The Secrets of Successful Time Management Term … Secrets of Successful Time Management Glossary...

The Secrets of Successful Time Management

Glossary

Term Definition Introduced in:

Chunking Breaking a large goal into smaller objectives and then tasks. Module 2

Goal A purpose toward which you direct your endeavors. Module 2

Long-term goals Goals that take a year or more to achieve. Module 2

Objectives The steps necessary to complete goals. Module 2

Perfectionism Personality trait that regards anything short of perfection as unacceptable. Module 1

Procrastination To needlessly put off doing something. Module 1

Short-term goals Goals that take less than a year to achieve. Module 2

SMART goalsAn acronym that serves as a mnemonic device when setting goals: Specific, Measurable, Aligned and achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. Module 1

TasksA series of daily or weekly actions required to meet objectives.

Module 2

Vision boards Creative graphic organizer that uses pictures, quotations, etc. to help you take ownership of goals. Module 3

Successful Time Management Module 1 Page 1

SUCCESSFUL TIME MANAGEMENT MODULE ONE – INDIVIDUAL AND TEAM TIME WASTERS Module One – Individual and Team Time Wasters. I love Peter Drucker. He’s a

management guru and he said, "Time is the scarcest resource of the manager. If

it is not managed, nothing else can be managed." There are 86,400 seconds in

a day. The good news is everyone gets the same allocation. Although time may

seem to fly by, elude you, or even control you, the seconds tick by at exactly the

same rate for everyone. The tipping point, then, between achieving goals and

falling short is not how much time you do or don’t have, but what you choose to

do within the time constraints everyone faces. There are some time

management killers that kill our effective management of that scarce resource.

You’ll see in your handout that I have those listed for you. You can follow along

and take some notes in this section, or just listen and think about these and focus

in on which ones you think really apply to you. Procrastination is absolutely one

of the number-one time-management killers. Write this down: "Procrastination

and perfection keep you a prisoner of mediocrity." That quote comes from the

book One Year to an Organized Life. I love what this quote says, because it

identifies most of us in these two time- management-killing habits. The first one

is procrastination – putting things off. There are a number of reasons why we do

it. You’ll get some specific techniques today for moving away from

procrastination. We often have scripts, things that we tell ourselves, that keep us

in the habits we are in – even when we know those habits are not working. Can

we all agree that everyone knows – and it’s just a reminder – that procrastination

is a time-management killer? That’s not a revelation. But here’s the revelation –


why we procrastinate. Everyone procrastinates for different reasons, but it’s

generated by the self-talk that’s at the root of these two habits. Are you one of

those people who tells yourself: I have to get it right; I work best under pressure;

Well, I just don’t think I’m very good at that? These are examples of self-talk that

can lead you to the behavior of procrastination. Our behavior has always been

generated by what we tell ourselves in those scripts. If we can learn to get some

new scripts, we can change any and all behaviors, no matter how long we’ve

been doing them and no matter how difficult the behaviors are. Sometimes

there’s perceived payoff in our bad habits. I was always one of those successful

procrastinators – at least that’s what I told myself. I always believed that I

worked best under pressure. This was true when it came to athletics and

academic performance, but I began to take that script and play it out in a very

literal way. So what I realized I was unconsciously doing, because of this self-

talk, was I would create pressure just so I could deliver. I would create that

pressure by procrastinating to the point that most of my law school papers were

probably written at 4:00 AM. I did mention to you that I was a single mother.

When I went through law school, my daughter was just one year old. So there I

would be at 3:00 and 4:00 AM with a baby across my knees and writing the

paper all for the perceived payoff of the end result. Was my paper really better

because of my procrastination? Did I really need to put that kind of pressure on

myself and put myself in an even worse deprived-of-sleep situation than had

already been the case as a parent? Absolutely not. It’s insanity. We tell

ourselves irrational things that lead us to procrastinate. And some people do it


because they believe that is how they operate best. And it works for a while, until

it catches up with you. I have to tell you that I’m not 25 years old anymore and a

brand new lawyer. And with two children, a spouse, a home to manage, and a

career, I cannot operate the way I used to. I have to use the skills I learned as a

teacher to manage my own life if I have any prayer of succeeding as a trial

attorney. Procrastination can have devastating effects because although I may

be able to perform in my position, there’s little left when it’s time for me to come

home. What has your procrastination been costing you, and maybe even your

family, friends, and loved ones? The perfectionist is equally hard on himself or

herself with the mindset that things have to be right, they have to be perfect. So

the perfectionist puts things off because perfection can never really be achieved,

or invest way too much time in even the most simple tasks – checking and

rechecking, checking and rechecking. We’ll talk about how to move away from

those habits. Lack of focus is a typical time-management killer. Excessive

distractions – email, phone interruptions, chatting, family and friends. I’ll give you

a few quick tips today to deal more effectively with those distractions and

interruptions. Are you one of those people who finds it difficult to say no? What

may be keeping you stuck in a rut is that your script is, “I want him to like me; I

want people on my job to like me.” Well, the reality is everybody can’t like you.

