3 Easy Steps to Manage Your Time?

By Chad E Cooper

Have you taken courses on time management? After the hours of trying to find a system that might work for you left you more frustrated than when you began? Courses seem antiquated to a pre-internet era or the “There’s an app for that” solution is only appropriate for a silo single piece; not the entire framework required for a 21st Century society. Nothing ever seemed to fit my lifestyle or demands of time for my particular situations. Class after complicated class seemed more demanding than the last and I would give up within days. Scheduling was demanding and impossible to adhere to, therefore I decided there had to be a better way forward.

The following three easy steps create a sustainable and dynamic framework to apply to the ‘Rule of 168 Hours’. Let me show you how to have it work for you.

What is time?

Humans created the concept of time early on by using the cycles of the sun. At first it was simply a way to track the seasons. It allowed one to know when to plant or harvest, when to rise or when to retreat to safety as the evening set. Later it developed as means for people to begin or end a job, usually on someone else’s schedule.  During the industrial revolution and at the turn of the last century, many towns had load whistles that would go off daily at the factories or mines. Everybody in town knew when to be at work and when it was time to go home. Today we use time for everything. We use alarms to wake us up, arrive at appointments, be seated in a classroom, take medication, and even remind us when we have a day off. 

What I offer you in these 3 easy steps could be the difference between continuing to feel enslaved by time or free of it. Imagine: no more constant running to be here or be there. It's time for you to get off the hamster wheel and finally get to where you want to go instead of running in circles.

One of the largest challenges that I see over and over with my new clients is that they are still subscribing to or being taught rules that don’t apply in the 21st century. One of the old concepts is that you have to skip vacations or relaxation until you retire. In the past, your time was managed by the work you completed. The majority of people worked Monday through Friday 8-5 jobs. Many of us grew up a “weekend warrior,” where we had time to sleep in, go to the park for family picnics, or church but only on weekends. All fun was reserved for the weekends. My first rule is don’t wait, put in the fun/family time on your schedule every week from this point forward. I even go so far with my clients to have them schedule in fun/vacations/family time before any of their appointments for work go on paper, it’s the first priority. Through this behavior change, you will recharge your batteries with person time and also be more productive and effective in your work hours because you now understand how much time is available to complete your work assignments as opposed to 8 hours of dabbling daily.

Next, I invite you to look at time differently. Instead of the view: “What do I have to get done in eight hours today?” I suggest you expand out to seven-day view, or 168 hours. We get so channeled into the illusion that eight hours at a time is what matters. Aren’t you awake more than 8 hours a day? In the past have you only been scheduling your work time? Doesn’t the rest of your day matter? Many people I believe just think the rest of their day is to try and fit in everything else they need to get done without any plan at all with many important things always getting push out or forgotten all together.  

When we understand that the relationship of each of the portions of our lives, our personal, physical health, relationships, finances, career, social life, and our time for nourishment and sleep are all equally important, then the first steps to managing time begin to come together.

My easy 3 steps to managing time are as follows…

1.      Create a calendar with life on the pages

I would like you to take out your calendar whether on paper, phone or computer it doesn’t matter. I want you to start using colors for coding all the things you do. The colors you pick should be labels by subjects, like family time may be blue text, work is green for money, and personal time maybe pink or purple. You get the picture. As you begin to use the calendar weekly you will start to see color patterns with this method. If you see too much of one and not enough of another it shows where you may be out of balance.

The image below is a perfect example of someone who may feel burned out before they even begin their week. If you see week after week of black boring print simply repeating the same general statement “work,” it has no meaning and provides no emotional purpose, it’s just blah.  At a glance we see things missing items like, getting enough physical activity, recharging mental clarity, there is no visible time allotted for working on relationships, resulting in intimate relationships that may be eroding. Keeping a day planner like this is not giving you the quality or quantity in life that people desire or deserve. When each week looks like this there is no room for joy. When it looks and feels depressing or boring then your life may reflect the same.

Now look at this planner below…

How would it feel to experience a day more like this? Keep in mind I want you to use a daily planner that provides room for all those delightful entries by hours. The great benefit to a daily calendar is you find all those hidden minutes, and see time you never imagined existed to plug in more and more things. 

2. Language Matters-

Your language can empower you when looking at any appointment. The outcome of how you spend that time can actually change when you're excited about it.

First ask yourself, do the words you are writing explain why you get to do this thing? Do they express that you want to do this in positive words? Most importantly does it generate affirming positive, good emotions, or neutral or negative emotions? Because what you're reading is what you're programming into your mind to expect. It is also important to add language that describes what the outcomes you're going to experience as a result of doing an item?

Use your imagination. The following are some examples to assist you in creative wording: Remember to connect with your deep feelings and emotions with your language. I will start with the most common items I have seen over the years.

Workout or Go to GYM  = A “have to” motivation  You are Programming intent

Instead shift to = A “Get too” motivation tied to your purpose, use these:

Building slow for a strong body in order to go beyond

Building a strong healthy body, mind, and spirit.

Running to build healthy heart

Leading health by example to inspire my children

Swimming for fun and reconnecting to the water

Pay Bills-

Creating financial abundance, to retire on my terms.

Sharing my abundance with others

Doing my part to keep the energy of money moving

Enhancing the economy with financial flow

One step closer to vacation fully funded       

Meeting at work-

Strategize with coworkers to develop a plan for success.

Join thoughtfully with others for success

Merging minds for tactical outcomes

Enterprising meeting with boss for advancement

Family Time-

Safely take children to school while spending quality time to listen and inspire

Coach softball for youth group fun

Connect with higher sprit at church with family

Take out spouse for hot date night fun

Recharging vacation for rest and fun with family

Personal Time-

Meditate for rest and relaxation

Read an engaging book to enhance my mind

Plan fishing trip with friends to refresh and invigorate

Take a walk on the beach and enjoy nature and relax

Enjoying favorite TV show for pure pleasure

Can you see now how viewing the entire panorama of 168 hours is beneficial if it’s all uplifting verbiage?

3.      Be Consistent-

“It’s not your strength that holds you to your purpose, it’s the strength of the purpose itself.” The biggest mistake that I see when I work in time management is the lack of consistency because you are taking action out of discipline instead of clarity on your purpose. I am sure you have taken a seminar or two on time management and leave excited about your new skills or tools. You do a really good job following the instructions for the first week or so then slowly back away from being consistent. Maybe the time involved to follow the new skills is too overbearing, or the new skills just don’t fit your life, but you stop. Without a clear purpose and consistency nothing will ever work well. Purpose, purpose, purpose, practice, practice, practice… Isn’t that what your parents always said?

Initiating these 3 simple steps should take you only about an hour initially. Then allow maybe 10 minutes per day. You will find many of the items in your calendar can be set to repeat so after the initial set up its quick and easy.

We all can digest little chunks at a time so don’t make this an effort. This practice takes just a couple minutes a day I promise and will give you back more time than you ever imagined you had. I promise this is not an overwhelming time-consuming task. Just be consistent and things like colors and wording will just come with ease. Give me a month of your time, four short weeks to see if this works for you before you give up. My guess is you will have such amazing results you will continue it for the rest of your life.

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