Time Management Tips for those who have no Time (Part I)

Ever wonder where all the time goes?  How some days it seems like someone is dialing the clock ahead as a cruel joke, and then other days it feels like someone forgot to wind the clock because the minute hand just does not move. Time is probably our most precious, strangest, and most misunderstood commodity.  Even the minutes out of your day that you take to read this blog, whether you are thinking about it or not, are being spent, and you will never have them again, so I plan on making it worth your investment.  My simple goal is to start having you think differently about Time, and become an Investor of Time, rather than a Victim of Time.

Now I am sure, if you are at all like me, you have found yourself at work (especially before a weekend, or the start of your vacation) where the day  is dragging and you just wished it was over.  But more often than not, there are days where you wish you could accomplish more, but seems there just aren’t enough minutes in the days, so you sacrifice and compromise to “settle” for what you may accomplish.  In either case, time is being imposed on you, and you are a Victim of Time, as it has a certain control over you, and more importantly, it is controlling your mindset.  The good news is, you are not alone, as 99.9% of the people around you live in the same mindset, that we are helpless to time, and it is beyond our control.  The bad news, is that day after day, those seconds, minutes, hours slip away, gone forever, and to a large degree, all we did was just get older.  Sounds depressing, right? It would be, if there was no alternative.

The irony of this post, about time management, is the “timing”.  Seeing as I have not posted in several days, because I convinced myself I was busy, or had other more important things to do, it is now past midnite, I have less than 5 hours to sleep before I have to get up for work, my Victim mind is telling me “it can wait until tomorrow”.  The truth is it can, but I choose to Invest this time tonite, so I can have time tomorrow to blog on another topic.  As I battled through the day to manage my time, the one thing I wanted to commit to was publishing this post, not only to support my point, but to erase that feeling of hypocrisy I had been feeling that I had chose to complete other tasks before this one.

Time is alot like money –  it can be invested or spent, and if you don’t invest it or spend it, someone with gladly spend it for you. We have to become the custodians of our time, and we have to change the way we think about it.  If you have a Victim mindset, time is running your life, and there is nothing you can do about it.  If you have an Investor mindset, time is abundant, the things you can accomplish are many, and you can find ways to increase the amount of time you have.  Let’s become Investors of Time, and take control and responsibility of the hours in our days.  If you agree with the analogy that Time is like Money, then with the same logic of investing your money wisely, saving money, and not overspending, you can keep much of the same logic and apply it to your time.  Just as you have financial goals and aspirations, you should have time goals; now these time goals, instead of new cars and houses, will be more in line of finding time to exercise every day, have a date night with the spouse, or block a couple hours for a favorite hobby. The fact is, once you start thinking of time as something you control, and you own, then you will start to invest and spend accordingly.  Just as you don’t hand your wallet and paycheck over to you boss, should you freely be giving all of your time to them?  A question that I never really asked myself before I started thinking about writing this post, however the philosophical question of “Is this the best Investment of my Time?” is giving me a different perspective of my day at work tomorrow. Not to say I am suggesting anyone quits their jobs, as more time and no money is not the answer, however I do want you to start thinking about Investing your Time.

Strangely enough, I have to thank Dr Oz and Chris Powell for the inspiration for this post, and it has everything to do with exercise, not time management.  Now, you may be able to relate to where I was a couple weeks ago, already broken my New Year’s resolution to get to the gym more, getting older and less fit, finding time pressures making it hard to get a work-out in, and feeling guilty about it.  That’s when I saw a YouTube video about Dr Oz’s 9 Minute workout, and it was like a light bulb went off in my head.  Designed by Chris Powell (host of ABC TV’s Extreme Weightloss), with no equipment, it was 4 exercises, 9 minutes a day, and I figured “I will just get up 10 minutes early”.  I didn’t believe I had enough time to exercise with my “traditional workouts” so I was hoping this was a solution that would work.  And honestly, the first few days were not pretty, so make sure you consult your Doctor before attempting any exercise program. It was not as easy at it looked, but 9 minutes later I was done, sweaty, and feeling better about myself, and I no longer had to try squeeze in a workout during the day.  The crazy thing was as the next couple weeks unfolded, I got a bit stronger, the workout got easier, and the pounds started to come off.  I did not try to find 2 hours a day, I found less than 10 minutes, consistently, and it produced results.  And it made me realize that if I control the small portions of time, I can create the results I wanted out of my day, with actually having more time left over.  I Invested time to achieve a goal of exercise, rather than being a Victim who thought there wasn’t enough time and compromised my goal, and ultimately my health.

This change in perspective about time has helped my in my personal life, my work life, and my business.  I wanted to expand my “Tips” within this post, but I decided to break it into separate posts so as to not dilute the message.  The first and most important step in time management is managing your mind.  Become an Investor of Time, and you will have an abundance of time in your future to accomplish those things you truly want.

I do hope you found value in the time you spent reading, and I do hope that it made you think.  If you found value, please share this post, and if you have any questions of comments, or if there is anything I can do to help you achieve your goals, please either comment below, or email me at hisemm@yahoo.com

Mike Hisem