Time is Precious- Just ask Napoleon

Napoleon was no dummy, he knew the value of time, and the impact that time has on a persons chances of achieving success and achieving the goals they have in life.

“You can ask me for anything you like, except time “Napoleon Bonaparte

You can sometimes tell how important a topic is when you look at the number of important people that have quotes under that topic. When you look up Time Management, its hard not to find an influential person who does not have at least one quote about Time, many of them have several quotes attributed to them.

Napoleons quote is one of thousands that deal with time. I choose this one because what he is saying is as relevant today as it was 200 years ago. I also choose this quote because it very clearly states how we should treat our time. In this quote he says you can have anything you want, with out exception, except his time. He realized that everything is replaceable, except his time.

There is an expression in marketing, its called “top of the head awareness “, it’s the place that every marketer wants to get to. Briefly, the term means that when ever the consumers thinks of cars, what is the car that they think of first, what car is at the top of the list, hence, the term top of the head awareness.

I find that when I am working with people on issues that effect them, that as I work through their issues, problems, one thing that stands out immediately is this one. There total lack of awareness of the role that time plays in there everyday activities. For example, when I start a project, the first thing I do is look at the implications from a time issue. How much time will it take, how much time do I have available, how much time before I start, the list goes on.

Time is at the top of my list, it’s my number one top of my head awareness topics. Going back to my clients for a moment. Very few, if any of them, run their actions through a time filter. Time filter is simply a way of looking at what they want to do and before they start their activity, analyze if for its suitability as it pertains to time issues. I have already gone over some of those issues in this article.

The individual issues are not as important as the process and when it starts. The when it starts is the crucial element here. The more times you start your thinking process, your planning process with the focus on the time implications, the more times you will be significantly more productive and reap far greater rewards than if you had not.

If you start off by thinking about the time ramifications, you are setting yourself up for being better organized, more productive and getting done what should be done, when it should be done by. The process, once started with time as the guiding factor, becomes a much more productive exercise and one that stands a really good chance of yielding good results. The more you follow this step, the step of putting time first, the more it will become apparent to yourself how much better off you are in terms of getting what you want done.

By recognizing the importance of time by first putting what we may want to do through our time criteria, we are now starting to lay the proper foundation on which to build our future success. Nothing will make you more of a convert than you experiencing, personally for yourself, actual positive results appearing in your day to day life. The proof is in the pudding.