Self Management

The key to Time Management is to

build your life around your individual
needs and desires. Time
management is the ultimate in self-
improvement, because it is the
foundation to be able to achieve your
goals in every aspect of your life.
Good Luck!
Your Personal Relationship with Time

While a lot of people are frustrated with the way they are managing time, each
person’s specific issues are different. Buried under the chaos of confusion are clues of
individual strengths and weaknesses, personality style and preferences, your unique
sources of energy and what makes you happy. So we need to begin the process of
custom designing a solution that will be a true match for who you are.

Your relationship with time comes under three areas:

 What’s working and what’s not
 Your time management preferences
 Your energy cycles and sources

What’s Working?
First what works - find this out and your confidence will receive a boost and you will
discover that you do have a basis of time management skills on which to build. This
will also give you clues to what appeals to you and therefore give you information to
fix the areas that are not working.

Exercise 1 – What’s Working?

Fill in as many answers to the following questions as you can think of:

 No matter how busy I get I always find time for___________________________________

 My goals are well defined when it comes to_____________________________________

 I’m pretty clear on how long it takes me to______________________________________

 I never procrastinate about__________________________________________________

 I am never late for_________________________________________________________

 I have no problem exercising when____________________________________________

 I have no problem tackling difficult projects when_________________________________

 I always build in transition time between________________________________________

 It’s easy for me to say no____________________________________________________

 Meeting deadlines is easiest for me when_______________________________________

 I am at my happiest when I am_______________________________________________

 The things that I delegate easily are___________________________________________

Your Personal Relationship with Time

Now, look over your answers and see what you can learn. Ask yourself why these
things are working. Is it because you enjoy them, or because you are skilled in these
areas. Is it the time of day, ask yourself why these things work. If you find time to
clean your car, ask why it is that you do…You may find a purely physical task
therapeutic. If you are mainly involved in mental work then 30 mins a day on physical
exercise (non- mental) may be enough to recharge you and heighten your energy.

What’s Not Working?

Exercise 2 – What’s NOT Working?

Fill in as many answers to the following questions as you can think of:

 I never have time to_______________________________________________________

 I spend way too much time on_______________________________________________

 One thing I wish I could do every day is________________________________________

 I don’t have well defined goals for____________________________________________

 I always underestimate how long it takes to____________________________________

 I procrastinate whenever I have to___________________________________________

 I am usually late for_______________________________________________________

 It’s hard for me to say no to_________________________________________________

 I have a hard time finishing_________________________________________________

Your Personal Relationship with Time
Your answers to this question become your list of everything you want to fix. Now
compare it to what is working. If you are having trouble starting and finishing things
then you may be able to isolate the reason why. In some cases it might just mean you
need to develop certain skills or apply a skill from one area of your life to another.
You may have no problem delegating at work so you might simply apply the same
system at home.

Your Time Management

Sometimes you struggle with some tasks more than others not because you’re
lacking a skill but because of individual preferences. Tuning into these natural
inclinations can help explain why certain items are landing on your what’s not working
and what is working lists. If you thrive on a fast pace you will know how to fill your day
with many activities.

Your Time Management Preferences

Circle your preferences:

The majority of time I prefer…

Working independently Vs Working collaboratively

Exercising alone Vs Exercising with others

Relaxing alone Vs Relaxing with others

Concentrating in short Vs Concentrating for long

bursts stretches

Focusing on one thing Vs Multi-tasking

A fast, busy schedule Vs A slow easy schedule

Plans and predictability Vs Surprises and

spontaneity
Tight deadlines Vs
Long deadlines
Stewing on things Vs
Making quick decisions
Working in silence Vs
Working with noise,
Dim Lighting Vs music

Working with my head Vs Bright lighting

Working with my hands

Your Energy
Identify your cycles & sources

Best time / Worst time Recharging Strategies

Write down your answers to the following Circle the answers that are true for you, then
questions: think about whether there are other answers
to this key energy management question.
Mornings are the best time for me to…..
When my energy is flagging, I can usually
recharge by:
And the worst time for me to…..  Changing activities

