Time and Seven Tips to

Finding More of It By Bruce Kinsey of http://www.moretime4.us

Copyright 2010

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Table of Contents Contents ................................................................................................... 3

TIME – THE WORST WASTE OF ALL ............................................................... 4

THE TIME YOU’RE GIVEN .............................................................................. 5

ONCE IT’S GONE… ....................................................................................... 6

AN INVESTMENT IN TIME .............................................................................. 7

WHY IS TIME BEING WASTED?...................................................................... 8

THE PARETO PRINCIPLE ................................................................................ 8

PROCRASTINATION, INTERRUPTIONS, AND LACK OF GOALS ............................... 9

NO PRIORITIZING ....................................................................................... 11

DELEGATING ............................................................................................. 11

LIFE COACHES ........................................................................................... 12

SENSEI, SHOW ME THE WAY! ..................................................................... 12

WHY DO I NEED A COACH? ........................................................................ 12

TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS ........................................................................... 13

A FEW LAST WORDS .................................................................................. 15

TIME – THE WORST WASTE OF ALL

Everybody creates waste; there's no point in arguing that. The most careful

and frugal person will wind up wasting something at some time. With most

people, it's not uncommon to waste food, gas in the car, electricity, and

money on all sorts of things.

What would you say is the biggest waste of all? No doubt many things you

bought and never use, or the stuff you don't enjoy the way you thought you would probably come to mind. You might have wasted money on a new cell

phone that you no longer find exciting after the first week or on cable

channels you never watch. You may waste gas in your car running too

many errands when you could have and should have combined them into

one. Perhaps you wasted food by not using it before it went bad or by

cooking too much and throwing away the leftovers.

But of all the things that get wasted in life, time is probably the most wasted

of all things. Many people waste time on useless activities that don't really

serve their needs or on by not doing their responsibilities right the first time.

Time can be wasted from sleeping too much, from doing harmful things like

overdrinking or using narcotics. Time can also be wasted just sitting on the couch, watching mindless television.

Often time is wasted, not just because people indulge (or over-indulge) in

activities that could be considered a waste of time, but because of poor time

management skills. You might compare how people waste money on food

because they don't use it before it rots or because they cooked too much, to

the time that gets wasted. If a person had better skills when it came to

preparing that food and had the discipline needed to use the food in the

house before shopping for more, they may not see so much go down the

garbage disposal. It's not their eating that's the problem in of itself and of

course it's not the fault of the food that it rots. The problem is that it's how

the food is prepared and used that creates a waste.

So it is with time management skills. A person can work, and work, and

work and wonder why they've not gotten anything done. They can also

honestly feel that they don't indulge in time wasting activities such as

watching television or going out with friends to the bar every night. And yet

they wonder why they aren’t accomplishing anything or reaching the goals

they once had for themselves?

Usually, the problem is learning how to manage one's time and to maximize

it for the most effectiveness. Like learning to cook and manage one's shopping can mean better use of the food in the home with less waste,

learning how to be in control of your time and your schedule can mean less

time wasted.

THE TIME YOU’RE GIVEN

Have you ever wished that there were more hours in the day in which you

could work? Probably so! Many people wish this at one time or another. I

know I certainly have! Between their careers, household chores, child care,

and wanting a little bit of peace and quiet for yourself, it’s no doubt that

you've found bedtime arriving too early on more than one occasion.

Has it ever occurred to you that people all around the earth are equal in the

fact that they all get the same amount of time every single day? This may

be the one constant thing that everyone shares! You have 24 hours, every day. So does your boss, your neighbor, the President, your favorite

celebrity, and oh yes, that person that you admire because they always

seem to have spare time.

Knowing and realizing that your time is limited and that you have the same

amount of time as everyone else should help you to better understand the

importance of effective time management. Why? Let's again compare time

to money. Those who are struggling financially often assume that if they

just made a few dollars more than they do today, then they wouldn't be

struggling and would have all their bills paid, and would enjoy their life.

Of course there are those that struggle because they truly live in poverty,

but this is not what we're considering here. The point is that while it's tempting to think that the answer to money problems is to have more

money, that’s not always the case. Think of those that have literally millions

of dollars to their name and still wind up declaring bankruptcy or facing

other serious financial problems. No doubt some celebrity names come to

mind. And if these people who are making millions and millions of dollars

every year still face money problems, do you think money is still the issue?

