CHAPTER SIX
Set Your Priorities and Simplify Your Life
You now know who you are and what you really want in life. It is time for you to organize your life so that you are able to maintain your balance point and enjoy the maximum happiness, joy, and personal satisfaction.
Your life is precious. You want to enjoy every moment of it at the highest level possible. You want to achieve the highest return on the expenditure of your mental, emotional, and physical energies.
Life Management
In this sense, time management is really life management, the management of yourself. The quality of your time management largely determines the quality of your life. What you choose to do, and in what order, and what you choose not to do determine your levels of happiness and satisfaction more than anything else. You will always feel more balanced when your time is spent on achieving goals that matter to you.
The good news is that time management is a skill, like riding a bicycle, that can be learned. No matter what you have done or not done in the past, you can learn to become an excellent time manager and to get the very most out of yourself and life every single day.
As we said at the beginning of this book, everyone today has too much to do and too little time. Like everyone else, you often feel overwhelmed with your duties, tasks, and responsibilities. The challenge for you is to simplify your life in such a way that you spend more time doing the things that are most important to you and less time doing those activities that are not important at all.
To simplify your life and to get more done, you should set peace of mind as your highest goal and then organize your life around it. Whatever gives you peace, satisfaction, joy, and the feeling of value and importance is right for you.
Whatever causes you stress, dissatisfaction, unhappiness, or irritation is wrong for you.
You must have the courage to organize your life so that you are doing more and more of the things that give you the greatest joy and satisfaction and less and less of those activities that take away from your joy and satisfaction.
Double Your Productivity
Highly productive and successful people practice a series of rituals every day. Before they go to bed at night and when they get up in the morning, they do certain things in a certain way, very much like preparing a dish with a tested and proven recipe. You must do the same.
One of the rituals of high-performing men and women is planning every day in advance. The starting point of setting priorities and achieving high productivity is to “think on paper”! The saying “When you think it, ink it!” applies here.
Make a List
Make a list of everything that you have to do each day, before you begin your day. Generally, the best time to make out your list is the evening before. This allows your subconscious mind to work on the tasks on your list while you sleep. Very often, you will wake up in the morning with ideas and insights about tasks that you can do more effectively.
However, if you are the kind of person who would sit up at night thinking about your list and the things you need to do, then do not write your list the night before. Instead, write out your list the very first thing in the morning, before you begin work of any kind. Make your list before you check your e-mail or look at your social media. Discipline yourself to do nothing before you have written down what you have to do that day. This is an excellent ritual for you to develop that will virtually assure a more productive day. You can write your list while having your morning coffee or tea. With repetition, it will soon become a new habit.
When new activities come up during the day, before you allow yourself to act impulsively, or become distracted, write them down on your list. When you write them down next to the other things you have to do, they take on a different perspective and often do not seem as important as they did when they first came up.
Increase Your Productivity 25 Percent
Working from a list will increase your productivity by 25 percent or more from the first day that you begin doing it. Over time, by working with a list and with a checklist for each of your projects, you will increase your productivity, performance, and output by 50 to 100 percent.
The most immediate benefit from using a list is that it will give you a tremendous sense of control over your life. By working from a list, you will reduce stress and increase your feelings of personal empowerment.
Set Your Priorities
Once you have made a list of everything that you have to do in the coming day, the next step is for you to set priorities on your list. In more than thirty years of research, writing, and teaching on the subject of time management, Brian has concluded that the setting of priorities lies at the heart of all the books and articles ever written on personal productivity.
Perhaps the best definition of time management is this: “Time management enables you to control the sequence of events.” By managing your time and setting priorities, you determine in advance what you will do first, what you will do second, and what you won’t do at all. In choosing the sequence of the events in your life, you actually choose everything that happens to you.
And you are always free to choose. You are always free to select what you are going to do next and what you are not going to do. In your use of this freedom, you determine the quality of your life today and your future life tomorrow. You determine the actions you will take that are reflective of your values and what matters to you.
Make a Date
One of the things that is really important to Christina is having quality one-on-one time with each member of her family. She makes it a priority to have “dates” with each of her three children and her husband at least once a week. What she has discovered, and this is true for many people, is that by having quality time with her family members, she feels more connected to them, which enables her to be more focused and effective when she is working on her professional goals.
Having a date with each family member is at the top of her list. She knows that when she does not create quality one-on-one time with her family members, she has a hard time balancing her desires to be a good wife and mother and to pursue her professional ambitions without feeling guilty. She also notices that her children and husband are less tolerant of her absence when she spends time on work-related tasks, and that makes her feel distracted. To be the most effective and operate from her balance point Christina needs to invest time and energy with her family before she can invest time and energy on her professional ambitions.
Use the 80/20 Rule
Apply the 80/20 Rule to your list. Remember that 20 percent of your activities will account for 80 percent or more of the results that you achieve. In fact, sometimes the 90/10 Rule applies: if you have a list of ten things that you have to do in a day, one of those items will be more important than the other nine tasks put together.
