Time Management and Self Honesty | Hartley People Blog

If you open your web browser and key in the search term ?time management?, you?re likely to find a host of time management aids that includes activity logs, daily and weekly planners, and Urgent/Important matrices. These tools are valuable, and will enable you to get a good, strong fix on just what it is that you?re doing with your time, and how you might use your time better. Unfortunately, while these tools can yield some improvement in how you use your time, experience shows that they rarely solve the underlying problems related to poor time management.

??? Why is that? If the truth be told, people who are really interested in improving their management of time will already have downloaded these aids to improved performance. As any experienced insurance broker will tell you, the clients who carefully and proactively plan their insurance cover are the ones who are least likely to need it. Very often, the real question to be answered regarding time management challenges is not ?How do I?.?? but ?Why do I?.?? Let me explain.

??? The participants I encounter on Time Management training courses are grown-up, mature, intelligent adults who understand the importance of the doing things at the right time. For example, when I ask them the question ?When was the last time you missed a holiday flight due to poor time management?? the response is invariably ?Never!? Showing such people how to manage their time is a waste of time. They have no problem in prioritising and completing the tasks that really matter to them. For such people, the question that needs answering is not ?How do I manage and organise my tasks?? The most important question is ?Why do I keep putting off completing certain tasks?? So, when you look at the tasks that tend to get pushed out for days and weeks on end, you really need to be honest with yourself. Here are a number of possible reasons why that task keeps getting carried forward on your To Do list or in your diary:

• You simply HATE doing it
• You don?t feel that you?ll make a good job of it
• You want to make TOO good a job of it, and can never find the time it deserves to be given
• You promised yourself that you?d get it done by a certain time and date, but that deadline keeps slipping

?In short, the problem, very often, is not the amount of time we have, but our attitude towards the task.

??? There?s a simple antidote to all four of the above: DO IT!! Stop agonising and procrastinating! You?re really kidding yourself if you believe that you?re making your day any easier by putting off these tasks. You can easily shift them from today?s list of actions to next weeks To Do list, but they?re still ticking away in the back of your mind, causing untold stress on an unconscious level. Here are some guidelines that might help you change your time management behaviour, and transform your day in the process:

?

• Make a list of the tasks you tend to delay completing
• Don?t spend too much time analysing why
• Set a deadline for completion of each task
• Remind yourself that the promises you make to yourself are the most important ones to keep
• The next time somebody or something threatens to get in the way of your promises to yourself, remind yourself that

?

?Time is the coin of your life. It is the only coin you have, and only you can determine how it will be spent. Be careful lest you let other people spend it for you?.??? Carl Sandberg

Nicky O?Brien is Director of Outplacement and Business Training?with Hartley People

?

Source: http://blog.hartleypeople.com/time-management-and-self-honesty/

the duchess spice mike starr ufc 141 fight card gli joseph gordon levitt katy perry russell brand