Two Key Elements of Time Management.

Just when you think you pretty well know everything about a topic, something pops up and spoils your illusion.

I have been working with Time Management Tools and Systems for the past 35 years and I was pretty confident that I was on top of the game, until now. I was writing some material a few weeks ago and it just came out as I was writing. It was an unrelated document and I used these two words to describe Time Management to someone. They just popped out and as soon as I had written them, I knew that I had found something that I had been looking for, for a very long time.

Have you ever been looking for something and you do not know what it is, but when you find it, that’s when you know what it was you were looking for in the first place. That was my dilemma for a long time. I knew that there was a way for me to better describe what Proper Time Management really was to people, but I had not found the exact terms that would convey what I knew and felt to other people. I had numerous ways to describe what Time Management was, most of them were really GOOD, but none of them was the ONE.

I have been looking for the ONE word or groups of words that would convey exactly the essence and the true power of Proper Time Management to the non believers. Let’s face it; my job is to turn people who do not use and practice Proper Time Management techniques into believers and practitioners, over night to start. I was happy with my explanations, but was frustrated that I had not found the Silver Bullet, so to speak.

I have found that Silver Bullet.

Checks and Balances

Not very earth shattering is it. It may not be to you, but to me, it is the missing link that I have been looking for, for quite some time. The instant those three words came off the keyboard and on to the screen, my search was over. To me, those three words “checks and balances “summed up why you should pay critical attention to how you treat and deal with your own time.

Checks

We all need parameters; we all need to know where our personal line in the sand should be. Rules, regulations, what we should and can’t do, are all part of functioning in this world. The successful people, people who seemed to be able to get more of the things they want in life, at least more things than others are capable of acquiring, have this process down pat.

The process that I am talking about is finding a way to accomplish more of the things they need to do to be successful than non successful people. Sounds simple, but we know that it is not. How do they do it?

They do it by self imposing their own set of checks and balances that guide them each day and if they follow their own set of rules, will make to the end of the day having accomplished what they need to do to be successful. Proper Time Management gives you the Tools and Systems, all wrapped up in one package that lays out the checks and balances procedures for you. This is an important distinction that must be emphasized.

A Proper Time Management System, is a skeleton, it has all of the steps, procedures, the checks and balances included in it, all that is left for you to do is to apply this Tool to your everyday practices and integrate the two. Its not un like buying a coloring book, all of the pictures are outlined in the book, its up to you to put in the colors according to what you want the pictures to look like. The same book will be bought by 10 different people, the outcomes, how the individual pictures look will all be different.

Balances

Life is about balancing the things we want to do with the things we have to do. I will take this statement one step further; it’s about redefining the things we think we have to do. One step further again, its also about making sure we are really do the things we want to do, there is always massive competition in this category, finding the truly important things we want to do is always a challenge.

How happy we are, how successful we are rides on finding this balance in life. I have not found many happy people, or many successful people who have found this balance just by chance. Identifying the things in your life that will make you happy and or successful is just half the challenge. Once you find the ingredients, you have to find a way to put them in a bowl, mix them all up and come out at the end with the perfect cake.

That is why checks and balances is the perfect missing link to my personal journey to understanding why Proper Time Management is so crucial to me accomplishing what I want out of life.