Own Your Time With These Top Time Management Strategies

There are so many ways to structure and organize your time…

So much so that I feel like it can confuse people on what they should do.

Then, they fall into the same bad habits when it comes to managing time...

Which leads to them constantly complaining about how they have no time…

While there are other people out there who get all their stuff done...

...and still have free time.

Here's the truth...

The one thing that we all have is an equal amount of time in each day.

It doesn’t matter where you come from…

It doesn’t matter what you do…

It doesn’t matter how you were raised…

There will always be 60 minutes in an hour…

24 hours in a day…

7 days in a week…

52 weeks in a year…

…and that’s what we get.

So why is it that some people feel like they have plenty of time ... while others don't?

It's not that one person is any less busy than the other…

They just don’t know how to manage their time effectively.

Managing Your Time in an Effective Way

People come to me and ask all the time…

“How do you have time to accomplish everything that you do?”

Look...

I get it...

When you have 1,000 things coming at you at once, it can be hard to decide what the priority is and how to handle it all.

It can feel like you’re a prisoner to time.

So in this blog, I'm going to talk about how to arrange your time in a way where you’re no longer a prisoner…

But in a way where you're mastering your time.

Just make sure you avoid this…

Don’t Fall Into the Trap

People with no concept of how to control the time available to them fall into the same trap…

They wake up…

Go to work…

Go home…

Play with their kids for a couple hours…

Then lay on the couch and watch TV…

Only to complain about how they have no time.

This is how average people use their time.

If you use your time like an average person…

You can’t expect to be more than average.

Here are 8 tips on how you can become a master of time management...

1. Let Your Obituary Influence Your Agenda

Let’s be real…

Most people feel like they don’t have time because they waste it on a bunch of things that aren’t contributing to the life they want to live.

So I want you to think about this…

What do you want written about you when you die?

That’s what you have to keep in mind when you write out your critical task list for the day.

When I say critical task list...

I'm talking about the Power List.

It's a tool I developed to help you develop the habit of winning the day by completing 5 critical tasks a day.  These tasks should be action items that bring you closer to your goals.

You have to break your day down into tasks you need to perform to get your life to be what you want.

Most people just don’t think about it like that.

Most people think on a 7-day scale, where Monday through Friday they put in the minimal amount of work to get by...

Then they piss away their time on Saturday and Sunday.

When you live like that, you can’t expect great things to happen.

You have to use the time given to you responsibly.

That includes Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

It doesn’t stop when society’s clock stops and says: “Here’s your little breather.”

Don’t be one of these people who lives in a reactive state ... because you have no plan, no goals, and no list of critical tasks.

When you do this, you become a pinball being bounced around from thing to thing to thing…

With NO control over where you end up.

You need to let your big picture organize your to-do list.

2. Immerse Yourself In One Thing At a Time

One common abuse of critical task lists is trying to do several things at once.

Trying to do too much means you’re not going to do anything effectively…

Finishing the job is what matters.

That’s why I say you should do 5 critical tasks a day…

5 is plenty when you add up 365 days in the year.

You have no idea how much progress you can make in that amount of time.

Here’s the truth…

If you try to do 20 things…

You’ll likely end up doing 0 of them.

We only have so much attention to do things effectively ... so when you try to do 20 things instead of 5, you end up dividing your attention between 20 things ... which ends up with a sloppy result.

You have to do what’s in front of your face and focus on finishing those tasks ... and stop worrying about what’s coming up next.

Doing a little with a whole lot of effort is far better than doing a lot with minimal effort.

You can try to do 20 things a day…

…and for the first 3 days, you’ll probably get a lot done…

But by day 4...

You’re going to be burned out already ... because you aren’t able to get everything done.

Remember that your actions are a cumulative effort over time…

Doing 5 things a day is designed to build your confidence in being effective. 

So by winning the day every day ... you get to see your wins.

But if you’re doing 20 things and only winning 4 days out of the month…

You’re not going to feel confident or effective with your actions.

3. Minimize Your Transition Times

When you move from one task to the next, there is going to be transition time.

