How you spend your time is a choice. We tend to spend time on our perceived priorities. They maybe the urgent things, important things, or things that you just really enjoy or find easy. You would like to think that people choose their priorities, but generally that isn't the case. Why? Because people often don't know what their priorities really are, so we allow others priorities to become our priorities. That's why many managers often find themselves in problem solving all of the time. Others peoples problems become a priority. You get to choose whether they become your priority. It's a choice. Your time is a choice.
3 steps to becoming a time master
Change your thinking
Understand how you think about time and whether you are in control or whether it controls you.
Is your diary always jam packed and your diary runs you?
Do you say yes to things without understanding the impact on you because you think you have to, or should do?
There are two primary ways people respond to time:
Internal - Believe they are the masters of their own destiny. They control how they think, feel, behave and act. They choose what to say yes to and what to decline.
External - Believe that the world and circumstances control their world. They react and adapt to the world around them, causing stress.
Understand your habits
Doing an audit on your time and noticing your time habits will help you to become a time master. For one day, record everything you do and how long it takes you, including the interruptions, reading emails, scrolling on social media, lunch breaks, contracted work, meetings - everything. Then analyse the results.
What good habits do you have?
What do you need to change?
Form positive habits
Now you understand your strengths, weaknesses and habits, you can be more in control. It takes 20 occasions to form a new habit, so prioritise one or two new behaviours and commit to implementing them.
The prioritising is really important. Don't overwhelm yourself trying to change too many things at once.
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