Sandra Felton - Organizing Your Day: Time Management Techniques That Will Work for You

organizing your day

organizing your day

management techniques
that will work for you

sandra felton
and marsha sims

a division of Baker Publishing Group
Grand Rapids, Michigan

2009 by Sandra Felton and Marsha Sims

Published by Revell
a division of Baker Publishing Group
P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287
www.revellbooks.com

E-book edition created 2011

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meansfor example, electronic, photocopy, recordingwithout the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

ISBN 978-1-58558-985-2

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

Each morning sees some task begun,
Each evening sees it close;
Something attempted, something done,
Has earned a nights repose.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
The Village Blacksmith

contents

We have discovered something we want to share with you: time management can be fun. Oh, maybe not birthday party fun or Disney World fun or winning-the-game fun. But nothing beats the satisfaction of coming to the end of the day and feeling it was successful. Thats real fun!

After we have a good time at Disney World, we come away saying, Disney did a good job. But when we come to the end of a satisfying day in which we accomplished significant things, we look back and say, I did a good job. In the long run, that feeling adds a lot more to life than a good vacation.

Sometimes we are admonished to remember that we are human beings, not human doings. But people are designed to be doers, to accomplish significant things during our time on earth. What we actually hate is to choke our lives up with low-priority activities that mean nothing at the end of the day. We recoil from wasting our lives on a myriad of things that have little or no significance in the long run.

One of the goals of this book is to help you accomplish easily and quickly those necessary but uninspiring activities that comprise much of our daily lives so you can turn your attention to the significant things you want to do. As you read and use the ideas in this book, you will begin to notice that piles of paper are no longer on your desk at work, and piles of clothes are slowly disappearing at home. The bills are getting paid. You are able to get home in the evening on time because you have eliminated time wasters at work. Somehow, when you manage your time, things that used to be neglected just get done.

Another goal is to help you turn your heart and mind to the excitement of discovering the things that are really important in your life and getting those done. For most people that will mean two things: deepening personal relationships with family and friends and accomplishing meaningful projects.

Some of us have a hard time creating and using systems. Either we dont have the skills to design a system or we design one that is so complicated we cant maintain it. In some cases, once we find a really good system, we have trouble being consistent. This is the reason we have boiled the secrets of successful time management down to the big ten we spotlight at the end of this introduction. Focus on these. Weave several into your life over a period of time and one day you will wake up and find your life has changed.

When you discover the power of managing what goes on in your daily life so that it works better than you ever thought possible, you may want to let out a little shout of joy. As your life becomes vigorous with significant accomplishments, you will feel a surge of enthusiasm.

But first, there are problems to be solved. The time is out of joint; O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right! was how Shakespeares Hamlet expressed his personal problem.

What has that to do with us? Hamlet has little to do with us, unless you are reading this book because you also have a problem with time that is out of joint and needs to be set right. Like him, you are the only one who can do what it takes to fix it.

This leads us to the twofold question of this book: Why are you (like many of us) having problems with time management and what can you do to change things for the better? In other words, how can you move from the dark clouds Hamlet was sitting under into the whoohoo! sunlight you are looking for?

When you finish this book, you will know these two things: how your time got out of joint and how to set it right. Once you have acted on what you know, we want to hear the shouting.

Let us hear from you. After you have read this book and made changes that benefit your life and the lives of those who matter to you, you want someone to know what you have done and to care. We care and would love to hear your good reports.

Contact Sandra at www.messies.com and/or Marsha at www.sortitout.net.

True or false?

1. Life seems to be getting more frenetic.

2. I want my life to count for more.

3. I am looking for a time management system that really works.

If you answered true to any of these you will enjoy this book. Read on!

ten time management choices
that can change your life

The following are choices you can make to bring needed change to your life. The chapters indicated will fill you in on what you need to know, so you can fold them into your life one at a time. When you have successfully added one, go on to another.

1. Dream BigChapter 4

Dare to wonder what your life would be like if your time worked out just right, if it were (gasp!) perfect. Dont skip over this as a superfluous exercise. Remember the old saying: He who aims at nothing is likely to hit it. The opposite is also true: He who aims carefully at something is likely to hit it.

2. Focus: Keep the Main Thingthe Main ThingChapter 5

Creative and interesting people have many areas about which they are enthusiastic. They overextend themselves in their passion for life. Keep the passion but learn how to prioritize so you will accomplish the goals that are most important to you.

3. Do It NowChapter 9

There are two kinds of procrastination that plague us all: procrastination of the urgent and less critical but chronic procrastination. No matter what kind is holding you back from doing what needs to be done when it needs to be done, you can get yourself unstuck.

4. Take Control of Your ProjectsChapters 10, 11, 12

Some projects are simple and it is easy to let the ball drop on these. Some projects are complicated and we need a method to clarify the steps. You will be surprised at how your life will move forward as you apply the principles found in these chapters to all of your projects.

5. Delegate, Delegate, DelegateChapter 13

Should you delegate a responsibility? To whom? How do you go about it? Delegating well so you can use your time efficiently is an important part of a life well lived. The key? Just do it!

6. Manage Interruptions, Distractions,and Time WastersChapters 14, 15

None of us lives on a desert island. In this era of electronic communication, we are more likely to be interrupted than ever before. In addition, internal distractions creep in to dissipate our time.