How to be a Time Master: Control your time...control your life

excerpt

MASTER YOUR PLANNING

I regularly encounter people who tell me that time management is not for them because they don’t like planning. If their perception of this discipline is spending hours sweating over daily, weekly and monthly charts and never being able to feel spontaneous, then I don’t blame them for feeling that way. It wouldn’t be for me either!

How you do it and the level of sophistication is absolutely up to you, but know this: any planning system is better than none. If you don’t plan at all, you won’t have control over your life and others will. If you don’t have a method and a habit of planning, then get one!

With this in mind, here are the Time Master Planning Truths. These are a set of very simple guiding principles that apply in every situation regardless of the planning method you use or the complexity of your life.

Prioritization Is The ‘Holy Grail’ Of Time Planning

One area on which all time management planning experts agree is the absolute importance of prioritizing. Ultimately, everything boils down to this. You choose what you spend your time on at any given moment. Make good choices and you are on your way to becoming a Time Master.

When you have a multitude of things to do both at work and in your personal life, the problem you are faced with is deciding what order to do things in. People who just ‘do’ without any thought – and this applies to many – are always at risk of losing control of their time, getting less done and being more stressed than people who have a conscious strategy behind their choices.

The big problem, however, is how to prioritize in order to choose one task or thing to do over the rest. See Chapter 2 for my thoughts and tips on this question.

Don't Become A Time Planning Junkie

Don’t become a time planning junkie or a slave to time planning charts. This activity is not an end in itself. When the planning process starts to become so time consuming that you have no time left to do the things you are planning, then take my word for it, you have your priorities wrong!

I have read books that recommend two hours a day of time planning. I don’t know about you, but I can think of many more things I would rather do than give up two hours every day just to plan! In fact, anyone who has two hours to devote to this task probably hasn’t got much to do.

So how much planning should you be doing? You need to do enough to make a difference in your life and that’s it. If you are spending more than 10 minutes a day on thinking and planning your time, that is probably too much.

Avoid becoming too obsessive or inflexible with your planning. Plans are there to help you live your life to the full, they are not an end in themselves. Planning every minute of your time can take the joy out of living. It is the equivalent of a wealthy person sitting at home all day counting their money and deciding precisely what they will buy instead of getting out there and enjoying it!

You shouldn’t try to plan everything. Being spontaneous is a virtue and you can’t put ‘be spontaneous’ in your diary for 7 – 8 p.m. every Thursday, as one person I came across used to do. That defeats the purpose!

Businesses should heed this advice too. Some organizations and their management take time planning far too far. I have over the years encountered companies who are quite prepared to take every key member away from their main duties for days at a time at the busiest and most commercially significant time of the year to engage in time planning exercises. Of course time planning is good business practice, but not if it stops you doing business.

No One Planning System Fits All

Some time management writers focus on a particular, almost mechanical system of time planning – usually one they have created – and push this to the exclusion of anything else. You
often read, ‘Such and such a system is state of the art and the only “proper” way to do your planning,’ which leaves you feeling intellectually inadequate and useless if you can’t understand the system or it doesn’t work for you.

While I do have the Time Master ‘www question’ system as my personal guiding principle to any planning method (I’ll tell you what this is shortly), I want to be blunt, open and pragmatic with you: no one system fits all. Too often the focus seems to be on the mechanics of a time planning system without the recognition that everyone is different and has their own ‘time personality’ .

What is important is to create a system that works for you. It doesn’t matter what others say, how it conforms to the experts’ perception of what is good or how simplistic it is. At the end of the day the only test is whether or not it is helping you get more control of your time to use as you want.

Arguing that there is only one way is a bit like saying there is only one weight loss system that works. Some people advocate counting calories, scoring points, eating meal replacement bars, weighing in every week, avoiding certain foods, or doing press - ups every morning before their six - mile jog! The reality is that they all work if carried out sensibly and on a sustained basis.

My time planning message is that planning should be personality and not systems led. Later in this chapter I will offer you a menu of different planning methods to consider. Some will appeal to you more than others. Try them out, mix and match until you have something that gives you the level of improved control that you are seeking.

Understand The Time Master WWW Question System

I mentioned above my ‘www question’ approach to time planning as a guiding principle behind every time planning system. This couldn’t be simpler. Stick to it and you won’t go far wrong.
Each ‘w’ stands for an important question:

W = What do you ‘have to’ and ‘want to’ get done?
W = When will you do it?
W = Where will you write this information down so that it is easily visible and accessible to remind you?