That’s just the way things are…

But if you want to make the most of your time…

You have to do whatever you can to minimize this time.

You need to minimize your wasted time.

Here’s an example…

If you’re driving across town to meet someone…

Take the quickest route ... and think about what you could do in the car to knock out other responsibilities.

Do you have to make any calls?

Can you listen to a self-development podcast?

Use the time effectively.

4. You Need to Minimize Wasted Time

When you have a meeting scheduled and it’s supposed to be an hour…

Don’t let it drag on for 3 hours.

You don’t need to be a jerk or be short with people…

You just have to set realistic guidelines and standards of what needs to happen…

When it needs to happen…

…and in the correct amount of time in needs to happen.

It’s just effective.

A way to stay organized…

A way to stay on track…

…and a way to teach others to respect time as you should be respecting time.

All successful people pay attention to these details.

You have to be cognizant of where your time is being wasted.

Look at the time you spend on social media for example…

If you add it all up…

You probably have an extra 3-4 hours a day.

What could you do with that time?

We're becoming slaves to time and technology ... because it takes our attention away from the things we need to do to be successful.

You have to learn to regulate it if you want to master your time.

5. Minimize Meeting Time

This is especially true in business…

But this can also apply to your personal life as well.

You have to minimize the amount of time you’re meeting and talking with other people.

A lot of meetings are completely unnecessary.

Most of the time ... the problem can be resolved with a simple email, a phone call, or even some back and forth text messages.

It’s really easy...

But it will unlock a lot of extra time for you by the end of the day.

Now, not all meetings are a waste of time...

But, pay attention to what's being accomplished during these meetings.

If the meeting isn't helping things move forward ... restructure the meeting or eliminate it altogether.

6. Understand the Correct Meaning of Urgent

This is one of the most important time management skills you can develop…

You need to make sure that you and the people around you understand the accurate meaning of the word "urgent."

There are very, very, very few things that happen on a daily basis that are urgent ... meaning they need your immediate attention.

A lot of the “fires” you spend your time putting out aren’t really fires…

They are small things you need to take care of throughout the day…

But so many people in business try to make everything seem urgent ... when it isn’t urgent at all.

When this happens, all of a sudden, nothing becomes urgent.

It’s like the boy who cried wolf…

If you cry about everything all the time…

Soon, nobody is going to listen to you.

You have to know when shit is actually urgent ... then act with urgency when these urgent things come up.

But if you act like every single thing that pops up is urgent...

The people around you will never act in an urgent situation, ever.

Truly urgent things are so rare that you need to stop acting as if every little thing needs the utmost urgency.

They don't.

But, you do need a sense of urgency to fall down through the people around you so when something that's actually urgent happens…

They react in an urgent matter to get it handled right away.

7. Establish a Routine

Having a routine is the best way to avoid random distractions.

What are "random distractions"?

They can be a side conversation…

Social media…

Or anything that takes you away from what you're doing and your focus.

Let’s be real ... we all do this.

People want exciting lives with lots of daily variety.

Our attention is only becoming less and less focused and more broad as technology starts to take over.

People that remain focused are productive.

Random distractions need to be cut out in order to be effective.

You have to figure out a routine that works for you...

Even if it means doing specific things in certain time blocks.

Establishing routine is extremely important to being effective and getting shit done.

8. Have a Contingency Plan

Are there times where you find yourself in a situation where there isn’t much you can do?

I'm talking about things like getting stuck in traffic or having your flight delayed.

You have to plan for these times.

Bring your work with you…

Bring a book with you…

Make sure you have something you can do if it comes down to it.

Most people will find themselves in these situations with literally nothing to do…

So they mess around for an hour doing unproductive shit…

Which, in the grand scheme of things ... can end up totaling days out of the year that they are wasting.

That's why having a contingency plan is so important.

Because if you're prepared ... these unexpected "leisure times" can turn into useful and productive times.

Become A Master of Your Time

If you can focus on these 8 things, I can promise you this…

You will have a lot more time available to you than you thought.

Quit buying into your own excuses about “having no time.”

This is how you fix it…

Forever.

The question is…

What are you going to do with all the extra free time you’re going to have?