Introduction
Time is the only resource that people can't borrow, buy, or barter. And time refuses to follow one of the main tenets of the law of supply and demand: the idea that when the demand goes up to a high level, the supply will increase to meet the demand. People may use different amounts of time to accomplish results, but everyone is endowed with the same amount of time each day: 86,400 seconds.
Your ability to manage that time is really one of the top two causes of success or failure in your life. Investing greater amounts of time into a need, goal, objective, or even weakness can tip the balance of success in your favor. At numerous crossroads in life, I had to be willing to apply more time than my competitors to achieve a competitive advantage over them in the marketplace. I certainly didn't take for granted that my mental power was far superior to that of my competitors. Rather, my willingness to invest more time in certain tasks or use my time more effectively equalized the playing field.
Of course, if you invest too much time at work, you can be a success at the office but a failure at home. A true champion always has his or her pulse on home life and invests the right amount to keep vital relationships in life growing and thriving. The good news is that this book has both arenas covered. Congratulations on investing in yourself, your success, and your life!
About This Book
Successful Time Management For Dummies is about using your time more effectively to create greater results at the office and at home. Note that in the spirit of saving you time, this is a reference book. In other words, you don't have to read it from cover to cover. Just look up what you need and put those ideas in action.
Personally, I think you should read every word of this book. I wrote it, after all! However, if you're the bare-bones-info type, you can skip the sidebars that appear throughout the book. Those gray boxes contain interesting, often anecdotal information that's related to the topic but not essential to understanding it.
- Helps you with your organizational habits, discipline, systemization, goals, values, management style, persuasion, and even travel.
- Offers real techniques, strategies, and tools that I've personally used, taught, coached, and spoke about. I've seen them bring forth a bounty of results in my life as well as in the lives of countless others.
- Helps you mentally wrap your brain around the problems of time management.
- Explains how to establish a solid system that you can replicate over time.
- Introduces you to prioritization systems, time-categorization systems, time-blocking strategies, and appointment-setting strategies.
- Helps you grab back control and distill time management down to its essence.
- Sets you up for success and then helps you establish and align your goals with your time.
- Delves into prioritization strategies and tools.
- Takes you deep into the most important characteristics of a great time manager.
- Tells you how to time-block your way to greater success.
- Contains the tips for you to take your business and career to the highest level, no matter your job title.
Icons Used in This Book
To help you navigate this book a bit better, you can rely on the icons in the book's margins. The icons act as little signposts pointing out the important info.
This bull's-eye icon points out little-advertised nuggets of knowledge that are certain to give you an edge in increasing your time-management skills.
This icon denotes critical information that you really need to take away with you. Remember these points, if nothing else. They address the issues that you come across repeatedly with time management.
Consider this the flashing red light on the road to making a sale. When you see the Warning icon, you know to steer clear of whatever practice, behavior, or response I indicate.
These icons tell you that I've cracked open the archives of my life experiences or my successful clients’ life experiences to help illustrate a point.
Foolish Assumptions
When I wrote the book, I assumed a few things about you, dear reader:
- You want to use your time better. You expect to gain more time with your loved ones, you want to ramp up your success at work, or you're looking for a little of both.
- You know that effective time management isn't a one-stop fix; it's a comprehensive effort that requires looking at all time-draining culprits. You're willing to invest the effort needed to develop your time-management skills (or create them if they don't currently exist!).
- You're willing to be patient with yourself throughout the difficult process of self-betterment, knowing that in the end, all your efforts will pay off.
Beyond the Book
There is much more information available from your author, and from the Dummies brand, for your learning pleasure. Check out these resources to learn more about the art of successful time management:
Find the Dummies Cheat Sheet for this book at www.dummies.com/cheatsheet/successfultimemanagement. The cheat sheet gives you a quick reference to help you manage your time and stay on track.
Extra online content can be found at http://www.dummies.com/extras/successfultimemanagement. Here, you can find short articles on ways to trim down wasted time. From how to plan a trip to getting your yard work done, you'll find these articles helpful.
Where to Go From Here
In this book, I use the classic For Dummies fashion: You have easy access to the precise information you need when you need it. You can start at Page 1 and read through, or you can hop around, targeting the areas you need the most help with first. Keep this book close by to help you wring the most you can out of life in the scant 24 hours you have each day.
Part I is a good place to start because it helps you deal with the mental barriers to time management that can seem to form an unscalable wall. After that, you may want to pick topics that cause you the most challenge or frustration. For instance, you can check out Chapter 16 for ways to beat procrastination or see Chapter 18 so you can get a handle on upcoming meetings. On the other hand, if you feel you have your time strategy pretty much under control but are looking for a tune-up, you may go right to Part V first. There, I address how to take time management to the highest level through customized plans for your job or job title.
The truth is that no matter where you take your first plunge, the water's fine. You can find plenty of valuable information that you can use to increase your performance without increasing your hours at work.