Time Management

by Craig Vom Lehn

Time Management is a skill that all successful people learn. Lacking this very important skill can be suicide for your business. Make it your priority to learn time management skills. This can make or break you.

Time management is vital. Now that we know that, where do we start? There's not a whole lot of schools around that teach this skill. I suggest taking an honest look at your life and what an average day looks like for you. Do you waste time on unproductive activities? Do you sleep away your spare time? Do you allow bad habits to distract you from what you need to be doing? If so, it's time to take control of your life.

First of all, stop wasting your time. If you want to manage your time better so that you can do other things, stop throwing time away. If you can save a half hour per day, which you should be able to, that's over 180 hours per year! That translates into over a month of 40-hour work weeks. What could you do if you took a month off of work and used that time for something else? What would you accomplish?

This worked for me. I decided to get up an hour earlier each day. I already got 8 hours of sleep per night. I believe that I could function well on 6 or 7, so I decided to cut back to 7 hours of sleep per night. I don't feel exhausted at all. In fact, I wake up energized and ready to do something. An hour per day saves me over 2 months of 40-hour work weeks! It's amazing how much you can get done with an extra hour per day. Go live life, don't sleep it away.

Reorganize your schedule. Cut out the activities that don't add value to your life. I'm not saying to eliminate your social life. I'm not saying to ignore your family. Those things add value to your life. I'm saying that if you sit down and watch 3 hours of t.v. per night (which the average American does), then you are wasting your time. Why not go for a jog with your spouse? Why not take the kids out to the park? Why not do that thing that you've been wanting to do for so many years?

Go hi-tech. Use a computer. Get a palm pilot. Write down your goals and your tasks. I find that keeping lists is the best way to manage my time. With the plethora of electronic resources available to us in today's world, it's even easier. Delete tasks that are completed. Add new ones in seconds. Sync your PDA to your computer. Keeping lists helps us to take a quick glance to see what we need to do and track our progress.

In short, you only need to make a few minor adjustments to your life to take control of it. Those minor adjustments are not easy, though. The difference between successful people and unsuccessful people in life is that successful people will make those minor adjustments to their lives. They understand that a little bit of pain or delayed gratification pays dividends in the long run. So, what are you waiting for? Take control of your life today!