Is this your complaint, “I just don’t have enough time to get everything done?”

Scary isn’t it. Time is one of those really funny things. We can either experience it as an aid in our lives or an enemy. And I don’t know about you, but when I was trying to manage my time I hated it. It wasn’t fun managing my time nor was I successful.

But I know that time and I need to work together if my day is going to be productive.

Just how important is each day? Let me ask you this. Would you like to have a good strong financial year? I ask this question often on my coaching calls and in my speaking engagements. And of course, the answer is always the same…yes.

The other question I ask is, “What does it take to have a successful year?”

You know the answers, focus, smart work, money making activity. But there is another answer. It’s a common sense answer.

In order to have a good year, you need a good six months. In order to have a good six months you need a good quarter. (Can you see where this is going?) In order to have a good quarter you need a good month, a good week, a good day. And in order to have a good day, you need a good hour.

This is the secret of those who make six and seven figure incomes. And you can duplicate it. You simply need to make the hour you work, count really count.

There was a time when I felt I simply couldn’t keep up with all the things I had to do? How about you? Do you make a list everyday of all the things you want to accomplish and then are surprised at what you don’t finish? I’m not saying that I always have a perfect day and get everything I want to accomplish off my desk. But, I don’t do one frustrating day after another anymore…and typically I can see the time derailment coming early in the day so I can make better adjustments.

And I didn’t get to this place with discipline. That’s another one of those things like “time management” that I don’t find very warm and fuzzy. Or for that matter particularly helpful. Most of us aren’t behind because we’re sitting on the couch eating bon bons. We’re running and running hard. This isn’t about not working.

But ignoring time doesn’t work either. There is nothing in your life that you do that doesn’t use time. Now I know you know that and so did I. But there is a big difference between knowing something and being really aware of it. And that brings me to the coaching tool I want to share with you today.

If you work with me for any length of time, you’ll get one of my core beliefs is that the more you are aware of something (anything) the more it is a productive tool for you.

For example, if you’re not a particularly good listener, the more you’re aware of the inner dialog going in your head that’s readying you with a reply, the easier it is to quiet it down so you can really listen. It isn’t that any of us are surprised at the rehearsing going on in our heads. Rather it is that we do the rehearsing unconsciously. Because it’s unconscious we’re not aware of how it robs us of our ability to simply respond to any given conversation. (We cover how to quiet this dialog down and really listen in the Savvy Sponsoring Academy.)

W. Timothey Gallwey’s book The Inner Game of Work is packed full of commonsense easy ways to become more aware of how you operate in the world of work. I highly recommend it. This is Gallwey’s simple but really effective way to become more aware of your time.

1. Look at each item on your to do list and make a quick estimate of how much time you think it will take you to accomplish the task.

2. After the task is complete, and before you look at a clock, guess how long it took you to get it done. (You may need to jot down how long each interruption took too.)

3. This exercise is very much like the hash mark exercise. I can tell you the results you might expect but it is much more powerful to come to them through the experience. But I will say this. Typically the more you focus on something the bigger it gets or the more you get of it.

We’ve all made “mountains out of molehills.” You know, focused on some little thing that annoyed us until we turned it into a huge deal. You can use that same kind of focus to turn positive things into big deals too. Try focusing on your time in this way and see what happens.

Time is not going to be managed. It has its own flow. It’s going to keep going with or without me or you. But I can realistically allot my time in a way that allows me to enjoy my life right now and so can you.

If this idea seems helpful to you, you might also enjoy our newest product “Store Hours.” It will help you to let go of time management and show you how to organize your work time in such away that accomplishing that great year one hour at a time is not only easy but fun.

The bottom line, I choose quality of time, how about you? My time has nothing to do with the amount of money I have or don’t have. I get the same amount of time in each day that you get….until my last day. You choose.

© 2006 Jillian Middleton All rights reserved.