You are a “choosing organism.” You are always making choices based on what is more important to you and what is less important. You will be happy only when your choices and your activities are in harmony with your values and beliefs and with what is really important to you.
Consider the Consequences
Perhaps the most important word in time management is “consequences.” Something that is important has serious potential consequences. Something that is unimportant is something that has mild consequences or no consequences at all.
Successful, happy people work on those activities that have the greatest potential consequences for their lives, their work, and their families. Unsuccessful people become preoccupied with activities that have low or no consequences, such as watching television or immersing themselves in social media throughout the day.
The ABCDE Method
Once you have made a list of everything that you have to do in the coming day, use the ABCDE Method to set priorities for the tasks on your list.
Must-Do Tasks
An A task is something that you absolutely must do. Completion or noncompletion of the task has serious consequences. If you don’t do this task, and do it on time, your failure to complete it will cause problems and unhappiness in your work and personal life.
What are those items on your list that you absolutely, positively must do to fulfill your responsibilities and to be successful?
B tasks are those that you should do. These are tasks and activities that you need to get done throughout the day, but there are only mild consequences for completion or noncompletion. Most of these tasks can be put off until later, and even until tomorrow.
The rule is that you should never do a B task when you have an A task left undone. What are your B tasks?
Goethe said, “Things that matter most must never be at the mercy of those things that matter least.”
Nice-to-Do Tasks
C tasks are those that are nice to do but have no consequences at all. Checking your e-mail, reading the newspaper, chatting with a coworker, or getting a cup of coffee are all nice things to do, but they have no consequences in your life and work. If you did not do them at all, it would make no difference.
Successful, happy, productive people focus on their A tasks almost exclusively throughout the day.
Unsuccessful, unhappy, unproductive, and lower-paid people are continually distracted by “shiny objects,” by things that are nice to do or fun to do but have no consequences at all for their career or for their futures.
Tasks That Can Be Delegated
D tasks are those that you delegate. The rule is that you should delegate everything that anyone else can do to free up more time for yourself to work on those tasks that only you can do. This requires people who like to be in control to let go of a little control and trust the task to someone else.
Practice the 70 Percent Rule. If somebody else can do a task 70 percent as well as you, it is a task that should be delegated. Many people become successful because they master certain tasks on the way up. They then make the mistake of falling back into doing the tasks that they mastered that got them promoted in the first place. Don’t let this happen to you.
The very best managers and executives and the most productive people are those who are continually thinking, “Who else can I get to do this rather than me?”
Tasks That Can Be Eliminated
An E task is something that you should eliminate altogether. This is a low-value or no-value task or activity that contributes nothing to your life or work. It may be fun and enjoyable to do, and it may be something that you became accustomed to doing in the past, but today it has no value at all.
Here is one of the great rules for success: you can get your life in balance and under control only to the degree to which you stop doing things of low value. You cannot get your life in balance by doing more things, by becoming more efficient and productive, and by working longer hours. You can get your life under control only when you say no and stop doing those things of low or no value.
The Most Valuable Use of Your Time
The key question in time management is, What is the most valuable use of your time right now? All the books, articles, courses, and workshops come down to helping you determine the answer to this question.
Whatever your answer, this is what you should be working on at the moment. Completing this task is where you can make the greatest contribution to your organization, to your family, and to yourself. What is your answer?
Zero-Based Thinking
Practice zero-based thinking in every part of your life. This technique comes from zero-based budgeting, in which you analyze your expenditures on a quarterly or annual basis. You then ask not whether you should increase or decrease a particular expenditure but whether you should be spending money in that area at all.
Use the same principle in your personal life and business life. Analyze and evaluate every activity in your life, as well as every past decision, and ask yourself, “Knowing what I now know, is there anything I am doing today that I would not start up again today if I had to do it over?”
Conduct a KWINK Analysis
We call this a KWINK analysis. Keep asking yourself, “Knowing what I now know, is there anything that I would not start doing again if I had the opportunity to start again today?”
This is an extremely liberating question. According to research, fully 70 percent of the choices or decisions you make will turn out to be wrong in the fullness of time. The people, situations, and conditions involved will change. What seemed like a good idea at the time you made the decision will turn out to be a not particularly good idea at the present. Refuse to become trapped by your decisions from the past.
Courage Is Essential
It takes tremendous courage for you to admit, on a goforward basis, that you are not perfect. It takes tremendous courage for you to admit, knowing what you now know, that there are things in your life that you would not get into again today if you had it to do over.
Three Important Statements
You can use three statements, in conjunction with zero-based thinking, to remain flexible and effective in every area.
1. Be prepared to say, “I was wrong!” It is amazing how many people make a mistake and do or say something that they know to be wrong, but because of their egos, they cannot admit it. Since you are going to be wrong 70 percent of the time, the sooner you admit it, the sooner you can correct the situation and get on with the rest of your life.
2. Be willing to say, “I made a mistake.” Many of the things that you do, especially in business and in your career, will turn out to be mistakes in the fullness of time. There is nothing wrong with this. This is how everyone learns and grows. What is wrong is to refuse to correct a mistake because your ego is so invested in being “right.”