 Exercising
Afternoons are the best time for me to…..
 Stretching

And the worst time for me to…..  Playing some music

 Reviewing my goals
Evenings are the best time for me to…..
 Glancing at a photo of someone I love

And the worst time for me to…..  Drinking a glass of water

 Taking a catnap
Late at night is the best time for me to…..
 Eating a high energy snack

And the worst time for me to…..  Taking a brief break

Boosts & Drains (of your energy)

Write down everything that boosts you with energy. The things you see, hear, taste,
touch, smell, do, interact with, that fill you with energy. Equally, what are the things that
suck the life from you.

Boosts Drains
Time Log
of your activities

For two weeks write down everything you do throughout your day. Yes everything. Don’t
wait until the end of the day to complete your log. Do it after every half hour. The
purpose of this exercises is to raise your awareness as to how you are currently using
your time. Have the log beside you as you go about your week and fill it in using pen and
paper (on computer makes it too easy for you to copy and paste ….and thereby
potentially cheat! 😉). By the end of the first week you’ll be able to sit back and analyse
your productive tasks and timings and conversely where you might be leaking time.

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Time Target
Be aware of how you are spending your time. Ask yourself how urgent and how
important is the activity you are undertaking. The goal is to invest as much of your time
in THE ZONE, spend time in DEMAND and avoid utterly wasting time in DELUSION and
DISTRACTION. Are you aware of the activities you undertake that sit in these areas? The
sooner you are aware, the more time you will have for the important stuff as you
eliminate or very significantly reduce the time wasted in low quality activities.
Super Quick Time Study

In order to grow your business, you will need to carve 10 to 20 hour a week out of
your busy schedule. Considering that you are probably working 60 to 80 hours, this
may be difficult but should not be impossible. Once you have some time to invest in
team building and marketing, you will see your business begin to grow. Let’s find out
where your time is going…

Fill in the chart below to estimate how much time you spend per each day of the
typical week working in your business:

Day of Week Hours

Monday
Tuesday
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
Saturday
Sunday
Total

Fill in the chart below with the 5 to 10 tasks categories you do on a weekly basis. e.g.
communication (mail, phone, email), delivery of products, bookkeeping, sales calls,
meeting with clients, production time in plant, working front desk, etc. Also calculate
the income and expense for each task area. The aim is to recognize what you
actually generate in income for the expense to your business. Often you will find you
are doing low expense work at the sacrifice of high income generation.

Task Hour £ Value £ Value

s per per Hour
Hour (EXPENS
(INCOM E)
E)

Total

Re-work and re-figure the numbers in these tables until the Total Hours in both
tables are approximately equal. This will give you a good picture of what tasks are
consuming your time.

Choose the one or two task categories that can be delegated to other team members in
your
business.
Skill / Value Matrix
Thinking about your average week, write down all of the tasks you undertake….this
could be everything from emails, invoicing, customer meetings, tenders, time in the
workshop, cleaning, book keeping etc. You’ll probably find that when you think about it
you’ll be doing 10-20 different things through the week. Maybe more! Now, using your
own judgement put each of these tasks into one of the boxes in the matrix below
basing your decision upon the amount of SKILL it takes to do the job and the amount £
VALUE it brings to the business.
Great. Now we can work out what to DITCH completely, DELEGATE to your team (or out-
source) and DO yourself. The point of this exercise is to free up some of your time so
that you can get working ON your business.

Default Diary
To ensure you are working ON your business, the next step is to keep track of what time
is allocated each week, in the 4 key areas:

Technician Basic operational work that others should be doing for you – the
danger tasks!
Manager Management functions including those relevant to training/developing
your teams
Entrepreneur This is the main function of coaching, so anything about helping you to
work less,
earn more, and achieve your dreams
You Any time allocated to you, your family and rest…in other words away from
work

To keep it simple these are colour coded on the worksheet for ease. It is recommended
that you start using the corresponding colours when putting appointments etc in your
diary. This will help you focus on the activity and alert you to minimise your time
towards technician functions. The objective over time is to reduce Technician and
Manager time and increase Entrepreneur and You time.