The answers to these three questions will give you everything you need to plan well. The rest is detail! Let’s explore these a little further.

 

W = What do you ‘have to’ and ‘want to’ get done?

The key tool for answering the ‘what’ question is the ‘to do’ list.

 

‘To Do’ Lists

I have heard many people say that they don’t like ‘to do’ lists. If you fall into that category, you have a problem because every planning system essentially starts with a ‘to do’ process. You can’t think and organize your ‘things to do’ until you know what they are.

You may have a massive choice over how you divide up your things and where you write them down and store them, but all planning begins with the ‘ to do ’ list process. Don’t ignore it altogether.

The humble ‘to do’ list itself comes in varying levels of simplicity and complexity and can be structured very differently. Which of these do you think might work for you?

Level 1: The basic ‘to do’ list

This is just the process of creating a written list of things that you need or want to do. It is writing down the answer to the simple question: What shall I do today, this week, month or year? Think of something you need or want to do, put it on the list and cross it off when you’ve done it. That’s the process in a nutshell. It doesn’t distinguish between any specific projects or activities, or anything else for that matter. You just dump everything onto one list. Planning done!

I have come across people who knock this approach to time management as being flawed because it is too simple. What nonsense! It may not be the best method for everyone, but it is only too basic if it doesn’t give you the required result. I have encountered many people, some of whom are very bright and in senior business positions, who previously did absolutely no
planning at all and found that the humble Level 1 ‘to do’ list transformed their lives.

If you are starting from scratch, this may be a great place to start from before you work through the other levels as you try to improve.

Level 2: The prioritized ‘to do’ list

This kind of list involves doing everything in Level 1, but deciding once you have prepared your list what your priorities are and what order you will actually do things in.

As I mentioned before, how you decide on your priorities is a potentially huge issue and one that I deal with separately in the section ‘Master Your Priorities’, starting on page 54.

If you can prioritize, it will maximize your chances of ensuring that the most important things – those activities that will have the biggest impact for you – are dealt with first. Remember the 80/20 rule from the Time Master Truths? The idea is to spend your time where the effect will be greatest and where it will bring you closest to what you want to achieve.

You can physically highlight and identify your priorities on your ‘ to do ’ list in any way that works for you. Some people like to grade and mark them as A, B or C tasks, others 1, 2 or 3 and many visually sensitive people like to colour code them in some way with a highlighter pen. You choose.

Level 3: The prioritized, time-specified ‘to do’ list

Again you have a list with everything on it, but with this approach not only do you identify and record your priorities in some way, you also consciously ask in relation to each item: When precisely will I do it?

For most people, asking ‘When?’ and putting the answer somewhere in their planning system is the biggest factor of all in reducing stress in time management and I include myself in this category. There is nothing worse than carrying around a huge and growing list of ‘things to do’ in your head, wondering ‘How will I ever get through them?’, ‘How do I cope?’ or ‘Help!’

Nothing works better than putting all the tasks into a list, sorting them into some priority order in terms of importance to you and then deciding precisely when each will be done. Once you have put an item into your diary or planning system, you experience a sense of peace and relief, in the knowledge that a particular thing will turn up to be dealt with at the allotted time.

Different types of ‘to do’ lists

In addition to the three levels of detail just explained, there are a number of variations to the ‘ to do ’ list format that you might want to consider and experiment with.

The project - specific ‘to do’ list

Depending on your lifestyle or your job, you might find it helpful to draw up your list under different headings, with relevant to do’ items under each of them. The headings might be divided into clients, or other categories of your daily or weekly commitments.

If you are an account manager at a PR or marketing company and you look after three main clients, for example, you might have a list of things to do under each client you handle. As a teacher or lecturer, you might have a list of things to do under different classes you take as headings, along with another one for administrative duties. If you are self - employed running a small business, you might have lists for new business, past clients or customer activity, and one for administration and finance.

How can you divide up what you do? What are your main areas of focus?

This is the method I use at Level 3.

The activity - specific ‘to do’ list

This method is not divided into subjects or projects but specific types of activities, such as telephone calls you need to make or are planning to receive, emails to draft and send, meetings and proposals to write. Of course, this again can be drafted at Levels 1, 2 or 3 and in any written format to suit your personal preference.