The psychologist Gerald Jampolsky once asked, “Do you want to be right or do you want to be happy?” You have to make this decision for yourself.
3. Learn to say on a regular basis, “I changed my mind.” It is amazing how many people dig themselves into a hole of stress, anger, frustration, and dissatisfaction because they are not willing to admit that they have changed their minds.
This is not for you. You must stand back and look at your entire life. Is there anything in your life that you would not get into again today if you had to do it over? If there is, have the courage to admit that you have made a mistake (which all people have done) and then take the necessary steps to change.
Task Completion
Once you have written down everything that you have to do, set priorities on your list, and selected the most important thing that you could do right now, the next step in simplification and time management is for you to begin immediately to work on your most important task. Practice single-minded concentration on one thing—the most important thing—and stay at it until it is 100 percent complete.
All success in life comes from task completion. Only when you start and complete important tasks do you get results, and results are everything.
When you repeatedly switch from working on one task to working on another task, commonly referred to as “multitasking,” you have to invest a certain amount of time to remember exactly where you were when you last stopped working on that other task. When you switch back, you have to spend a certain amount of time getting organized and prepared to restart the old task.
This switching back and forth can increase the amount of time it takes to do a task by five times, far more than if you disciplined yourself to start on the task and work on it until it is 100 percent complete.
The Power of Concentration
Here’s some more good news: Concentrated, focused work on a single task is a major source of energy, enthusiasm, and self-esteem. Closure and completion of a major task increases your personal pride and self-respect and motivates you to do even more high-value work.
Everyone wants to feel like a winner. Everyone wants to enjoy the winning feeling throughout the day. How do you experience the feeling of winning? Simple. You win!
The way you generate the winning feeling in yourself is by starting and completing important tasks throughout your day. Each time you complete a task, your brain releases endorphins, which are called nature’s “happy drugs.” Each time you complete a task, you feel happier. You have more energy. You become more creative. Task completion even affects your personality and makes you more genial and personable. You get all these psychic rewards simply by starting and completing important tasks.
Overcoming Procrastination
Perhaps the greatest obstacle to excellent time management is procrastination. It is not that people do not know what to do; it is simply that they have a natural tendency to procrastinate, especially on their most important tasks—those tasks that are important but not urgent.
Here are several simple techniques that you can use to overcome procrastination and develop the habit of getting the job done quickly:
1. Prepare for your task. One of the techniques that has been helpful in getting organized to work on a project is gathering everything together so that it is all in front of you and ready to go. This is the first step. After that, it is easier to take the next step and the next and the step after that.
2. Set a time limit. Resolve to work on a major task for fifteen minutes and then quit. By setting a time limit and getting started, you begin to develop forward momentum, and you will often find yourself working longer and longer to get the job done.
3. Set up a reward structure. Give yourself a reward for completing part of a job. The psychological impact of this strategy is powerful. You actually shift your attention away from the work, which is causing you to procrastinate, and start to focus on the reward, which motivates you to get started.
4. Promise others. Tell someone that you will complete a task by a certain time. Once you have told someone else that you will definitely start and complete a task for him, you will find it much easier to motivate yourself to get the job done.
5. Practice discipline. Imagine that you are going to be called out of town for a month unexpectedly. Before you go, you must complete one major task. Which major task would it be? Whatever it is, discipline yourself to start and complete that task as fast as you can.
Resolve today to eliminate procrastination. It has been said that “Procrastination is the thief of time.” It is even more accurate to say that “Procrastination is the thief of life.”
Fortunately, whatever you do repeatedly soon becomes a new habit. When you organize your work and select the most important task that you could do and then start on that task immediately each day, you will soon develop the habit of starting and completing important tasks. Your productivity, performance, and output will all go up. Your self-esteem and self-satisfaction will both increase. When you complete a task, you will feel like a winner. You will earn the esteem and respect of all the people around you. You will get paid more and promoted faster. Your whole life will change when you eliminate the habit of procrastination from your life.
All Skills Are Learnable
Remember, all skills are learnable. You can learn any skill you need to learn to achieve any goal that you set for yourself.
Time management is a skill set that can be learned and that must be learned. You can become a superb time manager by practicing the techniques taught in this chapter and by continually educating yourself on how to be more productive in your work.
The best news is that you could be only one time management skill away from doubling your productivity, performance, and eventually your income. You could be one time management skill away from spending more quality time with family and friends, staying present when it matters, and being engaged in meaningful activities. And as a result of what you have learned in this chapter, you probably know exactly which time management skill can help you the most to make a greater contribution, achieve more success, and experience more balance between your career and your personal life.
You have the ability right now to organize your life around your values, to put your time and energy into those activities that have the most meaning for you and that allow you to achieve all of your personal and professional goals.
ACTION EXERCISES
1. From this day forward, make it a habit—a daily ritual—to plan every day in advance, and always work from your plan.
2. Select your most important task each day, start on that task immediately, and discipline yourself to focus on that one task until it is complete.