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managing time

How To Manage Your Time and Prevent It from Becoming a Horror Story

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Self-employment is Scary Enough Without the Time Monster Chasing You

With this being Halloween season there are a lot of scary things out there. Managing your time as an entrepreneur doesn’t have to be one of them.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve discussed time management and how to keep it from being as complicated as rocket science. The first thing was being intentional and taking control of it.

The problem isn’t a lack of time…it’s a lack of self-control.

The second thing we discussed was getting your priorities in order and not letting the hot fires have control. It is easy to get distracted by all the things there are to do. Sometimes we need to fight hot fires, but it’s up to us to be clear on which fires are the priority.

It’s a matter of clarity before the fires even start.

My core values are a large part of my clarity of which fires are the most important and when. One of those core values is spending time wisely because there’s a limited amount. This is the third thing needed to be successful with managing time.

Depending on our abilities, desires and needs, we can make more money, make more friends, find more work, design new things, discover new ideas. Not that those things are easy, but they can be done.

With TIME…. you’ve got what you’ve got and there ain’t no more.

Here are 5 reasons why so many struggle with this –

  1. Trying to do too many things
  2. Lack of focus
  3. Not saying NO!
  4. Trying to do it all by myself
  5. Procrastination

(You can get more details about these reasons here)

God has given each of us this TIME to spend and He has given us the right amount for everything, Ecclesiastes 3. It’s up to us to spend it wisely!

With time being such a valuable commodity, it’s critically important to spend it wisely.

What is Worth Your Time? Not, “what your time is worth”. This changes the perspective of how we spend our time. What things are most important for me to spend time doing. Is it a call from one of my kids, serving a customer by solving a problem, spending some time with a dying friend or doing some work for the church?

Once time is gone you can never get it back. Don’t waste the little that you have.

This isn’t to say that time doesn’t have a monetary value…because it does. It scared me a little when determined what my time was worth.

Based on my target revenue goal the year I determined that…

my time is worth…$2.23 per minute.

Remembering this gives me a heightened sense of focus.

What spending your time wisely looks like can only be determined by you.

Like most things, we make time management scarier than it really is. Don’t be afraid of the time monster. Just face it down and show it whose boss.

You’ve got this!

Why is it so Hard to Decide Which Thing is More Important Than Another?

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Too Often, Prioritizing Comes Down to What the Hottest Fire Is

What should I do first? There are so many things to choose from. What makes one thing more important?

Today we’ll talk priorities.

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks discussing how we make managing our time more complicated than it needs to be and how if we’re intentional we can manage it better.

This is no different than any decisions we make. We have the power. We can choose.

But this is the hard part. It makes us responsible. If it doesn’t work out…it’s our fault. We’re to blame.

Don’t kid yourself…your choices are always your fault. Just own it, make the best choices you can and keep moving forward.

Making these kinds of decisions ultimately comes down to who you are. You need to get clear about this and prioritize accordingly.

It comes down to deciding what your big rocks are.

Growing in your faith? Spending more time with your family? Serving your customers better? Paying off debt? Taking better care of yourself physically and mentally? Helping with community projects?

All good things…

But there’s a limited space in your time jar and only so many rocks will fit.

Deciding what’s urgent, important or not is hard. Too much of the time we find ourselves fighting fires. Too often, this comes from a lack of preparation.

Most of us are aware of the time management quadrant which uses the idea of sorting things into the 4 different areas.

  • Quadrant 1 is fire-fighting (urgent & important). This is easily recognized and where most of us spend way too much time. This is the get down to the core action of, if the house is on fire and the phones ringing…do we answer the phone or get the kids out of the house? The problem is we should have spent more on important rather than urgent and maybe we could have prevented the fire.
  • Quadrant 2 is quality time (important & not urgent). This is the area where we should focus. It’s where we get the most return on our investment of time and energy. It’s also the hardest because there’s no immediate rush like there is when fighting fires.
  • Quadrant 3 is distractions (urgent & not important). We can fill this quadrant with an endless list of small and trivial tasks convincing ourselves that they are important, because they probably are. The things in this quadrant require less time and energy than the ‘really’ important tasks. The question is, are you doing them because they’re important…or because it feels good to check thing off the list?
  • Quadrant 4 is time-wasters (not important & not urgent). The things in this quadrant are the things of least importance. These things serve no direct purpose in accomplishing the important things in your life. You want to avoid wasting time on these things.

While this is a great plan, it still comes down to who you are and what your priorities are.

This is the hardest part.

A lack of planning and preparation is what leads to the fires starting. This doesn’t mean that there aren’t going to be times when someone throws a match into your plans, and you have to stop what you’re doing and fight the fire.

The better prepared we are the less hot the fire will be and the quicker it can be put out.

Hot fires are a good way to get burned.

Don’t get burned by your time management. Know who you are and what your priorities are and put in the biggest rock first.

You Can Choose to Manage Your Time Better or Not…it’s Up to You

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Be Intentional About the Actions You Take to Fight Against the Time Monster

Last week I wrote about how we tend to make time management more complicated than it needs to be. Making things more difficult than needed is just human nature. Those of us that are self-employed seem to take this to a whole different level. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Like everything in life, we have choices. Time management is no different.

