Jimmie Boyett - Guru Guide to Time Management: Advice from the Worlds Top Experts (The Guru Guides Book 6)

TO The Guru Guide to Time ManagementCopyright 2014, Joseph H. Boyett and Jimmie BoyettAll Rights Reserved.Guru Guide is a trademark of Joseph H. Boyett and Jimmie T. Boyett

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No part of this book may be used or reproduced by anymeans, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permissionoftheauthor exceptin case ofbrief quotationsembodied in critical articles and reviews.

ISBN-13: 978-0615971711 (Training On Demand, LLC)ISBN-10: 0615971717CONTENTSKey Ideas................................................................. 21Key Ideas................................................................. 41Key Ideas................................................................. 50Key Ideas............................................................... 113Other Books by the Authors ............................... 131

One day a young man went to his boss to ask for a dayoff. His boss reply expresses what many of us feel about not having enough time. Sometimes it seems likewe dont have enough time to take even one day off.

EMPLOYEE:I would like totakethe day off tomorrow if I could. Ive got some personal things I need to get done. Is it okay?

BOSS: So you want a day off. Let's take a look at what you are asking for. There are 365 days per year available for work. There are 52 weeks per year in which you already have 2 days off per week, leaving261 days available for work. Since you spend 16 hourseach day away from work, you have used up 170 days, leaving only 91 days available. You spend 30 minuteseach day on coffee break which counts for 23 days each year, leaving only 68 days available. With a 1 hourlunch each day, you used up another 46 days, leavingonly 22 days available for work. You normally spend 2days per year on sick leave. This leaves you only 20days per year available for work. We are off 5 holidaysper year, so your available working time is down to 15 days. We generously give 14 vacation days per year which leaves only 1 day available for work and I'll bedarned if you are going to take that day off!( http://www.ahajokes.com/off05.html )

It is a funny story, but all too true. There never seemsto be enough time to get everything done.

One of the reasons you have chosen to read this book is probably that you feel something is just not right inyour personal and/or work life. Maybe you feel rushedmost of the time. Maybe you are constantly under stress. You work hard, but still you cant seem to getthings done on time. Many things that are important toyou are not done at all or arent done as well as youwould like. Maybe you have a bad case of what Connie Merritt, author of Too Busy for Your Own Good, calls Busyness.

DO YOU HAVE A BUSYNESS PROBLEM

Connie Merritt says busyness is the soft addictiontoday. Being busy can give you a psychic and physical boost, at least for a time, a high not unlike the high a drug addict feels. However, like the drug addict, the busyness high passes and then you must feed it with even more busyness. She offers a busyness quiz inher book that you might want to take if you get a chance. You can find in on pages 6-8 of her book.

Here are some of the things Merritt includes in her quiz. Merritt says you may have a busyness problem if you:

Are working hard, but dont seem to ever get caughtup with work;

Skip meals or eat on the run;
Miss family events because of work;
Are always multitasking;
Feel out of control;

Often loseor misplaceimportantitemsanddocuments;

Are frequently grumpy and short tempered;Have difficulty sleeping;
Take telephone calls from work at all hours;Skip or forget appointments; or
Constantly tell people how overworked you are.

(Merritt 2009, pp. 6-8)

Richard Luecke, author of Time Management, says you may have a bad case of the Merritts busyness, or atleast a problem with managing your time if:

You are impatient for the elevator door to close;You are obsessed with recalibrating your watch;

You eat lunch at your desk and often resort to carryouts for dinner; or

When responding to a personal or family crisis, findyourself thinking, This is really going to wreak havoc with my schedule.

(Luecke 2005, p. xvii) Steve Prentice, author of Cool Time, adds that you maybe too busy if:You line your office wall with sticky note reminders of things you have to do;You cant leave the office without carrying a stack of work home with you;You have the urge to work weekends, even when no one is forcing you to do so;You constantly feel burned out, angry, worried, and often cant sleep. (Prentice 2005, pp. 10-11)

Rita Emmett, author of Manage Your Time to ReduceYour Stress, says you may be suffering from busyness if:

You think you have to be available 24/7;Your job requires you to travel a lot more than youwant;You are working longer hours and carrying moreresponsibility than you think is good for you (Emmett 2009, pp. 34-35)

How did you do? Did any of Merritt, Luecke andPrentice and Emmetts busyness indicators apply to you?Are you too busy?Are you even in the danger zone of busying yourself to distraction?You CAN dosomething about it.

You want to be happier, less stressed and more in control of your life. You are not alone. Unfortunately,most of us feel that way at one time or another. We feel that we are suffering from a lack of time, a time famine. We need help in managing our time.

A lot of time management help is available. There is noshortage of advice on the topic of time management. If you go to Amazon.com and search for books on the topic, you will get a list of over 100,000. If you searchGoogle for websites dealing with time management,you will get more than 1.5 million hits. There is not a lack of advice. In some ways, there is too much advice.Wouldnt it be nice if you could find a good summaryofthebesttime managementadvice available? Suppose you could read one book that would compareand contrast the best advice from the worlds greatesttime management experts. Well, youve found that book. The Guru Guide to Time Management provides aclear, concise and informativeintroduction tothewisdom of the worlds top time management advisors.

Obviously, we cannot cover every experts advice ontime management in this book. What we can do and will do is summarize what we consider the best tips, tools, and techniques for time management available today from the worlds top time management expertsour gurus.Some of these tools, tips and techniquesmay not apply to you or work for you, but we areconvinced that many will. Here is the best advice from the most well known experts today on how to improveyour life and work performance by doing a better job of managing your time.