Obviously the answer is that it's the way they manage their money. Having

more money won't help if you spend it on useless items that lose value and if you don't save for the future as well. Those celebrities and others that

have plenty of money coming in but who face bankruptcy and foreclosure

and these issues have not managed the money that they have.

So it is with time. If you had 50 hours in the day or even 100, who is to say

that you would accomplish more in that time? If you haven't learned to

manage the 24 you're allotted, getting more time probably won't make

much difference in maximizing your schedule and achieving your goals.

ONCE IT’S GONE…

One consideration when it comes to wasting time is that once it's gone, it's

gone. Do you waste money? You can earn more. What if you waste food?

You can buy more, and so on. But with time, there is no cycle of it that buys

back the time that's lost.

Yes, you will have another 24 hours tomorrow. But, everyone's life is finite;

the 24 hours you've wasted today is being subtracted from the total number

of hours you'll have overall in your life. You can’t get those hours back,

unlike the way you can replenish your bank account when you purchase

something useless.

This too is why time is so precious and so valuable. This is why wasting it, by doing useless things, is probably one of the worst things a person can do!

There is no turning back the clock! There is no way to regain that time that

you lost!

AN INVESTMENT IN TIME

Another reason to consider how precious time is, that it can also be seen as

an investment in your future. The way you spend your time today does

have an effect on tomorrow’s circumstances. Setting goals and using your

time towards achieving them, you will soon find yourself living with the end

result of those goals being accomplished.

But if you waste time and let it fritter away, you will have nothing to show

for it when tomorrow arrives. There are many ways this can be true;

consider a few here:

When you spend time with your children and family now, you are

strengthening family bonds that can last a lifetime. Your relationships

will be stronger and everyone will feel closer.

Investing time in furthering your education can mean more earning

power. This may mean a more comfortable lifestyle, a more secure

retirement, and the ability to provide for yourself and your family.

Spending time today caring for your health may mean less health

concerns in the future. This may mean exercising more, taking the time to prepare healthy foods, and things such as these. But it can

result in not having to spend time at a doctor’s office or dealing with

There are many personal goals you have that likely mean investing time in

order to achieve. If you don't invest that time, you won't have the future you

imagine. For instance, suppose you want to adopt a child. This likely means

researching the process, selecting an attorney, preparing your home, and

doing whatever else is necessary to be eligible for adoption and to make it

happen. If you don't use your time today to work toward that goal, of

course it will never just happen!

Considering how time is an investment in your future should also encourage

you to learn how to manage it wisely. If you let time just slip away, this investment will never pay off, because you never made one! But if you use

it to reach your goals for tomorrow, then you're using your investment

wisely.

Of course, this is all well and good. But just knowing how precious time is

doesn't typically force anyone to use it wisely. Just about everyone wastes

time often in their lives. How can we change this? Let's first look at why

time is often wasted and then we can move on to addressing how to fix

these things.

WHY IS TIME BEING WASTED?

If time is so precious and valuable and limited, why is it always so wasted?

Why do people throw it away, refuse to recognize its value, and fail to learn

how to manage it wisely?

The answer will be different for everyone. The habits you have that waste

time will be different from the practices someone else has. The reasons you

struggle to manage your time will be different from the reasons why your

spouse is so disorganized, always late, and never seems to accomplish

things either.

Typically however there are some common reasons for time being wasted

today, and for poor time management skills. Let's take a closer look some

of these common reasons and then we can discuss each of them in greater

detail.

THE PARETO PRINCIPLE

The Pareto Principle is a philosophy regarding cause and effect; it's also

known as the 80/20 rule. It simply states that very often, 80% of the effect

comes from 20% of the causes.

As an example, suppose a family or individual has financial problems, even

though they make enough money to support themselves. It may very well

be that only a few bad habits, when it comes to spending, are responsible

for the majority of their financial problems. So, 20% of the things they do

with their money are causing some 80% of the problems they have with it.

Let's consider how this principle can apply to time management. It’s

doubtless there are many things you must do during the day, which you

have very little say. And, there are many time wasters that are just part of

today's world. Standing in line, waiting at red lights, sitting through yet

another meeting that your boss holds so he can hear himself talk. These

things are time wasters, but they're a part of today's life. To get where we

want to go, to buy the food and other things we need, to have a job and earn money, we must simply suffer through these things.

Yet, when it comes to choices you make about your own time, no doubt it's

just a small handful of bad habits or a slight bit of mismanagement that

accounts for the majority of the wasted time in your life.