The three things that I said need to be used to successfully manage time were…

  • Intentionality
  • Prioritization
  • Spending time wisely

Today’s focus is INTENTIONALITY

Being intentional is a conscious design or purpose about your choices and actions. It is deciding what you’re going to do and doing it.

Why is it that we will be on time to meetings with other people, but not with ourselves?

If I have a day full of meetings and appointments, I will be on time to all of them. But if I fill my day with tasks and projects that don’t involve anyone but me, I’ll be running late shortly after getting started?

Think about it like this…Why is it that we can make it to the airport in plenty of time for our flight or not dare be late to our child’s wedding, but won’t set down and get to work on that project that needs to be worked on?

How we choose to spend our time is going to vary for each of us. What we spend it on is not the issue. Being intentional about it is.

The problem is not a lack of time, it’s a lack of control

This does not mean that it’s easy. There is a time monster that will eat up all your time if you let it. He will gobble it up as soon as it’s available and not leave anything but crumbs.

We have to intentionally confront this monster. Closing your eyes and putting your hands over your ears doesn’t make him any less real. He’s out there and he likes the taste of time.

The intentional, continuous, focus of small actions over time will bring the monster down. The process, known as the “snowball effect”, is the accumulation of small things added to small things until they become a big thing, like a snowball rolling down a hill.

An intentional snowball is the best weapon when dealing with a big hairy time monster.

It feels like there’s not enough time to do everything. I would argue that we’ve been given enough time to do everything we should. The problem is that we’re trying to do too much.

We’ve been given enough time to do everything we are supposed to. God built the world and everything in it in six days. We’ve been given those same six days to build our lives. Granted, building the world is a lot…we just need to remember that we’re not God.

God was intentional about what He was making. We need to treat our mission the same way.

You can do anything you want. You just can’t do everything you want.

Being aware of time and watching the clock also requires intentionality. Time is the most valuable commodity we have. You’ve heard the saying “time is money”. I would argue that time is MORE than money.

Money is a form of exchange for a service or product. We have some control over how fast our money goes…not so with time.

There is a limited amount of time.

Time is continually moving. There is no stopping or slowing it to get more done. If we spend a dollar, we can go make more. Once time is spent…there’s no getting any more.

Managing time requires intentionality. You can’t just wish it to happen. You have to decide to fight the monster and pick up the snowball.

Why Do We Make Managing Time as Complicated as Rocket Science?

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When in Reality, It’s as Simple as One, Two, Three

I’ve shared before about some of the great discussions we have in our masterclass. This week’s was no different.

The question that got the gears in my head spinning was this –

When self-employed and working from home, how does one schedule time and determine boundaries?

Now, is this a great question or what. How does one do this?

When working from home it’s easy to be sidetracked by all the things that need done, like – yard work, gardening, vacuuming, washing the dishes, repair projects, laundry, changing the oil in the car, checking out social media, researching new and better computer programs, emailing old friends… You get the point! All the things on this list are worthwhile and important things that need to be done.

There were some great answers from of the group.

  • I work when my wife is gone to work. When she gets home, I stop working and spend time with her.
  • I have an office space that is only accessed by going through the garage, up some stairs and through the attic.
  • I start my day at 8:00 just as if I was going to an office.

The key to managing time is intentionality!

Having been self-employed for most of the past forty years I have a head start on most of the people in this group. But believe me I understand. I’ve struggled with this for years and just began to figure out over the past 8-10 years.

My figuring it out took a big step forward with a wakeup call from God. He got my attention with a board upside the head, literally. This incident persuaded me to step back and look at things differently. I got a more well-rounded, big picture view of life and it helped me to see things differently.

I’m a workaholic and love what I do. Now I look at my whole life, all the different aspects of it, as my employment. This a word that is typically connected to a job, but that’s not completely accurate. Being employed is – the active use of or engagement in services. Being engaged in activity. I see employment as more than just a job.

The freedom perceived as a part of self-employment is the one thing that most often prevents these ventures from succeeding.

One of the biggest issues with self-employment is lack of boundaries. It’s like kids when they first move out of their parent’s home. There’s a newfound freedom. Nobody is looking over their shoulder telling them to get up and go to class or to not stay out late so they can get up and go to work.

Most people have been raised with some kind of structure. Working for someone else is the same thing. When we become self-employed it’s like moving out for the first time. There’s no boss preventing me from washing the dishes or mowing the yard.

This new freedom leads to an uncertain, unclear understanding of what we should do, when we should do it and in what order.

There are three things that need to be present if you are going to be successful in self-employment. –

  • Intentionality – Be intentional about what you spend your time on. Why is it that we won’t be late to a meeting with other people, but will blow off meeting with ourselves? We’ve been given enough time to do everything we should…just not everything we want.
  • Prioritization – This one can be tough. What makes one thing more important than another. This is where being crystal on who you are, who you’re going to help and how you’re going to help them comes in.
  • Spending time wisely – Time is limited. It is the most valuable commodity you have. It’s up to you to decide how much you’re going to spend and what you’re going to spend it on.

The SELF in self-employment means “the buck stops here”. It’s up to me to manage my time…no one else. Our human nature is to make things more complicated than they are or need to be.

Managing time doesn’t have to be rocket science. Intentionally prioritizing how you spend your time is all it takes.

Check back, we will break these down more in the coming weeks.