And that’s okay. You have the right to the time during your day. You have the

right to be good to yourself first so that you have time to listen to others and

spend time with family and friends on your schedule. I’ll teach you today how to

set some of those healthy boundaries. Manage your energy effectively. A lot of


us are killing time because we are not managing our energy effectively. What

does that mean? Write this down: Identify your optimal time of day. That is the

time of day when you know you work best. At one point I told you I thought it

was 4:00 AM for me. And for a lot of my creative writing, for some reason very

late at night was always a good time for me. If I have to plan a creative project,

sometimes I needed to plan appropriate sleep so that I could work during that

optimal time. There were no distractions. It was just me, and that maybe made

sense for me. Learn to identify the optimal time of your day. Here’s how you will

use that if you’re managing your energy effectively. Save the most complex

tasks for your optimal time. Minimize all distractions. Turn off your cell phone –

any alerts, text messaging – during your optimal time so that you can focus. If

you can begin to block off that optimal time and put certain tasks in that space in

your day, you will see how much more effective your day becomes. We lose a

lot of time by making every day routine. We’ve always done it this way, even if it

doesn’t work. And chatting – chatting can burn so much time during a day if

we’re not careful. The first step to taking back control over your life and your

time is to get intentional about your day. I’ve given you an exercise in the

handout that helps you to get intentional about your day. In other words, as I

approached each classroom, as an example, I was very intentional about that

day. Teachers are required to submit lesson plans by Friday of each week for

the following week, and these lesson plans are often extremely detailed. They

identify every resource the teacher’s going to use, what handouts will be used,

how many minutes will be spent on each task. If everyone had to plan like a


teacher, we would all be highly successful. I could not imagine the stresses and

burdens that were placed on educators in a classroom in the area of planning. It

stretched me to a new level of organization that I really didn’t know I was capable

of. I found it much harder than being a lawyer, to be honest. But it’s that getting

intentional that really made the day flow so much smoother, if we can learn to

plan in that way. So ask yourself, where does all your time go? Identify and list

your time wasters during the course of your day. Getting intentional about your

day is the first critical step in getting that control back. Think about the common

time wasters I’ve listed for you so far. Are there more? How do you feel when

these time-wasting events occur? Here’s a simple equation to help you take

back control over your daily schedule and life. Write this down: E + R = O.

Event plus response equals the outcome. Dr. Tom Miller, author of Self-

Discipline and Emotional Control, teaches you how to have more self-discipline in

your life – how to move away from old habits that sabotage your life. And one of

the ways we do that is through the old habits of procrastinating – not managing

paper and time effectively. And he says that events do not cause emotions.

How we feel has always and only been controlled and maintained by the

meaning and interpretation we give to events. You remember that what I

uncovered about a behavior I wanted to change, which is my procrastination,

was that I had been interpreting procrastination in a way that was leading me to

continue that bad habit. I was telling myself that that’s how I work best. When I

learned to uncover that that was an irrational thought, and ultimately a habit I

wanted to change, I could then begin to move away from that behavior. We all


have patterns – a way we speak to ourselves that’s keeping us in a rut. When

you revisit this handout after this audio conference today, take some time to

really identify the habits. If you don’t, you are absolutely not likely to take hold of

any of the information in the next modules and apply it to your life. How many

conferences have you gone to? How many trainings have you attended where

you liked the information, you heard some revelations, you took some notes, and

then what happened with the handout after that day? You went right back to the

same old habits. And the handout made it into the pile with everything else on

your list that isn’t getting done. Make this the day where you decide to get

intentional so you can actually get better at time management. A hot tip for you

is to develop some SMART goals. In upcoming modules, we will talk about how

to really move toward your goals. SMART goals are Specific, Measurable,

Aligned and achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound. A lot of us have heard this,

but we leave the T out of our goals. We set goals, but we don’t give a specific

time frame for achieving the goals. Think about what you want to get out of this

audio conference today. Give yourself a 30-day time limit after today to

implement at least one of the action steps from these modules. It starts by

identifying where the time is going, what some of your habits have been, and

what the self-talk has been. If you want a new outcome, you have to get a better

response to the same old events. Keep a journal after today. I call it the stress

journal. Write down events that occur that are taking your time. Then write down

the meaning or interpretation you give to the event. For example, someone

comes by your desk and interrupts you. The meaning and interpretation maybe


you’ve been giving to that event is, well I don’t want to be rude. I have to give

them my time. Or I want them to like me. Write down how you feel when the

interruption happens. Do I feel frustrated? Do I feel angry? Nervous? Then

look at your behavior. The reason for writing down these four different things in

your stress journal is to really look at how feelings drive behavior. Our feelings

come directly from the meaning and interpretation we give to an event. An event

happens. We immediately assign an unconscious meaning or interpretation,

then we have an emotion. Emotion, then, drives behavior. If we can learn to re-

interpret events, we can change the way we feel and change the way we

respond.

