Time is on your side, as long as you understand it.

“Time is money.”

You’ve heard that expression a thousand times or more. And as many times as you’ve heard it, you have universally ignored it.

Every year I get hundreds of requests for a course in “time management.” And every year I give my answer: why are you asking ME what to do with YOUR time? Don’t you KNOW what to do?

Is it time management or wasted time?

Is it time management or procrastination?

Is it time management or lack of productivity?

Is it time management or lack of achievement?

Is it time management or poor time choices?

You tell me; I’m concentrating on my time challenges, not yours.

I am writing another book on the subject of time management (soon to be titled): You already know what to do, you’re just not doing it.

I love the expressions that have been created over the years…

• Just in time.
• Save time.
• No time like the present.
• There was a time when…
• Time commitment.
• Time management.
• Time bomb

And a ton of other irrelevant jargon.

So if time is money, as suggested earlier, what are you doing with yours? Are you spending it or investing it? And how are your time investments working for you?

Are you frustrated because there are “not enough hours in the day?” I am. Groucho Marx had it right. He wanted a 36-hour day. That way you could work 24 hours, and still get a good night’s sleep.

Spending time or investing time is a CHOICE. Here are some examples of choices. See which ones apply to you.

• Spend time watching TV – Invest time reading a book
• Spend time drinking in a bar – Invest time writing or preparing for a sales call
• Spend time playing a video game – Invest time learning social selling
• Spend time playing a video game – Invest time talking to your kids

Invested time with your family pays the best dividend: love.

Is it time management? NO, it’s actually Time Allocation. It’s how you choose to use your time RIGHT NOW. How are you spending or investing your 16-18 hours a day?

New pressures are being placed in the immediacy of your time – and for many it’s hours, not minutes a day. And these are time uses that have crept into the work fabric, and are firmly planted in your life – and mine.

• SmartPhone. People (not you, of course) are addicted. Can’t sit down without looking at it, and responding to it. You spend hours on your mobile device with text, search, and email, THEN, you start talking.
• Email. How many a day? Ten? A hundred? More?
• Texting. The instant communication mode. Instant and unavoidable.
• Social Media. Feeling the (erroneous) need to respond instantly.

“Jeffrey, I don’t spend that much time on the phone.” Really? An hour and a half a day is 2,700 minutes a month, is almost two full 24-hour days a month. And most people spend MORE. I’m not saying it’s all bad time, I am saying it’s 90 hours – you measure its value.

And new time-pulls are creating re-allocation of your allotted time. The biggest being social media. Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and YouTube demand business and personal attention, and more time allocation. Time you and I never had to allocate before. Add blogs, newsletters, emails, and websites, and you have hundreds of new hours demanding, nay commanding, both attention and time. Your time. My time.

Wanna add your new allocation of time up? Three hours a day (minimum for all the items above) is 15 hours a week, if you only play five days. Doubtful. That’s 780 hours a year. My number would be closer to 1,000 – how about you?

You’re probably 1,000 hours just on your smartphone.

Here’s the opportunity, or the rub – depending on how you look at it. In all this allocation or re-allocation of time, make certain you’re addressing the real goals of the time investment process.

Here’s what you must be concentrating on achieving during these allocated hours:

• Making connections
• Helping customers
• Providing value
• Service in an instant
• Building relationships
• Earning referrals
• Building a social selling platform
• Writing and blogging
• Following up with hot accounts
• and, oh yes, Making sales

Cold calling? You have no time to waste on hit or miss. Ninety-nine point nine percent miss. Referrals are 75% hit. Start there. LinkedIn is a professional connecting platform. Start there.

Jeffrey Gitomer

You might also want to allocate some hours for reading, family, and travel. I do.

NOTE: You have plenty of time. Just cut out the time you piss away.

Jeffrey, What causes procrastination? Why do people waste time?

“If you love to do it, you procrastinate less.”

If people don’t see that there’s a tremendous reward at the end of their work, there’s no major incentive for them to do it. Most people procrastinate (and/or waste time) because they don’t like what they do. There’s no passion in it. If you love it, you procrastinate less. Notice I didn’t say you don’t procrastinate at all, you just tend to procrastinate less. Everyone has some procrastination in them, I don’t care who they are.

THE RULE IS: The more you “don’t like it” the more you procrastinate.

“When you’re procrastinating you know it.”

The other thing is that people tend to have the “moth to a light bulb” trait in them. Moths don’t really care what light bulb they’re going to, just the one that’s burning the most brightly. Now that’s not only from the standpoint of what is urgent at that moment, it’s also what feels good. You may be procrastinating and know it. For example: if you have a project that’s due but there’s a ballgame on so you watch the ballgame first. And you know you’re doing it but the “light bulb” is on the television and it’s sort of burning brighter, and so you sort of flap your wings around that thing for awhile. Then I’ll just make one sandwich and then... I’ll just call this one guy and THEN I’m going to go to work. I swear.

Everyone does that.

The most interesting thing about procrastination is when you’re doing it, you know it. Procrastination is a conscious thing.

If you’ve ever rationalized with “I’ll do it tomorrow,” then you procrastinate.

Jeffrey Gitomer

So, Jeffrey, is procrastination a problem or symptom?

“Procrastination is a Symptom”

“I’m a procrastinator (or, I avoid) is a symptom.” The problem is deeper rooted. Your goals and intentions aren’t clearly set. You don’t really like what you’re doing.

You don’t like who you’re working for. You’re not a well-directed or self-directed person. Those are problems that lead to procrastination.

OK, Jeffrey, how do I know if I have the disease?

“Look for the early warning signals that cause procrastination.”

• You hate your job.
• You are cynical.
• You took a time management course and it “didn’t work.”
• You lie about lateness.
• You invent excuses similar to: “the dog ate my homework.”

If you are any of these, you are probably a procrastinator, time waster or both.

OK, Jeffrey, how do I stop wasting time?

“Set Deadlines for Achievement”

If you write down deadlines for achievement it helps. Somehow you can always get something done just before the deadline. Here are two things you can do. Number one is set a false (earlier) deadline. Number two is to enjoy the deadline instead of lamenting it.

How do you enjoy deadlines? You get a positive attitude. You look at it as a learning experience as opposed to a chore. Even failure is a learning experience. Try to reward yourself with something good after doing something that you don’t like.

Here are some parting thoughts that might create an AHA! about why you procrastinate and what you can do to GSD:

• Pride in what you do is likely to reduce procrastination. If you’re doing something and you’re not proud of the achievement, you’re not really looking forward to the achievement. The end result would be “who cares” versus “I did it!”

  REAL LIFE EXAMPLE: You finished your sales report for the weekend so that you could satisfy your boss who you hate and don’t respect, so you did it on Sunday night watching television and “fudged” a few of the details.

• If it ain’t no fun, do something else. Do what you love. Money takes care of itself when you do what you love.
• REAL LIFE CHALLENGE: How good of a mood are you in when you come home at night. Bad mood = less likely to achieve.

More OUCH questions:

• How often do you tell yourself “I can do it later”?
• How fulfilled are you when you finish projects?
• How much do you like and respect your leader at work?
• How great do you feel when you get up in the morning?

REALITY CHECK:
Most people spend more time complaining about their situation than they do solving their situation and if they would just get out of the pity party aspect of their lives and into the solution aspect of their lives, everything would be fine.

Productivity (the opposite of procrastination) is a direct result of your desire to produce.