedom and free time? Then get more focused and productive in managing the things you have to.”
Please take the time to apply these four concepts into your life from this day forward. You will be glad you did.
_______
Do you feel like your business has plateaued or you are sick and tired of being sick and tired? Could it use a shot in the arm to make even more progress on your goals? Consider working with The Accountability Coach. I’m here to help you accelerate your results, so you can enjoy your ideal business and ideal life! Reach out today for your complimentary consultation.
Want timely and relevant information to help you make more money and work less, so you can enjoy your ideal business and ideal life? Subscribe to my business success tips blog by going to https://www.accountabilitycoach.com/blog/. Feel free to share this with others who you think would get value. Let me know how else I can be of assistance to you on your goal achievement journey.