Below is a Default Diary. Have a go at completing it and test yourself how well you plan
your time.

MONDAY TUESDAY WEDNESDA THURSDAY FRIDAY

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Time Management Tips

How to take control of time in your business and your life
Source: Brian Tracy - Eat That Frog

The key to happiness, satisfaction, great success and a wonderful feeling of personal
power and effectiveness is for you to develop the habit of “eating your frog” first thing
every day when you start work. Fortunately, this is a learnable skill that you can
acquire through repetition. And when you can develop the habit of starting on your
most important task before anything else, your success is assured. Here’s a summary
of 21 great ways to stop procrastinating and get more things done, faster. Review
these rules regularly until they become ingrained in your thinking and actions and
your future will be guaranteed.

1. Set the table. Decide exactly what you want. Clarity is essential. Write out your
goals and objectives before you begin.

2. Plan every day in advance. Think on paper. Every minute you spend in planning
can save you 5 or 10 minutes in execution.

3. Apply the 80/20 rule to everything. Remember, 20 per cent of your activities
will account for 80 per cent of your results. Always concentrate your efforts on that
top 20 per cent.

4. Consider the consequences. Your most important tasks and priorities are the
ones that can have the most serious consequences—positive or negative—on your life
or work. Focus on these above all.

5. Practice the A B C D E method continually. Before you begin work on a list of

tasks, take a few moments to organize them by value and priority so that you can be
sure of working on your most important activities.
6. Focus on key result areas. Identify and determine those results that you
absolutely, positively have to get to do your job well and then work on them all day
long.

7. Practice the law of forced efficiency that says there’s never enough time to do
everything but there’s always enough time to do the most important things. What are
they?

8. Prepare thoroughly before you begin. Remember, proper prior preparation

prevents poor performance.

9. Upgrade your skills. The more knowledgeable and skilled you become at your
key tasks, the faster you start them and the sooner you get them done.

10. Leverage your special talents. Determine what it is you are very good at doing
or could be good at and throw your whole heart into doing those specific things very
well.
Time Management Tips
11. Identify your key constraints. Determine the bottlenecks or choke
points internally or externally and set the speed at which you achieve your most
important goals and focus on alleviating them.

12. Take it one oil barrel at a time. You can accomplish the biggest and most
complicated job if you just complete it one step at a time.

13. Put the pressure on yourself. Imagine that you have to leave town for a month
and work as if you had to get all your major tasks completed before you left.

14. Maximize your personal powers. Identify your highest periods of mental and
physical energy each day and structure your most important and demanding tasks
around these times. Get lots of rest so that you can perform at your best.

15. Motivate yourself into action. Be your own cheerleader. Look for the good in
every situation. Focus on the solution rather than the problem. Always be optimistic
and constructive.

16. Practice creative procrastination. Since you can’t do everything, you must
learn to deliberately put of those tasks that are of low value so that you have the time
to do the few tasks that really count.

17. Do the most difficult task first. Begin each day with your most difficult task.
One task that can make the greatest contribution to yourself and your work and
resolve to stay at it until it’s complete.

18. Slice and dice the task. Break large complex tasks down to bite sized pieces
and then do just one small part of the task to get started.

19. Create large chunks of time. Organize your days around large blocks of time
where you can concentrate for extended periods on your most important tasks.

20. Develop a sense of urgency. Make a habit of moving fast on your key tasks,
becoming known as a person who does things quickly and well.

21. Single handle every task. Set clear priorities. Start immediately on your most
important task and then work without stopping until the job is 100 per cent complete.
This is the real key to high performance and maximum productivity.