Tag Archives: time

Time’s STILL passing.

08 Friday Nov 2019

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A blog from 2015……………………

“You may delay, but time will not, and lost time is never found again.” Benjamin Franklin

I chose this quote from the ‘father’ of time management to reflect how much I recognise that procrastination can be an obstacle to my success, although I don’t do it as much as I think I do. I put procrastination off whenever I can.

I was recently at an event run by John Grant, the founder of the YB12 – Your Best Year Ever brand, the brand of which I am proud to be a part (see HERE) and as he was speaking I made the following note on my course workbook:

“I don’t have time to wait to be the best I can possibly be.”

I am 53, with a birthday next month. Optimistically, that’s only 4 years older than Stephen Covey was when he published The Seven Habits. Realistically, I am 35 years older than Jenson Button was when he entered F1, so that’s a dream that isn’t going to happen.

Back to my point. We all have futures, most of us plan for them. Some have detailed plans, others have an ‘idea’ of where they want to go and will get there. Some have no idea. (Some of those wear sports clothes but never break into a sweat unless running from the Law.)

For so many, me included, the recognition that we have a future, and accidents and illness aside a fairly lengthy one, means that we also subconsciously perceive that we can put things off ‘just a bit’, as if we’ll still have the same amount of time left to complete that action as we had when we put it off! A day here and there doesn’t matter, after all. Or does it?

In our culture, a day frequently becomes a week – something we put off on Monday was “better done on a Monday so I’ll do it next Monday.” A diet starts on the first day of the month, so that’ll be next month.” Or a birthday. Or “It’s November the 1st today. Year’s almost over, and Christmas is around the corner, lots of planning to be done, etc. etc. so I’ll set some New Year’s Resolutions and start on Jan 1st.” Except we also know that Jan 1st means coping with the feelings, chocolates and booze left over from the night before and the 1st becomes the 2nd, and in no time at all – “Where has the year GONE?”

The likes of Bill Gates†, Steve Jobs, Gandhi, Franklin, Lincoln, Churchill and so on (pick your own) didn’t procrastinate. They took action. They took action and achieved more than most of us ever will, in some cases with no computers, no Internet, and no electric light . They maximised their use of time through planning and by NOT putting things off.

We all have a future. For some it will be longer than for others, so there’s no equality there.

But we all have NOW.

Use it better. ‘Cos it just passed you by at infinity times the speed of light. Another one went while you read that. And that. Ad infinitum.

 

† I like it when personal development writers use Gates and Jobs as examples of people who succeeded without a degree. Pause. They were at Ivy League colleges. Clue: not cheap places, having money and connections helps, and they had to have passed seriously hard exams and processes to get in. The degree was a given, if they’d stayed.

“I don’t need time management training!” Liar.

21 Monday Oct 2019

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“Happiness may well consist primarily of an attitude towards time.” Robert Grudin

Here’s an interesting observation.

When coaching took over the world of personal development, time management as a science got lost. In a world where people already had trouble getting through all that had to be done, the ‘New Order’ promoted by Anthony Robbins, Jack Canfield et al moved our focus from just getting by to ‘coming through on our dreams’.  But in all the training programmes that I, myself, sought and got authority to facilitate, I realised they’d accidentally removed focus from an important element of success.

In all my courses, only one actively taught how to manage time in a systematic fashion.

Now, don’t misunderstand me – the Robbins and Canfield training is marvellous stuff. But what I discovered was that having all these wonderful new philosophies on getting ahead wasn’t supported (adequately) by teaching people how to manage their lives in order to execute on those dreams.

The best analogy I can think of in the moment is trying to build an IKEA bookcase and not being handed the little octagonal bar tool to get the bolts tightened. The objective looks wonderful, but there’s an essential tool missing and without it I will struggle to achieve my goal.

None of us – even the Bransons and Gateses – lives in a bubble where everything we do is controlled, influenced or achieved solely by us as an individual. We live our lives in a framework of things we want to do, things we have to do, things other people would like us to do and things that society demands we do. And not all of those things can be done when it suits us or because it suits us. In other words, we have to do what we want to do when time and circumstances allow.

We have to manage our time – or, to be more accurate (as time cannot be managed), we have to manage ourselves in the context of time. We have to do what we can when there is a suitable opportunity to do it. While we can influence the amount of time we make available to do our wants, we still have an enormous amount of musts that have to be fitted into our finite timescales, as well.

A lot of people have said to me, “I don’t want to do time management training, I want to be spontaneous.”

I’m sure your boss would love to hear that. Turn up when you like, do what you want – that’s the way to run a business.

The truth is that training people into development of a system for managing their time does two things:

  • It gets the musts done at the appropriate time; and
  • It allows for the fun stuff to be done, too.

Just go with me, here. If you have system whereby you identify the must-dos, list them in order of importance, then do them in that order from the moment you walk into work until they are done, what’s left?

Fun stuff.

Okay, that ideal may happen so rarely as to be hard to envisage and it may depend upon your place in any hierarchy, but the principle of doing what must be done as soon as possible so as to allow the fun stuff to be done sooner, is valid. And without a systematic approach for doing that, it is unlikely to happen.

If you don’t believe me, ask yourself how often you feel overwhelmed because you ‘haven’t got time’ to do the new thing that just came in? And then you do it anyway, and the world keeps turning.

Then ask how they managed to land on the moon in 9 years from when Kennedy said they would.

