What Is Time Management?

Introduction

What is Time Management? (Hint, it’s not what you think it is.)

When someone utters the words “Time Management” there are normally two types of reactions. Some cringe or roll their eyes. These folks are either so tired of hearing about how they should be doing things that they just don’t care anymore.

Nothing they’ve tried has worked and they’re just done with the whole concept of time management. Who can blame them?

Many time management guides and gurus require you to modify your personality to fit their structured program. That’s just not going to happen, right?

The other reaction is to smile and feel a bit of curiosity. These folks are ready, willing and anxious for some tips that actually work.

They are either new to the concept of time management or they’ve tried a few things and they have worked so they’re ready for more insight and helpful tips.

Both reactions are normal and to be honest depending on the day you may have felt both reactions.

This report is designed to help you create a time management system that works for you. No personality change is required! (Though you may have to modify some habits.)

What is Time Management?

Time Management, as it is discussed and addressed in this report, is about living your best life. It’s about having time to focus on your essential tasks, skills and passions.

It’s about streamlining your practices and business tasks into systems that you can manage yourself quite quickly and efficiently – or you can hand them off to someone else to manage and trust that the job will be done to your satisfaction.

You see, when you create systems they are repeatable and can be used successfully by anyone time and time again.

Time management is not forcing you to use a software, practice or tool that doesn’t fit your personality, needs, or preferences.

For example, one commonly suggested tactic for creating website content quickly is to use a standard egg timer to help you stay focused and on task. Well that might work for some but if you don’t work well under pressure that time is simply going to drive you batty.

Other people recommend using a structured planner with a priority rating system to track your daily tasks.

This method works very well for structured people however if you’re a creative person this structure may feel too confining and be completely ineffective.

The Effects of Poor Time Management

It’s sometimes difficult to see the effects that poor time management can have on a business. However, they are very real, very unfortunate and very avoidable.

A little story…

Terry owns a coaching business. She loves to work with her clients one on one. Each coaching session fills her with the kind of satisfaction most only dream about.

Even better, she’s very good at what she does and her clients reap tremendous benefits from their time with her. Terry has built a successful business.

However, this professional coach isn’t so great at managing her time. In fact, sometimes she’s so overworked that she has to cancel appointments with her clients.

This of course doesn’t help her bottom line because it is her coaching sessions that generate the most immediate profit.

Worse, sometimes Terry is unprepared for the sessions because she hasn’t had the time to review the client’s material and their needs. She often finds herself “winging it.”

So Terry’s work suffers. Her clients don’t get her full attention because she’s often multi-tasking while on the phone with them. Also, she’s working for dollars.

Her lack of time management has created a business where she’s always working to earn a dollar, she’s reacting instead of being pro-active.

This means she squeezes client consultations and coaching sessions in during all times of the day and week. Sunday mornings, Friday nights she works whenever she can. This is causing stress on her personal and family life.

Terry, being a smart business owner, does know the importance of marketing. She writes her own content and publishes on a successful professional development website.

She also has a blog and she uses social networking to communicate with her audience. She also spends a lot of time creating downloads and materials her blog and website visitor can benefit from.

Unfortunately, because Terry is often juggling many tasks at once and isn’t prioritizing the most important, and profitable tasks, not to mention the tasks she clearly loves, she is working 12 hours a day, seven days a week and she’s not making the money she wants to make.

She’s stressed out. She’s losing enthusiasm for her business and occasionally peruses the classified ads for a different job. She’s also occasionally dropping the ball, cancelling too many times on a client, and losing customers.

Unfortunately, Terry’s story is a common one. If you see yourself in any part of this story there’s good news.