Time section - specific ‘to do’ list

I have also adopted this approach many times over the years. It is a major plank of my Time Master thinking that you must feel you have the flexibility to adapt and alter your way of planning to the changing circumstances of your job, professional or personal commitments.

With this system you might decide to divide your day into three or four time segments and work only on certain types of projects or areas of activity in the appropriate time slot. Remember how your school days were typified by a timetable of subjects? Well, you might choose this as the basis for your time planning. You might divide your day into four 95 - minute units, for example, with each block devoted to either a specific client or project or a set of activities like phone calls or meetings.

Another way of doing this is to take a day each week per project or activity. You might do all your finances and administration on a Friday, while Monday and Wednesday are devoted to meetings and new business activities, with Tuesday and Thursday focused entirely on client service activities. Obviously, what is possible depends entirely on your type of job or personal life.

W = When will you do it?

How often have you said to yourself or someone else:

• We must get together sometime.
• I need to call that client to keep in touch.
• We must sort out our holiday this year.
• I need to get through 1000 sales calls.
• I want to get back to painting again.
• I must draft that report.
• I want to start going to the gym again.
• We must sort our finances out.
• I need to get our database in order.
• I really want to learn to play the piano.
• I must sort out the shed at the bottom of the garden.
• I must ring my sister for a chat.

There is one thing that you have to do that transforms the above wishes into reality. It is relatively simple. Let me coin a new phrase; you have to ‘when’ it.

Next time you hear yourself saying I need or want to do such and such a thing,’ or someone says ‘We must do something ’ ask ‘When?’ and put it in your diary or planning system right then.
Only when you have asked this question and given it reality and certainty by writing it down do you make an agreement or commitment to yourself or others that it will happen.

With this in mind, here are a few tips.

Put yourself first!

I have already mentioned in the Time Master Truths the absolute importance of putting yourself and your family first.

Most people plan their business or professional ‘things to do’ first and fit everything else around them. Being a Time Master is about taking control of your time so that you can do the things that you ‘want’ to do. Focus on yourself and your family first. It starts with you!

Imagine you are sitting with a calendar or diary in front of you showing the week, month or year at a time. The starting point to planning like a Time Master is to ask yourself when you are able to do certain things. I will list some of them as a guide in a moment. I can’t emphasize the importance of this aspect enough. Many people say that putting yourself first is impossible. The truth is that it only seems impossible if it is something you have never done before.

Focus and point your mind totally at the question of when you can put the following in your plan. Make it a priority. Block out time slots for these categories. You might even choose to mark them in different colours.

Time planning Time

Despite the obvious irony, you do need to build in slots for planning, you just don ’ t need to spend hours on it.

Many people like to plan what they are going to do the following day at the end of each day, either before they leave work or before bed. Others prefer to do this process in the morning.

I won’t sit on the fence here. My advice is to make planning your day the first thing you do each day, either at home or at work. Never just dive in. Even if you have prepared the night before, spare just a few minutes to review or plan the day ahead. The reason I believe it is better to do this first thing in the morning is because how you feel, your mood, state and a whole host of changeable external circumstances may have a bearing on the order in which you do things.

The same applies to forward planning. Write into your system when you will plan your week and month ahead. I suggest you find a slot at the end of the week, maybe on a Friday afternoon, when you can identify the things to be done next week, and also perhaps at the end of each month to think through the month to come. Regard this as an appointment with yourself. If you can’t do it at that time, then like any other appointment you need to reschedule.

Thinking time

Almost every day I encounter business clients or delegates at my seminars and events who tell me they are on the go every second. They are usually very stressed, regularly taking work home and often missing key business opportunities. They are often too busy to be successful.

Build ‘time out’ into your schedule. In other words, allow a bit of time just to stop, take a breath, review what you are doing and why. Isn’t it the case that some of your best ideas or solutions to problems have come when you were in that state of ‘not doing things’ ?

Time off

Always have some time off and something in your diary or planner to look forward to. This might be a break at home to get some domestic things sorted, a weekend away, a holiday or some family event. We all need something to keep us going when things start to get tough and we get under pressure.

What things do you have in place that fall into this category? If the answer is nothing at the moment, create something and put it into your plan right now. Even if you don’t know what you would do or where you will go, write down ‘Time off’.

