I’m currently reading The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes and it is full of golden nuggets on time management and ticking off the list towards your goals.
Chet writes, “If you spend just 15 minutes per day to revisit, readdress, or reread documents or emails, you will waste 97 hours per year where no action is taken. Many on your staff will waste an hour per day (scattered throughout the day) revisiting things on which no meaningful action is taken. That equates to six weeks of wasted time per year.”
Six weeks of wasted time. What could we accomplish in six weeks? So Chet tells us, “If you touch it, take action.”
If you can’t take action today, then put it in a folder and label it. Add it to your six-item to-do list for tomorrow. But don’t spend time going through it and then repeat that effort when you do have time to take action.
Time is the one resource we can’t get back. And 80 per cent of our results come from 20 per cent of our actions. It might not be about doing different things but about doing things differently.
How can we use our time most wisely? What are the six most important things we need to accomplish on a daily basis? Have we booked in time for exercise or meditation if that is our priority?
William Penn, founder of the province of Pennsylvania which eventually became the U.S. state, said, “Time is what we want most, but what we use worst.”
Let’s start the new year off by taking the time to prioritize time. Every single person has 24 hours in a day. How are you using yours?