[End of recording.]


SUCCESSFUL TIME MANAGEMENT MODULE TWO – TIME-MANAGEMENT BEST PRACTICES Module Two – Time-Management Best Practices. We spent a lot of time in module one

really laying the foundation, because it’s understanding that self-discipline and

emotional control that will now let you implement these practices. There are

some established and effective time-management tools. First, change your

mindset about the concept of time. It really is somewhat an artificial concept, and

it’s one that you own. People get so stressed about time. Write this down: Be

flexible with time, or it will be rigid with you. My son, Sterling, is six years old. He

is a complete thinker. If you ever research and get the resource New Addition

Relationship Strategies by Tony Alessandra, you will learn the different

personality styles and how important this is to understanding how to work well

with many different types of people. And Sterling intends to get it right. So he is

one of those people who is a perfectionist. Remember what I told you about

being a perfectionist and what that can do? So some people get very anxious

about time, and my son Sterling is always very anxious about time. He told me

this evening that he needed to know the plan for tomorrow – what time would he

be getting picked up? What time would we be eating dinner? What would

happen after that? He’s a planner through and through. Some of you know who

you are. You love your lists. You have lists of lists. You have to know when

things are going to happen, who’s going to be there – you cannot stand

surprises. That is my Sterling. Sterling can make Mommy very stressed. And if

you are a thinker and you’re very in-your-head about the concept of time and

have a lot of worries, you can really be creating a lot of unnecessary anxiety. For


you, the best management tool for your time and self and stress is to build in

unexpected space during your day. I call it drama time when things come up that

case drama – unexpected interruptions – those surprises that you hate – plan for

them. If you build in what we call “white space” in your day, in your schedule,

you’re less likely to be anxious about time. In other words, plan for the

unexpected. It’s when we become very rigid about the concept of time in our

day, and we don’t account for the unexpected, that stress becomes very high.

We feel controlled by our day or by others. And we end up turning on who? On

ourselves. Communicate – speak the language of getting things done. Get

motivated and set clear goals and manage them into objectives and tasks. I’m

going to show you how to do that. Prioritize. Prioritizing is very important. We

are going to talk about four specific quadrants that you can place things into

during your day. Most of us know generally how to set a goal, but we forget to

make it time-bound. But it’s then what to do with the goal that becomes the

challenge. There’s something called “chunking.” You want to take any goal and

break it into smaller objectives, and then tasks. Those are the actual to-do items

that move you toward the objective. And then you have to prioritize. It’s learning

how to put things in order according to what really is most important. We often

know what needs to be done, and often know how to do it. We just don’t plan

correctly at the decision-making moment. Sometimes we fail to make a decision.

Indecision is a decision. Your priorities are driven by goals. In other words, if

you fail to make a decision, you have decided to accept more of what you are

currently getting. Your indecision has really made a decision for you. What is a


goal? A lot of us have heard this over and over again, and it becomes almost

trite, doesn’t it? Set goals, set goals – we all know this. But I want you to

redefine the way you think about what a goal really is. It’s a purpose toward

which you direct your endeavors. Now this is the tipping point. This is where

some people really begin to take off and get things done and achieve the things

they desire. And this is where some of us remain stuck. People who live with

intention direct all their activities and endeavors toward a specific goal. Write this

down: High-payoff activities; low-payoff activities. My husband, who will kill me

when he hears this, is a socializer by personality style on Tony Alessandra’s

Relationship Strategy Profile. If he were to take the test, he’s one of those who is

assertive to aggressive as a communicator, very people-oriented. He’s in sales.

He’s a people person – outgoing, animated, loves to tell stories, and is very good

in sales for that reason – because he’s so good with people. But one thing about

socializers – people who love to be with others – is that wasting time can be an

Achilles heel for the socializer, because you love people. And if I’m talking about

you, you may recognize that you may be a socializer. And there are some

strengths that come with that, and one of the weaknesses, though, can be easily

distracted, you get caught up with conversations, you might begin to tell one

story and by the time you’re done, you’ve told three or four in one. Sometimes

you can tell two or three stories at the same time. You might be a socializer.

Well, when we talk about high-payoff and low-payoff activities, it’s really asking

yourself about the inventory of your time during a day and whether or not you’re

truly directing your time toward a specific goal. My husband, because he is so


social, has a hard time sometimes saying no to any activity that has a social

component. So people love people-people and they often get invited to

participate in various groups. People love to have them around. But this is

where you have to set a boundary for yourself and ask, is this a high-payoff

activity for me? High-payoff activities are those that are aligned with your

personal, professional, spiritual, mental, and physical health goals. We will talk

about all those areas of life. This isn’t just about career. I have a saying

sometimes, and that is if it isn’t going to make me more money, or skinnier, I

don’t have time for it. Maybe that’s where my priorities are right now at this point

