“I wish I had the time!” or “I don’t have time!”
Whenever people talk about making opportunities happen – for themselves or their community – those are often the responses I hear.
If you want the real truth: there is always time.
Several years ago, I conducted a survey amongst entrepreneurs, and asked them what they struggle with most. The answer was: ‘Time’.
I started to explore how to save people time, and discovered many ways to become far more effective. I have written dozens of blog posts on some of these approaches, and through this, I have become far more effective with my time than I used to be.
What astounded me is how many ways there are to make the best use of time, and how little we are taught about this, growing up. What if every child was taught how to leverage their time? Surely, given that most people say that time is their biggest problem in life, it might not be the craziest suggestion to teach effective time-usage in schools, instead of the many unnecessary things kids are taught today?
Look at someone like Elon Musk, planning to colonise Mars in just over a decade, and reinventing both the transport and energy industries. He has the same 24 hours in a day that we have. He is made of the same flesh and blood that we are. So, you have to conclude that he just might have found better ways to leverage his time than we have.
In 50 years time, I am sure there will be people in the world who will make his workload look pretty average. New ways are being developed to use time more and more effective every day.
The point is that we can all learn to use time far more effectively than we do now. Saying “I don’t have time” is a throwaway comment masking your true potential to leverage your time-efficiency.
In future, even if you are short on time, at least give a response that challenges you to change your approach to using time. Try saying: “I don’t want to make time for that” or “I am not using my time effectively enough for me to do that.” They are probably far more accurate responses than just saying “I don’t have time.”
It might bug you enough to do something, like turn off the TV and do what you really want to do in this world.
- What is the best time-saving technique you have come across?
- How have you become more effective with your time?
I would love to hear your thoughts and ideas on this, in the comments section below.
Marc
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Marc,
Simple but so true! I am very guilty of procrastinating but have learned to manage my time more effectively by adopting a routine – forming a habit. I do this on an annual, monthly, weekly and daily basis but the most important part (for me) is the daily review/morning ritual.
Every evening, I write in my journal. I review my day and decide on the three things that I want to achieve tomorrow. Then I schedule them.
In the morning, I rise early and enter my morning ritual (and that’s not a euphemism!). 20 mins of exercise, 20 mins of meditation/reflection and then 20 mins of learning. I then prepare for the day ahead and then complete the first task on my schedule.
It works for me 🙂
Cheers,
Lee
So true Marc. How many seminars/webinars/books etc have I absorbed re time management and whilst I’m better than I was, there’s still huge room for improvement.
The best piece of advice I ever heard, and I can’t remember where from, was the following answer:
“I haven’t made the time”
I also use the following phrase ” I haven’t chosen to focus my energy on that”
In fact, I prefer to call it energy, rather than time, management, since that is really what it’s about.
Now feeling a tad guilty about being distracted by this email when I should be making sales calls … ahem.
Cheers, Caroline
I use a to-do list.
Task 1. At the end of each day i go through what i have completed for the day and what is outstanding.
Rask 2. What is outstanding gets added to tomorrows to-do list and prioritised.
Task 3 . As more work comes in through the day, they get added and prioritised on the daily list.
Task 4. Go back to task 1 at end of each day.
Simple and effective.
If you are unable to prioroitse a work item, you are probably not qualified to do the work and should delegate.
Marc,
We’ve talked ’bout this one before… From my perspective, there isn’t ONE time saving tactic, there are FOUR areas that need to be optimized:
Time (sure the obvious one)
Energy (physical AND mental)
Focus (it is what f*%$ our time management attempts…)
Ecosystem (the environment, the tools, the gear…the people)
In high school, way back when, I needed to remember to turn the dial and settle in on 3 numbers to open my combination lock: 37 – 13 – 21
Unfortunately, managing time isn’t so simple. It’s like playing 4 games of 3-dimensional chess at one time (if you watch star trek, you got that…).
“What astounded me is how many ways there are to make the best use of time, and how little we are taught about this, growing up.”
Yet another way traditional schooling is lacking.
Time is something that tends to be given when that person actually gives a damn.