Consider how this might be true. Just two hours of television every night

adds up to 14 hours every week that's wasted. That's almost the same

amount of hours you spend during two days at work! One afternoon of

running all over town, just to take care of errands that you haven't

organized into a quick trip can mean that most of your entire day is wasted.

You’ll probably then be too tired to do anything else at the end of the day.

It’s usually small habits and small time wasters can add up to hours, days,

weeks, and then years being wasted away. The key is to identify those

habits and then take steps to address them properly!

PROCRASTINATION, INTERRUPTIONS, AND LACK

OF GOALS

One common element of the time that we waste is procrastination. We

constantly put off those things we know that we need to do, but feel that we

can wait to do. The situation rarely, if ever takes care of itself. Usually we

create more problems, and thus waste more time, waiting than if we did

them as they needed to be done.

Procrastinating is such a time waste because we let it slip away, do nothing with it. We still need to balance the checkbook, get ourselves on track

financially, get that education, find a new job, clean out the attic, etc. Even

though we refuse to do these things, that doesn't mean they don't need to

get done! Procrastinating does nothing but delay the inevitable.

You may think that interruptions don’t was much time. You could just simply

wait until the interruption has passes or is over, and you can get back on

track. The reality is that we can’t always do that.

We lose our train of thought, needing a reminder of what we were doing

beforehand. We even forget what we were doing completely! Interruptions

can also mean we lose interest in what we were doing, causing us to

procrastinate.

Sometimes, people don’t effectively spend the time they’re given because

they don’t have any goals. They simply don’t know what to do with their

time.

Goals are like windshields on a car. If you can’t see through your windshield

clearly, you cannot see where you are heading. You’ll waste time driving

everywhere or nowhere, but neither direction gets you to your destination.

Goals are the same way. If you can’t determine your direction, the only

place you are going to go is nowhere.

Goals can be big or small, personal or professional. They can also change. But a lack of goals can easily cause you to lose focus. Without focus you

have no idea how you should be spending your time, which in turn means

you accomplish nothing.

NO PRIORITIZING

Lack of prioritizing skills is like goals, in that you don't know what should

occupy the time you have for maximum effectiveness. You have many

different demands on your time. Failure to realize which demands should

come first and which should come last, and which should be dropped from your schedule altogether, can mean wasting that precious time.

A lack of prioritizing with your schedule can be compared to not prioritizing

with your finances. If you buy new clothes without paying your rent, you

have your priorities confused. If you go out drinking with your friends or go

gambling rather than sending in a car payment, of course your priorities are

off!

Learning how to set priorities may mean learning how to say no to certain

projects or demands. This can be difficult especially for those that are not

used to turning down requests and demands on their time, but like other

time management skills, it can be done.

DELEGATING

Do you delegate your work, whether that's work in the office or work at

home? If you have a difficult time with this, you're certainly not alone.

Lots of people struggle with assigning work or sharing responsibilities, and

for various reasons. It might be that they feel they're the only ones that can

handle the work, they nitpick and criticize the work of others, and they can

think others will look down on them if they share their responsibilities, or

they just don't know how to ask for help.

Whatever the reason, taking on too much usually means that something, if

not everything, will suffer. It also means that the things that are important to you may not be cared for since there is little room in your schedule for

them.

All of these different time wasters and time bandits are very common for

many. No doubt you've noticed yourself in some of these scenarios. And if

so, what then? How can you address these situations so that you can

maximize your time and really call it your own?

LIFE COACHES

A life coach can help! Not every life coach is able to help those who need

more time. Every life coach specializes in a certain area. Some help people

find ways to lose weight, other coaches specialize in helping others become

stronger leaders. I specialize in helping people manage their time and lead a

life of lower stress, while fulfilling their goals.

So what does a life coach do?

SENSEI, SHOW ME THE WAY!

Most everyone knows what a coach is. We’ve seen sports games such as

basketball and football, and know that every team has a coach. These

coaches know how to lead and train their team into becoming better players.

Life coaches do the same thing. We help you eliminate procrastination. We’ll

help you take manageable steps towards your goals. We help you become a

better player at life!

WHY DO I NEED A COACH?

About now, you’re probably asking why you need a coach to help you with

the trouble areas in your life. It’s easy to tell yourself that you’ll set dates

and times to get things done. It’s easier yet to ask someone you know to

help you. Yet, even easier is to do nothing!

The problems with these tactics are simple, but sometimes hard to see.

When you tell yourself that you’ll do these things to improve your life,

you’ve got no accountability, other than to yourself. It’s all too easy to say

“That’s O.K. I’ll make it up or do it later.” You set yourself up for failure.