in my life, trying to work on managing finances and improving in that area. How

many of you have that goal? It’s not about just making more. It's about what you

do with it. Maybe you are trying to increase income to address debt. That could

be one of your big goals. Maybe you’re working on health, as I always try to do

in my household. Those are major, big goals. And my family. So I come up with

these sayings sometimes as a reminder to myself before I decide about whether

or not I’m going to participate in something. I talk with my spouse at times about

low-payoff activities, because he will say yes. He will join. People want him

around, and he will go. But is it aligned with his goals? That’s a question you

have to ask yourself as you identify your long-term goals, and really think about

what you say yes to. Although something might be fun, you might like and care

about the people involved and you believe in the mission, it may not be aligned

currently with some things that you have said are priorities. Here’s how you

manage goals. First, set appropriate long-term goals. We call those LTGs.


They take one year or more to achieve. It’s a great time now if you wrote down

those awful New Year’s resolutions to just reframe them. Just set long-term

goals, one year or more to achieve. Define objectives. These are the steps

necessary to complete the long-term goal. I had a long-term goal of becoming

affiliated with a law firm in New Orleans once I relocated with my husband. I’m

barred in another state. I had to go through that again. So if that’s a goal that

takes one year or more for me to achieve once I moved to New Orleans, I had to

define objectives. Well one immediate objective that’s necessary to complete

that long-term goal is I had to pass the Louisiana bar. Then I had to look at tasks

– a series of daily and weekly actions required to meet those objectives. That

became a study schedule that was essential in order to achieve the objective of

passing the bar. Another objective in order to become affiliated with a law firm,

eventually, in a new city meant that I would have to develop relationships in the

legal community. So I aligned myself with a new position – clerking for judges –

so that I could learn the law in Louisiana. It was aligned toward the bar exam

because it gave me an opportunity to study and learn, and it met that objective of

developing relationships in a legal community. The task then became the daily

tasks and weekly actions of my job position. Was I making contacts every day in

my job? Or was I just doing the work? So those are examples of how to take

one big goal of becoming affiliated with a law firm as an attorney in New Orleans

within a specific time frame and moving that down to what objectives? What

really would have been necessary for me to achieve that goal? Because I

became intentional about that, I began to be able to move things in that direction.


And you can do the exact same thing. No matter how big the goal is, or how

small, we have to start thinking in these terms. Sometimes we just set the big

goal, but we forget the steps two and three – objectives and tasks. Efficiency in

the present can help you have the future of your dreams. How willing are you to

go after the things you know are important to do for your future? Think about

high-payoff activities and low-payoff activities. After the audio conference today,

write down the things you know you are currently doing that are aligned with your

goals. Identify activities that you know are taking your time that might be low-

payoff. Here’s where it gets difficult. Recently, for the first time, we made a

family decision to pull our son out of a sport that was taking a great deal of our

family’s time. We realized that one of our family goals after several years of not

traveling was to have a family vacation. And we thought about if the only reason

we’re really participating in this activity is because the final sporting event would

be in Florida at Disney, if the goal is really to get to Disney, why don’t we redirect

our family’s energy and resources and save for this trip and do some other

activities that are high-payoff and give us time together with less stress?

Sometimes we have to make the hard sacrifices and the difficult choices. If

you’ve been trying to do it all – be the super parent, the super employee at work,

the super business person – whatever it is you’re trying to do, you have to really

think about the alignment of your daily tasks with the ultimate goal. Here’s a hot

tip for those of you who have to participate in meetings. And meetings have

started to become low-payoff activities. Use this meeting plan to get more

efficient with meetings. Many executives, according to most studies, spend as


many as six weeks per year sitting in meetings. To change that, go into it with

the following plan. First, define the purpose; then participants; estimated cost;

specific decisions that need to be made during the meeting; the agenda; and the

date. Hold to your time frame for the meeting. Reset anything that is not

discussed that was supposed to be discussed on the agenda, or delegate the

remaining items to someone for research and follow-up in a written memo after

the meeting, if there was not time to discuss it at the meeting. Be protective of

your time during meetings. Make a decision to develop this plan before going in.

And determine ahead of time if the meeting is a high-payoff or low-payoff activity.

If it’s possible, set a boundary for yourself by declining. It’s not always an option,

and I realize that. But it can be very challenging when some of us are required

and aren’t able to direct all of our time during the day. But think about using

assertive communication to set a boundary if you have other work that must be

done that’s high-payoff work. If you need to request additional time for yourself,

and too many people are demanding of your time, use these four A’s. First,

Acknowledge the request; second, Assertively decline without excuses; third,

Account for resources – how else it can get done; and fourth, provide Alternative

solutions. Here’s an example of how to politely decline a meeting when you are

faced with a deadline. I’ll pretend that I’m having a conversation with a judge for

whom I’m working, and I’ve been requested to attend a meeting, but I’m also

facing a deadline to complete an important project. “Judge, I understand we’re

having a meeting this morning at 10:00 AM with the staff. I’d like to not

participate in this meeting so that I can complete the rule summaries for rule day


that I’m working on for you. During the meeting, I would like for Sarah to take

some notes, and I thought that she and I could get together after the meeting and

discuss the meeting, or I could just review her notes. Then I can follow up with

you regarding any items that were for my follow-up or to confirm that I’ve

understood everything you delivered at the meeting. Would this be okay with you

so that I could go ahead and finish these rules?” Now I know I made that sound

easy. But there’s nothing wrong with assertive communication. Tone is

extremely important. I declined with respect. I did ask permission, but I was sort

of saying what I was going to do as well. And I started off by acknowledging the

request. If you notice, I declined without excuses – that I’d like to not attend, but

