Time is the New Poverty

10 January 2012

By Simon Starr

The New Poverty

An irony exists in today's world of instant information: time. Never has it been easier to access information than it is today. Not only can you throw any old phrase, word or title into a search engine like Google and get an instant answer, but with the advent of handheld internet devices such as the iPad or smart Phone, you can get this instant answer almost anywhere! You can bank, book, buy, find, ask, tell or whatever instantly and easily. It is literally at your fingertips.

Yet time is the new poverty. It seems that everyone is time poor.

The challenge in this for business leader is that each and every day hundreds of pieces of information can conceivably come across their path. Coupled with the excessive marketing noise that we are all subject to and each piece of information has the potential to distract you from what you are intending to do or currently doing.

How do you know if time is your master? Think of a dog trying to run on nice shiny new lino flooring - there's a lot going on but very little happening! There never seems to be enough hours in the day. Business owners regularly experience this frustration.

So how do you master time?

Step 1:

Get clear on where you are heading. And by clear, I mean very clear. Everyone is working toward a bigger plan in life. However the number of people who have clear meaningful written down goals and a plan to achieve them are minimal.

The importance of clear goal documentation cannot be undervalued. In a 1979 study of all new graduates of Harvard's MBA program, only 3% had clear, written goals and plans to accomplish them. 84% did not have any goals while the remaining 13% had them but they were undocumented. Ten years later, the interviewers again interviewed the graduates and in the 10 years since graduation the 3% with clear written goals were earning ten times as much as the other 97 percent put together!

The role of goals in winning back time is that these goals establish importance in your life because they are meaningful to you because achievement of the goal will lead to fulfilment and happiness.

Step 2:

Having determined your goals, deconstruct them back into smaller, manageable tasks that require you to pass through certain milestones as part of the journey to their attainment.

Step 3:

Having established these pathways to success, now prioritise what you commit to by asking this one simple question, "what can I do today that will move in me closer toward my goal(s)?

Write down the Top 3 priorities for you for the day based on the importance of the action based on its contribution toward at least one of your goals. Within this list you can sort by urgency where the most urgent of these tasks is completed first (but make sure the urgency is real!).

Step 4:

When the distraction or interruption comes along, deal with it quickly and easily by asking another simple question: "Is this more important and more urgent than what I am committing to doing today?"

In most cases the answer is NO for two reasons:

Usually it is someone else's agenda that is being forced upon you (perceived urgency).The matter is not related to your Top 3 priorities for the day, which ideally are feeding a bigger outcome for the week, which in itself is integral to achieving a longer term goal.

As a result it easy for you to either say "No!" (with a smile), decide on your terms when you will deal with it, or refer it to someone else to do. This keeps you in control.

Step 5:

Finally, think of your goals like the sun – they must come up every day! Make 5 minutes a day to roam over your goals. When you do you will find it much easier to stay focussed on the high pay-off activities that are important to you.

The key words therefore for your time bank are Crystallise – Deconstruct – Prioritise – Control – Review. Once you master this habit you will remove inordinate amounts of clutter from your day, leaving in its place that one non-renewable resource: Time.

Simon Starr is a performance coach who has worked extensively since 1992 with businesses, sports teams and people who want to improve the success in their lives.

Posted under: Performance