I don't have the TIME! Stop Bullshitting yourself!

Think of your time like bandwidth. If I want more bandwidth on my website, I have to pay for it. Back in the day if you went to a hotel you’d either get the free bandwidth that was slow or the premium bandwidth which was much speedier. Time is like bandwidth, and you need to increase your bandwidth.

Don’t complain about time, always saying that you don’t have enough of it.

You’ll never make it to that place if you are complaining right now about having too much going on. When you do have monster success you’ll have too much going on and you’ll look back and say, “Man, I developed my too-much-going-on muscle.”

• The richest man in the world has 1,440 minutes in a day to earn his money.
• The most educated man in the world has 168 hours a week to learn.
• The greatest athlete in the world has 365 days in a year to train.

When people say they “don’t have enough time to get things done,” that’s simply not true. Everybody in the world, from the richest man to the most educated to the best athletes, has the same 24 hours.

Surveys suggest that the average person in Australia watches over 3 hours of television a day. That’s 65,700 minutes over the course of one year!

Do you realize how much you could do with that amount of time?

Take for example making phone calls to grow your business; let’s assume your average phone call is 3 minutes. Stop watching TV and you just produced an extra 65,700 minutes—60 phone calls a day or 21,900 phone calls a year!

Imagine how many customers and how much money you’re missing out on!

We all have the same 24 hours in a day—the same 1,440 minutes.

These six steps can help you get started.

#1 SET SPECIFIC PRIORITIES.

Everyone’s priorities are different. Identify your goals and what defines success in your life, then spend your time doing things that will create that success.

Success for you could involve a variety of people and things: ?nances, family, happiness, spirituality, physical or emotional well-being… or, if you’re like me, all of them.

And remember, you can have them all.

#2 GET EVERYONE AROUND YOU TO AGREE ON PRIORITIES.

You’ll need buy-in from your family, colleagues, associates, employees. Without it, people with different agendas can pull you in all sorts of directions. My schedule works because everyone in my life — from my wife to the people who work with me—knows what is most important to me and understands how I value time.

#3 TRACK HOW YOU SPEND YOUR TIME.

If you don’t know how much time you have—or need—how can you expect to manage it?

Logging your time, perhaps in a journal, will help you see all the ways in which you waste it—the little habits and activities that in no way contribute to your success.

Look at any action that isn’t adding wood to your ?re—think online surfing, napping, drinking. Brutal, isn’t it? Yes, but if you don’t manage your time, you will waste it.

#4 CREATE A SCHEDULE BASED ON YOUR PRIORITIES.

When our daughter was born, my wife and I built a routine around our daughter’s sleep schedule and our priorities. We agreed that I would get up one hour earlier each day and take my daughter on an outing.

This way, I have quality time with my daughter before I go to the of?ce, and my wife has extra time to sleep. Because I get my daughter up so early, we can put her to bed before 7 p.m., and my wife and I have time together as a couple.

#5 LOOK FOR WAYS TO MAXIMIZE YOUR TIME.

Consider the expression “time is money.” What does it mean to you?

How can you treat time to make sure your time is money? What’s the most important, productive thing that you should do with your time?

One way to get more done with your time is to simply find ways to increase your productivity. Another approach: Make it a race, a challenge—make it fun. If I get 15 phone calls done in 15 minutes and you get 15 calls done in one hour, then I have essentially created 45 minutes for myself.

If I hire someone and pay that person $15 an hour to make 15 calls every 15 minutes, then I just duplicated my efforts—and my time becomes money.

#6 CONTINUE TO MODIFY YOUR PRIORITIES.

Things will change through the course of your life. You achieve and set new goals. Different things and people enter your world.

The busier you become, the more you have to manage, control, and prioritize.

When I became a parent, my daughter gave me another reason to create success—not an excuse to avoid working.

Our schedule will continue to change as my daughters grow up. But we are controlling our time rather than just haphazardly trying to manage it. And we are doing our best to make the most of every precious moment.