In my planner I have ‘Time awa ’ written in for several days immediately after I am scheduled to finish this book. It is my reward for the hours of work on it. I don’t know where we will go yet, but it is built into my plan and getting closer every day. Even the discussions with my wife about where we might go or what we will do serve as a mental tonic. When other possible things arise to be done around that time, I say, ‘I can’t, I am away for a few days then. Let’s arrange a different time.’ In other words, I am fitting in other things around the things I absolutely want to do.

Exercise

What type of exercise do you do? If you do nothing, find two or three short slots each week when you can do something you enjoy. I don’t mind what it is, whether it is walking the dog, swimming, lifting weights, playing tennis, doing sit - ups at home or playing with your skipping rope and yo-yo. Anything is better than nothing.

The reasons most people give for not doing more exercise are ‘lack of time’ and ‘being too busy’. This is, in most cases, not the real truth. The sad fact for most people is that exercise is not a priority and it is not built into our plan on any regular basis. Be kind to yourself, put something in your diary now. Some people have said to me over the years, ‘I have tried that and it didn’t work, things cropped up and got in the way.’

Let me be blunt. If you have nothing in your plan for exercise, then guess what? It definitely won’t happen at all. If you put something in, it will happen more often than it does at the moment. For example, I have it in my planner to swim three times a week on Monday, Wednesday and Friday mornings between 7.45 and 8.45 a.m. Of course unexpected things sometimes get in the way, but with this time slot built in as the norm I go out of my way to fit other things around this commitment. Actually, as it is early Wednesday morning, I am going to stop for a while – I am off to the pool!

Getting organized time

Around your home, office or workplace, you will have a multitude of sorting, clearing and general organizational tasks. If you don ’ t have a plan for when some of these will get done, there is a strong likelihood that they will simply get left and turn into an overwhelmingly large job and mess very quickly. In the chapter ‘ Master Your Stuff ’ on page 60 I address this whole important issue. If you are going to keep on top of this area ofyour life, it starts with this simple bit of planning to block out some organizational time.

Catch-up time

One thing we all know for sure is that new things will crop up during the week in terms of business or domestic issues, things to be read, emails and phone calls that need to be dealt with. Build into your planner one or more ‘catch - up’ slots and save up these things for then. You may even want to build in one slot a day.

Family things

Most of us have family commitments or wants. Whether it is taking your kids to scouts, piano lessons or just having dinner with your partner, plan it in. Write it into your system as if it were any other definite appointment.

At least once a week, on a Friday night, my whole family sits down to dinner together. Nothing messes with this. Why? Because that is what happens on Friday night and any other event that might arise has to fit in around it. That is what being a Time Master is all about.

Hobby or outside interest time

Most people have things they like to do or get involved with. This might range from playing golf to taking an evening class in DIY, learning a language, volunteering to support a charity
or being actively involved with the local religious community of your choice. Whatever it is, decide what you want to do and put it into your planner.

Now if you look back at your open diary or calendar and see the things you have written in and blocked out for planning, time off , catch - up, exercise, family and hobby and interest time, then what is left is now available for the ‘have to’ things. This is what I mean by putting yourself and your family first. If you can’t manage slots for all these categories, just start with as many as you can.

Plan for the unexpected!

There is one thing you can expect with absolute certainty with any time planning you do. Every now and then, unexpected things will crop up and successfully knock you off your carefully planned day, week or project. Build into your planning system time to soak these things up. If they don’t happen you will have extra time. If they do you will be able to cope!

Set targets

The more specific you are with your planning the better. Targets can also be very helpful. For example, on one level I could write in my plan that I will work on the Time Master book on Monday. I could, however, be more specific and put in my plan that I will work on the ‘Master Your Planning’ chapter of the book on that day. To go one step further, if I were to set a target of 2000 words for that section between 1 p.m. and 4 p.m., I am much more likely to get it done than I would if I grabbed a bit of time here and there between other things. You tend to accomplish the things you target and focus on.

So if you are:

• An author, set a target of so many words per day.
• A sales person, so many calls a day.
• A decorator, so many rolls of paper to hang.
• A gardener, so many lawns to cut.
• A teacher, so many essays or books to mark.

Your targets start to become a habit and you will begin to get on top of your tasks.

W = Where will you write this information down so that it is easily visible and accessible to remind you?

This is where so many people come unstuck. They don’t have a sustainable system or method for where to put the answers to the what and when questions. I don’t mind whether it is on a wall planner, calendar, diary of any size, personal organizer, electronic notebook or a full - blown computer system. The only thing that counts is that you have your own answer to the ‘Where?’ question.

