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The 5 Fairytales of Time Management

The 5 Fairytales of Time Management

Poor time management thinking and action can undermine your best efforts. If you want to manage your time more effectively, start thinking about time management differently. You can begin to change your time management mindset by dispelling these 5 common time management fairytales.

Time Management Fairytale One - Time Management

That’s right… time management itself. What a big fantasy. In reality you can’t manage time. Everyday you receive 24 hours. You can’t add more nor do you get any less time. Erase time management from your brain and start thinking outside the clock. You want to organize the clock to fit your needs.

Sometimes the words time management can create mental blocks especially if you tried some type of time management in the past. Look at the meaning of the word manage: handle, deal with, control, cope, get by, make do, survive and direct. Now look at the word organize: put in order, sort out, arrange and systematize.

Which you prefer to do? Organize and arrange your time or deal with and cope with it?

I know I use the word time management, but that’s how people find us on the search engines. They think they have a time management problem. In reality it’s an activity problem. One of the first things I do when working with a client is shift their mindset from time management to "Thinking Outside the Clock" with organizing their time.

Time Management Fairytale Two - Working Harder

There is a rumor going around that if just work harder you can get more done. This same rumor perpetrates that hard work leads to wealth. The truth of the matter, if working harder supplied the answer, why do so many of us remain constantly busy but get very little done?

Time management operates on the philosophy of trying to cram more and more stuff into your calendar. You end up working harder trying to get everything done.

When my mentor told me to start working less, I thought her brain left her body. Imagine my surprise to discover that I didn’t need to work harder, faster, and put in long hours. I actually got more done working fewer hours.

Learn to use your time wisely. You will become more efficient and accomplish more without working harder.

Time Management Fairytale Three - Planning Take Too Much Time

Since time management myth two encourages you to work hard, long hours to get things done, it seems logical that planning would waste time. Wouldn’t you save time and get finished sooner if you just dove in and got started?

Studies show you get finish faster when you plan ahead. Planning ahead will allow you to stay on top of the situation! The 20-30 minutes you used to plan will not only save you time but money, worry and aggravation.

When you make planning part of your time management strategy, you begin with a good start. You won’t find it necessary to stop in the middle to get what you need, you get a better sense of how long something will take to complete and you can block your time accordingly.

Time Management Fairytale Four - Keep a To Do List

A To Do List by itself doesn’t accomplish anything. It simply reminds you of what you still need to do. It never ends. It probably grows longer and longer each day. The To Do List often turns out to be nothing more than a list of random intentional tasks.

The To Do List doesn’t allow flexibility in dealing with interruptions or how long it will take to complete the task.

The To Do List can undermine your self-confidence. You feel guilty when you can’t cross everything off your list at the end of the day. Traditional Time Management provides a solution to that problem; just move everything you didn’t accomplish to the next day’s list. Like that really helps.

When used correctly, the dreaded "To Do" list can turn into a highly effective time management tool.

Time Management Fairytale Five - You Need a "Time Planner" to Manage Your Time.

I receive this question quite often "What’s the best planner to use to manage my time?" The answer: The one that works best with your personality. What a cop out right?

Let’s go back to Time Management Fairytale One. Remember you can’t manage your time. You get 24 hours and the end of the day it’s gone. And if God decides to give you another day, you will wake up with another 24 hours.

A Time Planner is used to organize what you do with your time. You either waste it or wisely use it. The true purpose of a planner aids you in using your time more wisely by organizing your activities.

It doesn’t matter if you use Outlook®, Palm® Pilot, Day Runner®, Franklin-Covey®, Planner Pad® or any of the other numerous band names out there or a legal pad of paper.

Time organizing begins with altering your mindset about the way you view time in general. Put time to work for you by applying Thinking Outside the Clock™ techniques. A great place to start begins with dispelling these time management myths from your life.

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"The Time Diva"

Ann Rusnak, "The Time Diva" developed a system to show busy self employed solo business owners how to gain more time and increase sales working less hours. Receive the FREE eBook "Thinking Outside the Clock" when you sign up for Time Myth Busting Minutes ezine at: SimpleTimeManagement.com

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