Putting it all together
Energy, activity and time management is about self management. You can never manage time you can only manage how you use the available time. Try to move away from the habit of focusing on what I like to refer to as creating the false feeling of “Busyness”
One of the major causes of us feeling like we have really given our all, but we still feel like we got nothing done that day. Stop focusing on doing the unnecessary tasks that make you feel good, but do not contribute in any meaningful way to your success. You must create a clear picture about creating balance in your life; you must set time limits each day for work and play.
We must also find time in our day for creating silence and complete relaxation, through meditation. This will help you increase your focus, improve your energy levels, multiply your ability to plan and make you far more effective each day.
What is the value of Time?
The origin of the letter below is unknown, but its wisdom is really profound and is the perfect interlude to creating an appreciation for the planning process we wish to introduce to you today.
- To realize the value of one year – Ask a student who has failed a final exam.
- To realize the value of nine months – ask a mother who gave birth to a stillborn child.
- To realize the value of one month – ask a mother who has given birth to a premature baby.
- To realize the value of one week – ask an editor of a weekly magazine.
- To realize the value of one hour – ask two lovers that are waiting to meet.
- To realize the value of one minute – ask a person who has missed a train, bus or airplane.
- To realize the value of one second – ask a person who has survived an injury.
- To realize the value of one millisecond – ask a person who has won a gold medal in the Olympics.
- To realize the value of a loved one – have them leave.
Time waits for no one – Treasure every moment you have.
All the wisdom I have gained, the most important is the knowledge that time and health are two precious assets that we rarely recognize or appreciate until they have been depleted. As with health, time is the raw material of life. You can use it wisely, waste it or even kill it.
Doing the right thing is effectiveness; doing things right is efficiency.
To implement your plan and take the necessary inspired action to achieve your goals, you will need a system to manage your time and energy. Your time management system must be effective and allow you to allocate time to important issues, whilst ignoring time wasting things, which do not serve your purpose or fit in with your vision.
Until you stop expending your energy on the small stuff, you will never have room to make the really important things happen for you. Discover that one thing that will help you make a meteoric stride toward your success and then apply consistent and persistent effort daily until it is done.
Why should you strive to be effective before you try to be more efficient?
Before you focus any energy on efficiency or productivity, (doing things as efficiently as possible) you must first focus on effectiveness (identifying the right things to do). Until you learn to do this, you will only become more efficient at doing the wrong things.