I plan to continue working during that time so that I can get this done. I’m

explaining essentially to the judge in my hypothetical that there’s a very high-

payoff activity that is more of a priority, perhaps, than my participation. Now if

the judge tells me, "No, I really need you at this meeting," then I may have to

adjust my schedule, or I may have to get as much done as I can during the day

and explain to the judge, “I will be there. What I would like is an extra hour to

work on my writing and to push our meeting back to review rules one hour.” So,

in other words, I need that time back and I need some flexibility on the other end

in exchange. You have to know the players and you have to understand how to

flex and tailor your communication. Use simple scripts for saying no without guilt.

It’s a resource I love. And also Tony Alessandra’s new edition, Relationship

Strategies. Both of those are going to give you tons and tons of those examples


of how to make certain requests, depending on the personality style of the

people, and how to say no when you need to gather more time for yourself.

[End of recording.]


SUCCESSFUL TIME MANAGEMENT MODULE THREE – PLAN AND PRIORITIZE Module Three – Plan and Prioritize. We’ve talked about identifying time wasters and

some time- management best practices. You’ve learned to set some goals, and

even learned to set a few boundaries. Now it’s time for some tips to plan and

prioritize. Write down your projects and goals. Writing things down makes it

real, and it creates accountability. Once you move things on paper, you’re more

likely to start taking action in pursuit of that goal. If you know what you want, you

can have it. Write down your goals and create a time frame. But be flexible with

yourself. Don’t abandon the goal because you didn’t move the meter fast

enough. How many of us have been in that weight-loss goal because we weren’t

where we were supposed to be by a certain time? Be flexible with yourself.

Refer to your list on a daily basis. Keep it visible. Keep lists on the back of your

closet door in the morning – somewhere where you’re likely to look at it. I don’t

know about you, but all those electronic devices – I have lots of them – I forget to

even look at them. Some of us may still do better with a physical pen and paper

list. You can use these methods for short- and long-term goal setting. Write

down three things you would like to accomplish over the next six months to a

year. Take some time now and write down one of them. Then after this audio

conference, revisit this page in your handout, in this module, to explore some

more things you want to accomplish over the next six months. I started doing

this in Jack Canfield’s The Law of Attraction Journal. And I know a lot of people

thought that some of that law of attraction stuff sounded very woo-woo, and there

was the whole book, the Secret. But it’s really not a secret. This is something


that’s been around for thousands of years, and that is what we think about and

what we believe with feeling becomes our reality. And it is simply a proven

strategy that when you begin to think about things, and then you put feeing and

emotion behind the thing you say you want, and then you actually write it down,

that you are much more likely to make it a reality. Study Brian Tracy’s the

Psychology of Achievement. His resource is phenomenal. One of the things he

says is when you write your goals down, actually say them out loud. There’s a

powerful connection between writing it visually and speaking it into existence.

Highly successful people who study and pay tons of money to work with coaches

use these simple little strategies, but they do it with consistency and with

intention. So when you write down what you want to accomplish, begin to focus

about how you will feel when that happens, visualize and see it, and then speak it

out loud. As I began writing things down in my journal and using the principles of

the Law of Attraction, I actually didn’t realize that a lot of the things I wrote down

were happening. At one point in my life, I wrote down that I wanted to become a

professional speaker. And I listed the things that I would need – those were

those objectives – in order to achieve the goal. And they were small things, such

as a Lavalier microphone. I would need to travel and pay for a certification

course. And I wrote down all these things. And I revisited the Law of Attraction

Journal a year later, and I couldn’t believe how many of the items I had checked

off on that list. And some of them were big items that I had decided a few years

ago that I was going to move out of my hometown. I had no idea where I would

go. I didn’t know how that would happen. And I really believe that the purpose


and intention behind some of my goals began to drive some things for my entire

household, and opportunities began to open up because I had shifted my

thinking. A shift in your thought will help you manage time, achieve your goals,

and get a lot more done. Here are the next steps: Anticipate the obstacles; list

the ways to erase them; identify the consequences of failing to achieve the goal

and set deadlines; determine your fears and work to eliminate them. Once

you’ve determined the above, you’re going to post your goals, deadlines, and

steps to achieve your goal in a place you can view it every day. I keep a workout