That person might have gone through some sort of loss or some kind of heart felt event that you may say has encouraged them to support the cause.
People are naturally evasive or lazy if there is no personal benefit, be it physical or emotional. You can’t blame them because we are all the same.
I personally do my best as a business owner to give the public the best possible service my encouraged team can offer and by night I teach mix adults Martial Arts to help them become stronger, more confident versions of themselves. Any other second of the day my heart is given to my little family so as to offer them the best life possible.
To chase something else, to be honest, I don’t care about it because someone else does.
The only way that you’ll get someone to support any cause is if they’ve been involved somehow or have a second to care about something random. The latter is rare.
The only reason I care about helping other adults to become stronger and more aware is because martial arts helped me become the person I am today and I want to offer them the same strength I feel.
That is my emotional to physical support that I offer and that I have time for.
Just start saying “No” !! This is probably one of the heardest words to say, but it needs to be said, I will tell you why later.
We do have plenty of time on our Hands, we have simply conditioned ourselves into thinking we don’t.
I’m from the UK but live and work in California now, I’ve been in manufacturing all my life, I’ve seen many changes, the biggest and most damaging was the recent Recession created by the Banks, remember that? Of course you do, and if you work in Manufacturing like I do, you’re still paying the price every Day.
Companies used the economic climate as an excuse to lay off as many as possible, and they did, now in my Field we have one person doing three or four jobs, quite ineffectively as you can imagine. So now we think there is even LESS time !!
Admittedly,I used to Say “I don’t have enough time” !! Until one fateful Day I realized I had time to Lay in an ICU (Intensive care unit) for a week plus lay around in a Hospital Bed for 7 weeks and I also had time to take 6 months off work and spend 2 hours a Day, 3 Days a week for 8 months in Physical Therapy. That fateful Day was the one I had a horrific Cycling crash.
But guess what, my company was still thriving when I got back.
I learned a lot from this experience, I knew it would make me a better person when I came through it all.
One of the things I learned, and would like to pass on, is that amongst other things I suffered a Brain Injury, I lost my concentration and short-term memory, one of my Clinical Pschologists told me that the number one aspect of my life that could prevent a full recovery was STRESS!! This meant I had way more of an incentive to work around stress than the average Person. My future Life was at stake, and so was my Families’.
———————————————————————————————-
Before I go on, let me take a moment to remember all the projects that died in the last year.
Thank You.
Lots of them died, nobody misses them, life goes on and we are still on track for record sales and profits.
Glad I didn’t worry about them now. “Phew” !!
__________________________________________________________________
Oh yes, back to saying “No”, I remembered, see? I have my memory back.
So here’s what I tell my Team of very highly (and hard to find) Professionals:
1. Never reply to an email the first time, unless it’s from Me or another Member of our Team. Wait for the second reminder, if it’s that important you will recieve a second reminder, if not, it doesn’t matter to the sender. You don’t have to waste any time on it.
2. If you want to alert someone outside of our Team about an impending issue there’s a 3 stage process:
– Tell them
-Remind them
-Forget it
And always keep a copy in your “sent” Box.
3. There is no such thing as multi tasking, it’s impossible, your Brain doesn’t work like that, don’t even try. If someone wants 4 things at once tell them you need a priority, if they can’t then do the easiest and fastest thing first. They can’t come back and complain !!
4. YOU decide where your time goes. You either spend it moving forward, or you can spend it putting out fires. If you don’t decide, others will decide for you !!
5. Push back and say “No”. Remember, life is a zero sum Game. If someone persuedes you to do something, they are SAVING time, you will be SPENDING it !! If you say “No” you’ve saved even more time.
There are more, and believe me, they all become a habit. You can’t MAKE more time, but you can SAVE it.
Yes, we’re still ultra busy, I don’t say no because I’m lazy, I say it because it helps us stay focused on what is important to the Business.
And as I always say “Always find the funny side” One thing you MUST find time for is a good laugh.
By the way Marc, I love your work here !! Thank You for taking the time Mate!!
Nowadays, I limit my time on social media. Social media’s great but if you don’t watch out it can also be a great time suck.