Focus 3 
Do you feel the accelerating pace and increasing pressure of life and work? There is no question that we live and work in a hurry-up, high-pressure world dominated by the tyranny of the urgent. There seems to be a never-ending and ever-growing list of people, projects, and priorities competing for our time. And to make matters worse, technology that was supposed to save us and make our life easier and reduce our stress, has become a burden in itself. There seems to be no escape from the constant bombardment of messages and information from the internet, email, voice mail, and cell phones. Technology has only added to our stress by giving us more things to do.
To a degree greater than we may realize, time pressures come from within as much as from without. How we respond to life’s demands has as much to do with our attitudes as the demands themselves. This is not to suggest that today’s time pressures are not real. They are. But the solution lies first in recognizing that we have a choice in how to respond to the demands on our time, and then requires the courage to make those choices.
An important starting point is the right perspective on time management. Our “time management mindset” is a key factor in shaping how we invest our time. Here are 5 time management myths that tend to influence our time management habits.
Myth #1: There’s too much to do; I can’t handle it all.
This can’t be the real reason why I don’t get the important things done. After all, there are people who have learned to focus on their priorities and manage their time effectively. This means while it is often true that there are too many things for one person to do, it isn’t true that those things can’t be prioritized, delegated, organized, and managed effectively. It is possible for me to organize my time in a way that gets the really important things done.
Myth #2: There’s plenty of time; I can do that later.
Funny. This is the exact opposite of myth #1. Yet both myths contribute to procrastination. Rather than switch from one myth to the other, we need a consistent, realistic view of how much our time is worth, how much of it there is, what we want to accomplish, and how we are going to prioritize and invest our time to accomplish it.
Myth #3: I’m busier than usual right now, so it makes sense to shift some tasks off to another time.
A tricky one. Occasionally it’s really true, of course. But usually, we are about equally busy all the time. Our time is worth the same all the time, with a few exceptions like if we’re trying to be on time for a critical client meeting or our granddaughter’s wedding. Fact is, it FEELS that we’re unusually busy at any given moment, because at that moment, we are AWARE of the things impinging one our time right then. This is the essence of “the tyranny of the urgent.” A person can only be aware of so many things at once.
Remember this: The detail of the moment seems complex; the future seems simple, free and clear. But really life is always that complex. You may think, “This is an unusually busy day because I have a sales call to make.” It seems reasonable; I know I only have sales calls on a small percentage of all days. But really, there are so many other aspects to life and work: answering email and voicemail, writing reports, doing performance reviews, dentist appointments, time with my family, holiday celebrations, servicing the car, etc.. Taking all into consideration, the other days are really just as busy. We also tend to think we’ll “have plenty of time” later the same day, too. And of course we don’t.
Myth #4: Re-scheduling something to a later time is procrastinating.
No, re-scheduling is taking control and responding to new information about priorities and time available. It’s only procrastinating if you don’t schedule it at all, or if you re-schedule for the wrong reasons — which will become apparent when you find yourself re-scheduling the same thing more than about 3 times. In that case, stop and think about whether or not you really want to do the thing. If it’s important, go ahead and start.
Myth #5: This little task is not important.
Example: We cut open a package of food and leave the little bit of plastic I cut off on the kitchen counter. Question: Should we put the bit of plastic in the garbage right now? It seems that doing so is not important. The plastic isn’t doing any harm where it is. It won’t hurt anyone if we leave it there. We can always put it in the garbage later.
But actually it is important to put it in the garbage. Ask yourself, “Is it important not to have it sitting there on the counter all year?” Yes. I don’t want it there that long. OK, then I have to put it in the garbage — now or some time in the next few days.
Next question: Is our time more valuable now than it will be, say, tomorrow? We seem in a hurry now, but we will tomorrow, too. (See myth #3.) Really it’s best to put it in the garbage right now. It’s important enough to be worth the few seconds of our time. The myth really means, “It’s not important to do it RIGHT NOW.” However, it is important. Either it’s important or it isn’t. When it’s done doesn’t affect that. It’s important to wash the dishes before eating on them again; therefore it’s important to wash the dishes. If it’s important, it’s probably worth doing now.
Have you been tripped up by any of these time management myths?
Regards,
Tim Kight