poster. It comes with some of the workout DVDs that I use. And it’s in my closet

and I can see it every day as I’m getting dressed, and it reminds me of the

workouts. And it shows me the progress that I have made. We often are getting

a lot more done than we think we are. If you can start to track your time after

today, you will see that and be able to reward yourself for what you are actually

accomplishing instead of just beating up on yourself for the things you think

aren’t getting done. Here are some tools and techniques to make your goals a

reality – the secrets of the successful are immediately accessible to you and

always have been. Remember, we all get that same allocation. It’s just what

some people are doing with some of these particular tools. Use vision boards. If

you are a manager in the workplace, and certainly for your family and for yourself

at home, think about vision boards. It gives a chance for people to be creative, to

take accountability and ownership of their goals, and many people want to share

certain aspects of themselves. Vision boards have more than just words. These

include adding actual visuals to your goals. Cut things out of magazines. Go


online, find particular words or quotes or charts, photographs. Cut them out.

Print them out and cut them and put them on your vision board. This is giving

lateral shape to the vision you have for your day. You can break these down into

certain categories. You may have one vision board that’s just for career, one

that’s for home. If you have young people in your life, encourage them to do the

same. We try to start every school here talking about goals and some of these

exercises. Find an accountability partner after today and check in. Ask each

other, “How are you coming on that? Where are you on that particular goal?”

Join mastermind groups of people who are similarly aligned. That’s a high-payoff

activity that allows you to be social, but you’re talking about things that are

aligned with your goals. It moves your conversation to be consistent with what

you say you want to achieve. It’s no secret that exercise, sleep and proper

nutrition are the secrets of the successful. If you really look at people who are in

successful positions – positions where they have to manage a lot and get a lot

done – their physical health is a big part of their success. Use the laws of belief.

What we believe with feeling becomes our reality. What we think about becomes

in our life laws of concentration and attraction. Connect to your source energy.

What does that mean? It means whatever is spiritual for you is very important to

you in managing your goals. People I know who I regard as being successful,

just as living the life that is authentic to them – that’s what I think is really about

being successful – are also very spiritual people in various ways and are

connected to energy beyond themselves to get things done. Use journaling.

Journaling doesn’t have to be writing your most private thoughts. Journaling is


about keeping track of your time, your day, getting intentional about your goals.

Use these different tips. These are often just reminders for you. Some of these

might be reinforcers. Some of you are very good already at some of these. But

look at these nine different secrets of the successful and ask, how many of these

are you currently doing? Maybe you’re pretty good at nutrition and exercise, but

not very good at speaking your goals out loud. You keep everything to yourself.

Or your thoughts haven’t been very aligned or very positive. Maybe you’re a very

spiritual person, but you’ve never tried the vision board. You’ve never tried

moving things into that area. See how many of these particular tips you can

implement after today in the next 30 days.

[End of recording.]


SUCCESSFUL TIME MANAGEMENT MODULE FOUR – HOW TO PRIORITIZE MULTIPLE PROJECTS AND DEADLINES Module Four – How to Prioritize Multiple Projects and Deadlines. Once you define and

manage goals into objectives and tasks, the key is to then prioritize. Life would

be easier if you could tick off one goal before working toward another, wouldn’t

it? And I know that that’s a challenge. So let’s talk about how you actually

prioritize your day. In our final module, I will give you a recap of this. But I think

that it’s the most important tip I’ve ever learned about prioritizing. First you’re

going to answer these fundamental questions: Who, what, when, where, why and

how? You may have different items that you place under any of these questions

that you’re asking yourself. The why is the big picture and helps you stay

focused. How is, "How should I complete the task?" "How will the completed

task be measured or evaluated?" Who is, "Who is the best person to complete

this task?" "Who has the resources or skill necessary?" "Who is in the best

position to complete this?" If you are completing the tasks or objectives yourself,

it might be, "Who do I need to ask for information?" The what. The what really

defines exactly what must be done. Remember in my example about wanting to

practice in my new state and find a position with a firm? There were various

objectives. For me, I had to break that goal down further into objectives. So, if I

were to ask myself the question, "What certifications or training would I need?"

For example, there’s a bar-review course. I had to make a decision if I would be

taking that. Or, what outlines or resources were available to help me pass the

bar exam? What additional resources might I need to achieve that goal? And

when? When gets specific about time frames for your objectives. The where is


self-explanatory. You might have to think about locations for specific tasks. And

we’ve discussed the why and the how. Now here’s how you actually organize

your day and manage multiple projects and deadlines. Divide your day into four

quadrants. Write these down: The four quadrants are what must be done today.

That’s quadrant one. Items that must be done today are priority number one.

This means they are absolutes, and there are really very few absolutes in any

given day. The test for whether something is priority one is, will a crisis occur if I

don’t do this? That’s what you’ll ask yourself. Will a crisis occur if I don’t do this?