Asking a spouse or friend can also be a pitfall. If the other person doesn’t

expect these things of you, or you can’t open up to them completely, you’re

going to fail again! Also, some people that you may have hold you

accountable, may hold you back.

If you tell your spouse you want to climb Mt. Everest, they may be overly

concerned that you might get hurt and hold you back. A coach on the other

hand can say “Great! When do you want to climb it? Next month, next

year? Maybe next week?” and help you towards that goal. A coach is there

to help you and be objective. A coach has a stake in your well being and

happiness. A coach wishes to help you and not hold you back. Coaches can listen to whatever you have to say, your dreams, your fears, your desires!

You can be assured that whatever you share with your coach, they won’t

judge you.

TIME MANAGEMENT TIPS

I know you read this small book to learn something about time management

and hopefully some skills to help you achieve your goals. Here’s my list of

seven things to help you improve your life and have more time and less

stress:

1. Make a list.

I know, this seems like a no-brainer. But I can’t tell you how many

people don’t do it. They don’t keep a calendar or even rough schedules.

Instead they commit things to memory. Unfortunately, we’re human and

we tend to forget things and distort our memories. Committing a list of

things to do to paper or a computer document makes them easier to

remember and harder to get wrong.

2. Do things in manageable steps.

Again it seems easy, but many people try to tackle a whole project at

once. They continuously jump around in what they do. They take large

chunks and try to conquer those. The truth is that it is much easier to

complete many small portions of a much larger task, than it is to crash through a few large portions. Make manageable steps towards reaching

your goals also makes it easier to see where you are going and how far

you have left to go.

3. List your interruptions and tune out.

What are common interruptions for you? There are some that are too

trivial to list; a ringing phone, a knock at the door, and things like these

are often too numerous to actually put on a list. But the reason you want

to think about your common interruptions is that very often people allow

certain interruptions to happen time and again. There are some which

you can control and address, and some which are just inevitable. If you think about what you allow to interrupt you consistently, you can then

face and address these effectively. Doing so can free up hours in a day.

Tuning out thing such as pets or the temptation to surf the internet for

hours will free up time as well. If something is getting in the way avoid,

remove, or change it whenever possible to get more done.

4. Track your progress.

We stated earlier how easy it is to forget about the things we need to do

and the time in which we need to do them. It is also fairly easy to forget

just how far we’ve come. If you start running and double how far you

can run in two months, it can be really hard to remember just how far

you were able to run when you first started. It’s not only motivating and exciting, but also therapeutic to see how far you’ve gotten towards your

goal. Otherwise, you may become derailed and lose focus, and never

reach your goal.

5. Delegate tasks when you can.

Knowing when and how to delegate may be the hardest thing on this list.

If you’re a lawyer in a large firm, you should have someone else make

copies of those important documents. There’s no reason that you can’t

apply this same principal to other tasks in your life. If you put off

mowing the lawn, cleaning the gutters, and washing the car, hire

someone else to do it. You feel these things need to get done, yet as we

discussed, procrastination is a complete waste of time that you will never

get back!

6. Make choices.

Choosing how you spend your time is like choosing how you spend your

money. Your money is yours to do with as you please. You may again be arguing, saying that your money must go to the mortgage or rent, car

payment, utilities, and so on. But as with your time, you're making a

choice to spend your money on these things. You're choosing to live in a

home or apartment and have chosen on with the payment it has. You

choose to have a car and utilities rather than to be homeless and trying

to live off the land. Your time is the same way. You decide how and

where to spend it. Choose wisely, because you’ll never get that time

wasted back!

7. Take a break!

Far too often, someone trying to maximize their time and organize their schedule will make the mistake of thinking that every moment needs to

be scheduled and that every minute of recreation is a waste. It’s been

scientifically proven that people need to rest and relax on a regular basis.

Hobbies can also indulge one's imagination and creativity and even

sharpen memory skills and problems solving abilities. Taking a break can

mean strengthening bonds between friends and family as well. Being

unbalanced with recreation and wastes of time is bad for your schedule in

both ways; too much recreation and you get nothing done, but no

recreation and you create stress and tension for yourself.

A FEW LAST WORDS Thank you for taking the time to read this! Every author feels honored to

have their works read and validated. If you would like to learn more about

coaching, what I do, or to have some coaching sessions, please visit my

website or give me a call at:

http://www.moretime4.us

(407)-494-4278 (Leave a message if I don’t answer!)

Bruce Kinsey