Planning Systems

Whatever kind of ‘to do’ list method you use and regardless of the level, you absolutely must have it all in one place, either on one piece of paper or accessible from one screen of activities on your computer. You don’t want several lists floating about on your desk or in different parts of your technology solution.

Of course, the format can differ from one person to another according to your own style or personality.

For example, despite having experimented with a variety of so - called sophisticated time management software, I still prefer a ‘pen and paper’, manual ‘to do’ list. I guess it must be my age! At the moment my personal preference is to use an A4 sheet marked with the date at the top. As mentioned, I use the subject - specific method at Level 3. This is usually the left – hand page in an exercise book.

I divide the page into four equal sections with a heading in each of the quadrants. They relate to the four areas of my day that take most of my attention. I head one ‘Speaking activities
and consultancy’, under which I list all those things I need or want to do that day relating to that aspect of my work. This may include phone calls and emails with potential clients about in - house seminar engagements, talks or courses I have to prepare, arranging travel details and so on. Another is headed ‘Author and book things’ , the third is headed with the name of the training company that I own and run. The last quadrant is headed ‘Personal and administration’. I include in this list the many day - to - day administrative items of a personal or business nature that need my attention. This is also where some of those personal ‘want to do’ things mentioned earlier live.

In conjunction with my diary or calendar, I write up first thing each day all the things I can think of under their various subject - specific headings, identify and mark up which are the priority issues that absolutely have to be done that day, decide when they will be done and where necessary move some of them into other days.

By the way, I use the right - hand blank page of the A4 exercise book to scribble any notes, phone numbers, email addresses or ideas that arise that day while I’m wading through my ‘to do’ things. Because it’s date specific, I can usually find any notes later with the minimum of effort.

Some people knock this approach, but that doesn’t matter. It works for me. Being a Time Master is about finding and doing something that works for you and gives you control. When an approach stops doing its job, adapt it and find something else.

Different types of planners, tools and methods

The purpose of this short section is simply to flag up the main attributes you should be looking for in planning tools and methods to help you answer the ‘Where?’ question. It is not my intention to review each method or product as if this were some sort of consumer or best - buy guide. There are simply too many products out there for me to do that. With this in mind, the main planning tools are:

• A standard diary
• A customized diary
• Calendars
• Year planner wall charts
• Pocket/portable electronic devices
• Software packages
• Your own personally developed method using a combination of the above

Whatever you choose, here are a few tips to bear in mind.

Invest wisely in something that is good quality

There are hundreds of items to buy in the shops and online at a wide variety of prices. While you don’t need to buy the most expensive – a leather - bound, gold - embossed diary still only includes the same number of days – nor should you get the absolute cheapest. Buy a cheap diary and you’ll regret it halfway through the year when the pages start to fall out and you endup with Christmas Day on Easter Monday!

Put ease of use before functionality

Over the years many people have proudly shown me the various software packages and electronic organizer planning system gizmos and gadgets they’ve acquired. They’ve bored me rigid as they run through all the things these can do. I have only once met someone who has actually mastered all the functions on his system: he had both a handheld device and a compatible software package on his desktop. The only problem is that he is almost always late for meetings with me. Perhaps he spends too much time playing with his toys!

Everything needs to be together or accessible from one place

I recently experimented with a new software - based time management system. It was great as a ‘to do’ list and it had all sorts of useful ‘bells and whistles’. However, in no way did it link to a calendar function. One without the other makes something far less useful than a simple diary or wall planner.

Be creative

It is perfectly okay to develop your own method. If it works for you that is all that counts. You can create something that suits exactly what you want, or you can find a company online that will design and print a diary customized to your requirements. So if you wanted it to start from 1 April, have two pages a day but with the right - hand side blank apart from the date, that could easily be done.

Be disciplined about moving things from one s stem to another

How often have you been asked about your availability and had to say you don’t know because your calendar is on your computer? Computerized systems can be great when you are in your office or happen to have your laptop in your jacket pocket! The problem is that you probably don’t walk around with these things all the time.

The solution that most of us use is a diary, a pocket electronic device or a mobile phone with a diary function. This is fine provided that you are disciplined enough to keep the two things synchronized. Failing to do so spells disaster sooner or later. For this reason, one system, even if it’s manual, is often better than two technological masterpieces.