It’s Not Time You Need to Manage

How many times do you say ‘I need to manage my time better?’ or ‘If only I had more time?’ or ‘Time just seems to disappear?’

If it’s quite often then you’re not alone – the vast majority of the clients I work with and the women I come across every single day say time is their biggest issue – not being able to manage it, not enough of it, or just not using it wisely.

So what’s the solution? Well the first thing to note is that Time cannot be managed – there is a finite amount of time available and it’s the same for everyone. You cannot manufacture more time or save it up for future use. It’s about self-management not time management, so the way you’re thinking about it is flawed. And that’s just for starters!

The way you think about it affects the way you talk about it and the way you feel about it. And all of this affects how you behave – the actions you take or don’t take!
Being unproductive is a symptom, an effect, not the cause of the problem. And trying to tackle a symptom is like putting a sticking plaster over a break - it’s just never going to work.

To do something about this once and for all you need to get clear. Get clear on

• What you truly want
• The real issue i.e. what’s stopping you from achieving this
• The effect this is having on you and your business
• The structures, strategies and techniques that will help you focus on doing what you want and feeling better in the process

So how do you do this?

Well a very good place to start would be at my Step into Success in Business Event, because the focus of this event is to get you clear on your business strategy, then focused on the actions you can take to achieve the results you want, then how to recognise and overcome the things that will take you away from your business goals.

Even the cat in Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland, knows this starts with getting clear.

Alice: “Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?”
Cat: “That depends a good deal on where you want to get to.”
Alice: “I don’t much care where …”
Cat: “Then it doesn’t matter which way you go.”

And I could add or how much time it takes!

So if you’re ready to get started right now to discover the patterns in the way you’re working, ask yourself:

• How aware am I of where I want to get to?
• How do I decide what to focus on?
• How do I structure my days?
• What distracts me from the task in hand?
• What interruptions do I put up with?
• How often do I feel like I’ve accomplished something important that’s moved me towards my goals?

And if you recognise you’re going about your work in the same way as Alice went about her journey, then take notice of the cat and start at the beginning. Get clear, pay attention to what you’re actually doing and help yourself to use your time more productively.