How To Master Your Time Management To Achieve More In The Next 3 Months Than In The Last Year

If I asked you what year, month, day, and time you entered this world, I suspect you could tell me pretty much all of that information without really having to think about it.

From the moment we’re born, time becomes connected to our lives.

From the moment you wake ‌until you go to bed, we set life to a pattern of time. Life, education, and employment are all impacted.

People’s individual time patterns differ, but there’s one thing that remains the same for everybody…

Actual time!

The fact is – there are 12 months, 365 days, 52 weeks, 8,760 hours, 525,600 minutes, and 31,536,000 seconds in everybody’s year. (Except for a leap year, but we won’t go into that)!

Time IS precious.

It’s the ultimate commodity. So precious that you can’t buy more and, once lost, it is irreplaceable.

No amount of procrastination is going to bring you more hours in the day to get stuff done. You can’t manage time itself, but you can manage yourself better within the 4 dimensions of time in order to achieve more…

How To Become Your Own Time Lord

You don’t have to be Dr Who to identify and navigate dimensions of time…

Dimension Of Distraction

This is the time you spend doing unimportant and non-urgent tasks such as internet surfing, social media scrolling or aimlessly watching TV. Stuck in no-man’s-land, where nothing gets achieved or gained.

If you know you should work, but constantly find yourself distracted, you’re most likely experiencing some sort of negative emotion. Stress, anxiety, and boredom are the main causes of distraction in the workplace, which stop you from being able to concentrate on the task at hand, lose focus and achieve less.

Taking regular breaks will help reduce your stress levels and increase your productivity. They give your mind a chance to switch off, rest, and reset. Plus, you can use your break time to check your social feeds, rather than your work time!

Dimension Of Delusion

In the dimension of delusion, you do important but non-urgent things. You feel ‌you’re doing a lot but aren’t actually achieving what you set out to do. This is mostly because of the many non-time-sensitive interruptions you receive, such as an email from a colleague in July about potential Christmas venues, or your mum asking if you’re taking the kids over on the weekend. Both need a reply, but do they need it immediately?

Most interruptions can wait. By responding immediately, you’re not only using up time already allocated to something else, but you’re also making yourself available for more interruptions. If you give someone an inch, they will take a mile.

To help, decide about what and who you will reply to immediatelyand stick to it. Setting your boundaries in this way will help you and others know that your time is important.

Dimension Of Demand

This is the dimension of everything else, which is both urgent and important. Organising cover for a sick employee, managing an irate client or preparing for a meeting with your investors. Things that simply cannot wait and will incur consequences.

Being in demand triggers your fight-or-flight response, uses a lot of energy, and leaves you feeling exhausted, both mentally and physically. It will solely focus all of your thought processes on these events, which can disrupt your work and home life and cause huge amounts of stress.

To manage how you react and achieve more during these demanding times, plan to have processes in place to guide you and identify people to ‌delegate to.

Dimension Of Fulfilment

This is the sweet spot for how you should spend most of your time if you want to be really successful.In the dimension of fulfilment, you’re able to focus on doing the things you ENJOY doing. The things you’re really good at. The things that bring you joy. And achieving the important stuff with no urgency. You’ll experience a significant reduction in stress levels and marked increase in productivity, happiness, and fulfilment.

But how do you get there?…

Clarity Precedes Mastery

I talk and write a lot about clarity. This is because, without a crystal clear view of what you want to achieve, it’s difficult, tiring and frustrating to reach your ultimate goals.

Clarity allows you to plan your route to success.

Without clarity, you won’t have focus and will spend your time being inefficient and unproductive. Many people without clarity find themselves stuck in the dimensions of time-wasting, delusion, and demand.

By focusing your mind and having crystal clear clarity, you will identify your end goal or North Star. Allowing you to concentrate on your focus, highlight what’s important, and feel motivated to succeed.

Don’t Be The Bottleneck, Delegate!

There are some things only you, the business owner, can do. I get that. But there are many other things that your carefully selected, skilled, and capable employees could do on your behalf.

By avoiding delegating, you become a bottleneck to your own business. The person who is ultimately holding things up because you just don’t have the time to get it all done.

It’s OK to delegate.

One of the most successful entrepreneurs in history, Sir Richard Branson, identified early on that delegation is crucial to success and highlighted the importance of finding people within your company who will do a great job on your behalf.

“It’s vital to the success of your business that you learn to hand off those things that you aren’t able to do well.”

By delegating, you’ll have more time to spend to focus on the bigger picture and achieve the things you need to do to make your business really stand out.

Now Is The Time To Act

Time waits for no one and there’s no better time to achieve more than now.

Do – Start by being clear about things. When you look at your to-do list, be sure that you know the ‌outcome of each task and how to achieve it. Use a Must Do List to plan which tasks need to be prioritised in order to meet deadlines, and which can wait.

Delegate – Identify the tasks that you need to do and delegate those that others can do competently.

Delete – If you come across a task that has no obvious value, delete it.

P.S. If you haven’t already I would encourage you to take my quiz to discover what type of business owner you are, knowing this can help take you from where you are now to becoming more successful personally, professionally and financially – quickly, efficiently and effectively.