Now if you haven’t studied self-discipline and emotional control like we talked

about in module one, and you are still in old patterns of self-talk that are keeping

you stuck, you put everything in quadrant one. You speak in terms of

demandingness. That’s what Dr. Tom Miller calls it. He says in our unconscious

brain, which he refers to using an analogy of a horse, he says that unconscious

brain tells us some different things. And sometimes that horse lies to us, is what

he says. He calls the conscious center of the brain the rider. And learning to

have self-discipline is about looking through things more logically through the

eyes of the rider that’s in control of the horse. Our unconscious mind is faster,

stronger, more powerful – processes faster. So that’s why it can be difficult to

slow down and change habits, because they’re rooted in that horse. You might

be one of those people that in the unconscious mind, you think everything must

be done today. You have been lying to yourself, telling yourself that awful terrible

things and crises will occur if you don’t do it. That’s what anxiety is, folks. That

is anxiety. If you really think this is you, and it is severe and crippling, this is


when you do have to reach out for help. If you’ve taken all the training you can

take, you still find yourself extremely anxious, and it’s having physical and mental

manifestations in your life, it’s time for you to reach out to someone who can help

you in a more clinical way move beyond what can be very crippling anxiety. It

can become a real medical condition. When we become stuck in a pattern of

thought for a long period of time, it creates two emotions – anxiety or depression.

Beating up on yourself because things aren’t getting done and then feeling low

about your self-esteem creates the depression. I never get it done. I’m no good.

I’m terrible at this. I’m going to get fired. Catastrophizing creates the depression.

The anxiety – it has to be done today. I have to get it done or I’m going to get

fired. Terrible things will occur. My family won’t think they can count on me. I

have to do it all. That’s the anxiety. Being at either end of that spectrum can be

extremely damaging. That’s why I’m going to ask you to really use this strategy.

Put in quadrant one only the things that must be done or a crisis will occur. It’s

tempting to put lots of things there. Let me give you an example. I could tell

myself I must pick up my son from school. That is absolutely priority number

one. However, I actually have resources in friends that if I am late and I have to

work late, or I can’t get off, that I could reach out. It’s very important that I pick

my child up on time. But a crisis is not going to occur if I don’t do this. If I began

to tell myself that, I’m probably going to burn 30 to 45 minutes at the end of the

day in a panic rather than simply recognizing that I have a challenge, it’s

important that I pick my son up and that he be picked up on time, but I need to

now reach out and delegate this to someone else. Let’s talk about where that


really belongs in my day, because it’s tempting to put that into number one.

Quadrant two is, do today if possible. Do today if possible. This is really where

most of your work tasks belong, isn’t it? You’ve got your list. It’s important.

These are things that I want to do today if possible. But a crisis is not going to

occur if I do not. Most of our crises and conflicts are self-created or false

conflicts. A lot of things are in box number two. Quadrant number three, and

thus the third priority, is can we delegate it to someone else? These are often

family tasks. Lots of people spend time at work managing their families. I cannot

tell you how many days I’ve spent listening to people spend a very big part of

their day managing things in their household. That can really cause you a lot of

trouble on your job. Your inability to delegate things appropriately among friends

and family outside of work can be impacting your job security. These are third on

your list. Could some of the things that you’ve been putting on your shoulders be

delegated to someone else? And number four, do if time is left over. This is the

saving for later. Some of you never have a box four. Everything is a number one

. . . maybe number two is as far as you’ll go. It must be done today or do today if

possible, but you never put anything in box four – do if time is left over. This is

where we have to learn how to say no without feeling guilty. Brian Tracy in the

Psychology of Achievement says that guilt is a wasted emotion. And you should

really think about it. It really is. Does guilt actually get it done? Is it serving you?

Is guilt a high-payoff activity? Sometimes things belong in the do if time is left

over, and save it for later. Remember that physical clutter creates emotional

clutter. If you need to manage multiple projects and deadlines, create a space


that’s a scrap drawer for you, where you go through this once per week. Don’t

try to deal with all the paper every single day, and remember that you’re more

likely to manage your multiple projects and deadlines if you’re working in an

environment that’s free of the physical clutter. The American Management

Association studies show that people spend about 30 minutes every day just

looking for stuff. Continue to use the power of your lists. Make lists and stick to

them. Lists can be one of the most effective time-management tools as long as

you are not a servant to the list, if you can remain flexible. Some of you love

your lists. You’ve got your lists of lists. But things aren’t getting done. Use lists

that are aligned with your specific goals, objectives, and tasks. Cross off items.

It motivates you. It improves results and gives you more control. And it forces

you to make decisions about your time. If something doesn’t get done, realign it

to those four quadrants and move on. Don’t stew about the list. Allow more time

than you think you need to perform necessary tasks. This is called padding your

day. Pad your day by one hour for interruptions.

[End of recording.]