Can you imagine the boss at NASA saying, “We haven’t got time. We have to do all this paperwork and get the kids to school and then fetch them and do the shopping.”

No. They did all that AND got Neil Armstrong up there. They managed what needed to be managed within the context of time and the availability and expertise of staff – and still got the kids sorted. Although in those days their wives probably didn’t have jobs (which now doubles the need for time management application).

Plan. Organise. Execute.

It is the only way.

And once you realise you CAN do what needs to be done as well as what you WANT to do, THEN you will find ‘happy’.

Ask Grudin.

Don’t learn TOO much. Find ‘The Way’ that works, then ignore alternatives.

12 Sunday Feb 2017

Posted by in Character and Competence, Discipline, General, Purpose and Service, Time Management

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I attended a talk last Monday by an excellent speaker, Jamie Denyer, whose presentation included a sobering observation. Once I got past his odd clothing choice – a bit hip-hop for a grandfather living in Swansea – I really enjoyed all of his talk, except that sobering bit. The sobering bit thrown right at me, personally. At least, I thought it was personal. I thought it was personal because the cap did fit and I had to wear it.

He described the individual who buys a personal development book, avidly reads it to the last page, then puts it down and “waits for the magic to work.” Then, when it doesn’t work because they aren’t applying it in a disciplined fashion they go out and buy the next one – and repeat. Then they repeat ad nauseum. He said that this is referred to in the trade as ‘shelf-development’, in that your book shelf gets fitter by holding up all your books.

Ouch. You should see my collection.

When I give talks on self-leadership (yes, fraudulently to some degree), one of the things I tell people is this.

  1. Choose your self-help book carefully. (I recommend The 7 Habits or Awaken the Giant Within, plus a couple of good time management books.)
  2. Apply the content religiously and don’t buy any other book!

There is a personal reason that I do this. I will sit there and read one of my books. I will then think, “This is the system I will now apply.” I will then see another book, listen to another trainer, see a new form, or just have something come to mind when I am walking the dog, and I start to think about how I will apply that instead of what I was already (supposedly) doing. As a result, instead of ‘doing’ I am perpetually ‘thinking about doing’.

The daft thing is – and Stephen Covey wrote about this in The 8th Habit – they are all saying the same thing.

  • They ALL say that taking responsibility for our thoughts is the key to a directed, patient, principled life.
  • They ALL say that having goals and a sense of direction towards a passion is key to a successful life.
  • They ALL say that relationships are important.
  • They ALL say that looking after your body enables success in the former three endeavours.

BUT they all have subtly nuanced alternatives to how to apply the philosophy to the discovery of a purpose and how to define goals.

I have suggested before that success is created by application of self to a simple philosophy.

  1. Know what you want.
  2. Manage your time accordingly.
  3. Communicate with clarity – in and out.

After that, it’s all about method, system and practices. For me, I always come back to Covey’s template because I understand it so well, teach it in schools, and absolutely believe in the systematic approach and principled teaching that it is. You could choose Canfield’s, Robbins’, Ziglars, Hobbs – whoever you like.

But just pick one. It leaves the mind clear for the important stuff. Then apply it with discipline.

Tempus meum prope est in tempore non tuo*

20 Sunday Sep 2015

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“We’re stewards over our time, our talents, our resources. Stewardship involves a sense of being accountable to someone or something higher than self.” Stephen R Covey

One of ‘my’ original tenets is that everything we do in life we do for someone, with someone, or as a result of someone else’s input. We don’t live and work in a vacuum. Stewardship reflects this situation – for our purposes it is defined thus by Wikipedia – “Stewardship is now generally recognized as the acceptance or assignment of responsibility to shepherd and safeguard the valuables of others.” Stewardship ‘is a trust, in the sense that what we have (talents, time, resources) are not ours to do with as we please, but they belong to others. We therefore have a responsibility to use those things wisely for others.

Accepting for a moment one of my other tenets (that there’s nothing wrong with finding ‘what’s in it for me’ in any service or purpose), you and I are therefore stewards, and accountable for the use of our time, talents and resources because they also belong to those we serve.

Even when what we are doing is essentially selfish on the outside (having fun, partying, starting a new business in an effort to make money, going fishing), others are being served by us – they are being paid to provide their services, they are being employed, they are partying with us, etc.) There is no accountability gap. What we do involves others either as servants or the served. Hence the stewardship argument – to do the best we can with what we have, so that others can be served too.

What are you using your time for? Or more precisely, are you using your time to best effect – are you serving, learning, growing, becoming something more than you were a few minutes, days or weeks ago? How about your talents? Are you holding back on the best you could be in the hope that someone will notice what you’re hiding and suddenly make you great? How about other resources – are they sitting idle, rusting and deteriorating through lack of use? Remember that the unused car may look nice, but when you try to start it – will it seize? (Cliché moment – a ship is safest in the harbour, but that’s not what ships are for.)

At the moment I am at a bit of a hiatus – a number of projects are ongoing and awaiting the moment of execution. Once they start I hope I’ll be run off my feet but just now it’s almost quiet. So in an effort to utilise my own time I will be reviewing my writings (books!) and seeing how I can improve and recirculate them as a service to those who may just benefit from the assembly of words and the codifying of random thoughts. I’m also reading a novel or two and I’ve committed to testing myself in one of my hobby areas in an effort to comply with my Three Resolutions.

Time’s a-wasting, and as it belongs to you I have every intention of using your time wisely. Oh, and thanks for letting me have it.

*My time is your time. According to Google Translate.