Since I teach a course on waking up early, I get a lot of email about how to do it (and more specifically, how to make waking up early easier instead of a freaking ordeal). Most of …
The "Time Management Riffs" Chronicles
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If you’ve ever felt that there weren’t enough hours in the day, I’m with you. When I started my business it was the same way. Late nights and the constant, relentless grind were wearing me down. But as I studied people who were really building big businesses without burning themselves out in a blaze of glory, I saw a pattern for their success: they woke up early, and (as the saying goes) got more done by 9am than most people did all day.
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This is the third post in Dave’s December Challenge series – if you haven’t heard about it yet, read the intro.
(Yes, I know there’s been a lag in posts as I’ve been promoting my newsletter and new time management system. But for now, back to the show.)
You put unnecessary stress on yourself every time you tolerate the idea that there’s “not enough time” to do some of the things you want to, and instead they’ll have to wait until some point in the future “when you get some spare time.” This is loser thinking (and no, I’m not calling you a loser – it’s just you’ll lose out on so much good stuff in your life if you tolerate this kind of thing). You’ve got to crush the idea that progress has to wait under your heel until it’s powder.
Here’s why:
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This is the second post in Dave’s December Challenge series – if you haven’t heard about it yet, read the intro here.
In lesson 1, you learned that simply …
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If you’re subscribed to my newsletter you’ve probably heard about this already, but I’m throwing a challenge out there to all of my readers: Take a stand in December and wipe out any traces of the “victim mentality” you have about time. Have you …
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Sure, I know you’re busy. Of course, I totally understand that your day is always jam-packed full of critically urgent – I mean, important – stuff that you just have to do. Same here. Same with all of us, in fact. And if only there were …
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Keep the questions coming. I received a response to yesterday’s post asking a good question: “I want to score a quick win, but how do I manage that when I don’t have the time?” Lucky for you, Jon, I’ve …
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As the year winds down to a close, I want to ask you to reflect on a question that will make you squirm, but like all good medicine, will help you and your business out.
Here’s why: Whatever you don’t have in life is the result of the story you …
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When people decide to “get better at time management,” one of the first things they do is buy themselves one or more expensive, high-tech items to make the job easier. Maybe it’s a Palm device or a Blackberry. Maybe it’s a smartphone or a swanky, leather-bound planner. Or maybe it’s some piece of incredible software that promised to manage it all for you.
It doesn’t matter what it is. What does matter is that a lot of these high-tech solutions aren’t going to work. Not because the solution itself doesn’t work, but because if you haven’t established the underlying habit you’ll need to make use of it, you’re hosed! And that habit, specifically, is the discipline of using that tool daily. You’ve probably experienced this already if you’ve got a time management tool you bought but never used. Or some books you’ve bought but never read. Or a gym membership you haven’t used.
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Do you know what it means to get serious about managing your time? I ask this because one of the most challenging stumbling blocks I see people having with time management is simply that they don’t decide up front that they are going to handle the creation of a personal time management system as a serious project. They try to make it an “add-on” or something they work on “when they get a chance.”
Unfortunately, building a skill doesn’t work that way. While it’s true that there are a number of easy things you can do to get an immediate edge over your busy workload, these things still have to be applied consistently and with focus. They can’t merely be something that’s “nice to do” – instead, they have to be something you will do.
