Are you one of those people who get to the end of a day and feel a little frustrated and slightly unfulfilled in that you haven’t got half the things done that you hoped to get done? The result being that when you sit down to relax a little at the days-end you find your mind just keeps drifting off to things that you should be doing right now – things that you had hoped to get done during the day – rather than chilling out.
One of the biggest challenges many of us face is that there never seems to be enough hours in the day, days in the week, weeks in the month or even months in the year to get everything done that we want to get done. Perhaps our time management sucks.
But why is at the same time we meet or read about people who have the same number of hours and days to work with yet they appear to be able to squeeze two lifetimes into their one life. Don’t you just marvel at them – maybe envy them a little?
Well maybe I can offer you some clues by outlining some techniques that have helped me – and I am sure will help you – to get to the end of each day with a good feeling. And content with the knowledge that I have got everything done that I planned to get done – and strangely enough not feel so tired at the end of each day and perhaps equally important I always find some spare quality time for myself.
A few years ago now I was fortunate enough to meet, become friends with, and occasionally work with one of these people.
Frank – my buddy – is someone who squeezes so much more into the standard 24 hours in a day – the same 24 hours that I always seemed to get the end of and haven’t got half the things done that I had planned – or should I say hoped to get done.
In the tail end of that sentence is the clue – ‘hope’ and ‘plan’.
That is one of the prime differences in that so many of us ‘hope’ to get lots done in a day while others ‘plan’ to get a lot done in a day.
I have come to believe it is because they plan what they want to get done. But probably more important they start the whole day and each individual part of that daily plan with the end in mind.
They see what they plan to achieve when they start the next task and believe that they will get it done in the time they have allocated to it.
So I adopted his strategy sometime ago now and the difference that it has made is unbelievable. And it is one that I can highly recommend to you.
It is important that you are aware that this is isn’t something that only has a benefit in your business or work time but also is a great help with the tasks that need to be done at home or even your relaxation time.
In fact you may well find – as I did – that it can result in you having more relaxation time just by applying the simplicity of this process to your life.
I suggest that you start by focusing on two aspects of this process and see how you go from there.
First you will need to make it a habit to plan tomorrow today.
Put aside a few minutes at the end of the day to write down what you want to get done the next day. Write it down so it can be referred to as soon as you start the next day.
The second and most important thing to keep in mind is that when you first start to implement this strategy keep the list of things that you want to get done relatively short.
What you want to ensure is that everything on the list is completed at the days end. That way you will slowly but surely build the inner belief that the process works for you.
Give it a go and see the difference that it can make and I will be back with some more of my thoughts in a few days.
Remember always keep your thoughts on the end result – Start With The End In Mind – always!
Until Another Thought Comes My Way!!