I have prospects contact me all of the time asking me to help them with their time management. Of course, we want to help them too! Today there are so many different things that we have on our lists to do. How do we get it all done? Why is it that some people seem to get more done than others? Are they smarter? Not really. They just know the secret.
YOU CANNOT MANAGE TIME!
There will always be 24 hours in a day and somewhere between 28 and 31 days in a month. That will not change. What you can do is spend more energy focusing on how your attention is used during those 24 hours.
Recently, Jaclyn Wells wrote on the topic too. She wrote:
"As long as you’re awake you have the power to continuously produce more attention. Now, what you do with that powerful gift is up to you. This is where you need to manage what you focus your attention on, how long you keep your attention focused, and the drive that you have to keep your attention on one thing until it is accomplished."
Pay Attention? How is that Different?
Paying attention is consciously focusing your time on an activity that gives you a good return. Your return on investment is even more important today. "Time is money" as the saying goes. What you choose to do with your time directly relates to how you make money and how balanced your life can be.
Figuring Out What to Pay Attention To
After conducting a survey of my 4000+ Twitter buddies, I learned that people have a real challenge figuring out where to pay attention and how to figure it out. That is one of the reasons that we created our most recent special report. (Did you get your copy? No? Go get it! It is F R E E!)
Putting it Into Action
"Taking action is the real difference between the super-successful and wannabes." ~Rich Schrfren
Once you get your projects and tasks figured out, then it is time to get to the real business of TAKING ACTION. All of the best thought out plans will turn into nothing if you don't take action.
One of my online mentors is Alex Mandossian and one thing I admire about him is the massive volume of work he can pump out. His secret? ATTENTION! He tells us to pick one hour a day (yes, one out of the 24 that we have) and focus in on ONE thing. Not checking web stats, getting a drink or seeing what your buds are up to on Twitter. Sit in your working space and work on that ONE thing (picked from your priority listing) for the entire hour. I call it a "Power Hour."
That's it! It sounds simple, but it takes practice. In this multi-tasking culture of ours, it is so easy to get distracted and do other things. However, if you are willing to make the investment, you will be amazed at how much more you can get done in a day/week/month/year.
PS Want to test your time skills? Take the quiz Time & Priority Management