SUCCESSFUL TIME MANAGEMENT MODULE FIVE – GETTING IT DONE – ORGANIZATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUES TO KEEP YOU ON TRACK Module Five – Getting it Done – Organization and Communication Techniques to Keep

You on Track. Use the small spaces between the big things in life to attack the

little things that clutter your days. You remember that we started this audio

conference talking about my student, Troy, who was a master at using every

small space between the big things in his life. He attacked all those little things.

He would manage his belongings, his folder, and then he would even manage to

tackle the big things in those little spaces, like his literacy to move himself to his

dream of going to college. You can do the same thing in your day by using some

of these tested and proven techniques. The resource Take Control of Your Work

Day gives a number of these great tips that are already listed in your handout. I

won’t read all of them to you. I’ll just give you some of the highlights. Never

keep clutter papers in your visual space. One, it communicates something about

you and it’s distracting. Create that color-coded file folder where you place

things and come back to it at regular intervals. I love what Tim Ferriss says in

the Four Hour Work Week about voicemail and email. He actually schedules a

specific time during each day where he checks voicemail and email. He does not

check every email as they pop up. That can be a huge distraction. Some of you

may work in environments where you are required to. For example, if you are in

IT and your job is to respond to every help desk email that comes to you, you

don’t have the luxury of using this tip. You can look at all of the different

organization and planning tips that I’ve given in your handout and decide which


one of those hats best works for you. But if you can, in many environments,

scheduling email and voicemail retrieval works. Here’s how you work it. As you

begin to change, people will get uncomfortable because people don’t like

change. That unconscious center of the brain – that horse – decodes change as

bad or wrong. So as you begin to make better changes for you, they will attempt

to force you and push you back into the way you used to do things. Whether it

was your procrastination or your inability to say no or your willingness to take on

everything – they'll try to push you back there. So your job is to teach people

how to treat you. If you’re trying out a new technique, let people know. On your

voicemail, indicate at what times during the day you retrieve and return phone

calls, and what people can do in the event they have a true emergency or crisis.

Help them define what that means, and who they should contact in the interim.

Turn on auto replies during the morning on email and let people know that you

are at your desk, you’re currently working on a project, and you review your email

at a specific time, and list those times each day that you’ll be reviewing your

email. And instruct them about what to do in the event of an emergency. You’ll

be amazed at how this works. Tim Ferriss operates several very successful

companies. He’s the author of multiple books and says that he swears by this

technique. I found it empowering and he encourages people in all different

positions to try some of those techniques. It’s one that I really like. Begin

tracking time to complete tasks, including interruptions, and make notes. It’s

going to be difficult during the first week, but spend a week keeping that diary to

see where things go so that you can decide when to implement some of these


tools. Communication is the most powerful tool you have to gaining back control

over your time and your life. I’ve given you some specific scripts from Simple

Scripts for Saying No without Guilt. Setting boundaries is about using I

statements – what I want, what I would like – instead of you statements. You

statements are often aggressive. Saying nothing is passive. You have a right to

set healthy boundaries. Communicate exactly how much time you have to talk.

Determine what meetings are essential and decline those that are not using

those four A’s that I gave you. Reserve the last 15 minutes of the day to return

calls to those who want to chat. Be on time and leave meetings on time. Be

mindful of other people’s time, including being too early. Typically it’s courteous

to be no more than 15 minutes early for a meeting because others feel obligated

to you once you arrive. Set boundaries with work during family and personal

time. Create balance. Don’t apologize for excusing yourself to get back to work.

“I’m sorry” communicates that you’ve done something wrong simply for taking

back control of your work day. Don’t give false excuses. Don’t lie. And don’t be

late or more than 15 to 30 minutes early. Saying yes to everything that is asked

of you without first assessing the priority level is a big don’t. Some people

always say yes. It’s the first thing that comes out. Really listen, assess the

priority, ask questions, determine how it fits into your LTGs. Remember, we

talked about those high-payoff and low-payoff activities. Look at where it fits in

before you give a yes or no. Don’t make it a habit of taking work home. We

teach people how to treat us all the time. And sometimes the competent are a

curse. It can be unfair on the workplace that people will give you as much as you


will continue to take on. Set a habit of being very efficient during the work day,

but establishing that you reserve after-work time for family, and that you will work

late, however only when it truly is a major priority and a crisis will occur if

something does not get done. It’s what you do today that determines your

tomorrow. Start to keep a gratitude journal. Focus on what you are really

grateful for and you will attract more of that into your life. Reward yourself for

your accomplishments. You really are getting more done than you think. Just by

filling those little spaces that are falling away with endeavors that are more

aligned towards your goals, you will begin to see better results. Review your

remaining obligations so you can schedule tomorrow’s most pressing priorities.

Then approach every task with a positive attitude and with gratitude, and you are

more likely to achieve your desired outcome. What are you grateful to have

accomplished today? And how can you reward yourself? Remember, it’s what

you believe with feeling that becomes your reality. If you aren’t absolutely happy

with the reality you currently have in your life, it’s as easy as changing your

beliefs. I wish you the best of luck on your journey to managing your time and

taking back control over your day.

[End of recording.]

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