Never Enough Time?

Let’s dive a little deeper in to this area of time management.

Recently one of my business partners, and good friend, asked me a a question I hear a lot.  So I decided to offer an out of the box way of addressing the issue.

If I were to summarize this particular question it would be “I want to (need to) do so many things. How do I do them all?”.

That’s a great question, and as usual, it needs to be looked at from a slightly different angle.

First of all, let me give you one of my core beliefs…

I believe that as humans we all basically do EXACTLY what we want to do – ALL THE TIME!

Think about it, how many of you have a some type of “instrument able to inflict bodily harm” pointed at you 24/7, MAKING you do stuff? – Yeah, that’s what I thought, not too many of you! (haha).

The point is, you may think you HAVE TO do something with your family, or that you HAVE TO bring work home, or that you HAVE TO work on, or around, the house. But let’s face it, nobody is MAKING  you do any of those things. You CHOOSE to do each and every one.

So, the $64,000 question then becomes WHY did you (do you) make the choices that you make?

When you can figure this out, three things happen, and all are really cool – (1) you begin to understand what’s driving you, (2) you know what you need to know in order to accept that you are actually doing what you want to do, and (3) you can decide (choose) to do something else. This understanding is super powerful and it’s all 100% in your control!

The core answer to the “time” question is understanding what you want.

Because, as a naturally incredible Human Being, if you can figure out what you want, feel good about why you want it, and decide that you will be, do, or have it, then absolutely nothing can stop you!

So, if your “Want List” looks something like this (and most of ours do):

• Building my business
• Writing
• Family events and duties
• Work (or job)
• More sleep
• Workout
• Social media
• Marketing
• Volunteer work

The first step is to prioritize these according to your strongest desire.

And remember, and this is KEY, nothing on your list is a HAVE TO.

Even if you might think something like your job is a HAVE TO. It’s not!

Articulate for yourself the reasons why to CHOOSE TO have a job. When you think about it this way I’ll bet you’ll realize there are some pretty good reasons why you WANT a job!

This reasoning and thought process is the same for every item on your list.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again…

Time is all about how you think about it.

If you think to don’t have enough, you won’t.

If, on the other hand, you begin to understand that you will do EXACTLY what you want to do, and you begin to understand why you want to do it, and the level at which you desire the outcome, you will realize that it’s all EXACTLY what you want.

At that point “time” is on your side! And it’s a beautiful thing!

Here’s a suggested thought sequence:

• List all that you want to be, do, or have, and all that you “think” you must do
• Prioritize the list in order of Desired Outcome (NOT how much you desire to “do” it, but how much you desire the outcome you’ll get from doing it – This Is Super Important)
• Determine why you want to be, do or have each (there are no wrong answers, only YOUR answers)
• Figure out when you will do (or make progress) on item #1. Then do the same for all the other items on your list (in order)
• To the greatest degree possible, only focus on one thing at a time
• DO NOT look at your list as “one single thing” (i.e. Your List) which remains undone.” Instead only focus on one item at a time and tell yourself you are working a particular Desired Outcome

Finally, celebrate all your progress, always think primarily of your desired outcome(s), and remind yourself that you are doing EXACTLY want you want to do in the present moment.

Truly, nothing else matters.

Employ and Enjoy!