I know you don't have a lot of time. We're going to go over 3 techniques
for effective time management. And that's going to help. First of all, time
management. Yeah, it's a myth. Sorry. You can't manage time. You can't save it. We
talk about saving time, where would you keep it? You can't manage it, you can't
save it, you can't slow it down, you can't speed it up. All you can do with time is
spend it. Use it to do something. So, it might be more realistic to talk about
activity management or choices for how we're going to spend our time. Or a
prioritization of different things that we value. So, with that beginning, let's go
over 3 specific strategies that we can use to better our more effectively
or in a more satisfactory way, spend our time. Before we get into the tips, a quick
mental experiment. Let's pretend for a moment that I grant you
$86,400, US currency. If you need to check the
exchange rate. $86,400. But there's a catch. You
have to spend it all today. Would you take that on? Would you enjoy that task?
That'd be kind of cool. Now, if you don't spend it all today, you lose it. But don't
worry. I'll give you another $86,400 tomorrow.
But the catch is you got to spend it all tomorrow. That's kind of a strange
experiment. It's actually exactly what we're doing
with our time. 86,400 is the number of seconds in one 24-hour day. 86,400
seconds that you have to spend today. You can't save them for tomorrow. If you
don't use them, you lose them. But don't worry, you'll get another 86,400 seconds
tomorrow. One of my buddies asked me once, "Hey Paul,
if you could choose between having more time or having more money, which one
would you choose?" Time. Hands down. Because if I have more time, I can make more
money. Time probably the most precious commodity that we have. And you get a
fresh allotment of 86,400 seconds every single day. So now on to our 3 tips.
Number 1, do it now. Let me clarify. You can't do everything right now. But any
time you do anything, it is now. Check your watch. Whenever you're doing
something, when is it? Oh, it's now. So, when you're doing it, it will be now. When I
say do it now... I like the way my friend Ron Zeller put this. Ron is a world-class
leadership training expert. And he defined now as being a start time and
end time. And a very specific way you're going to spend your time in between.
Start time, end time, specific activity in between. That's how we're going to define
a now. What if you've been telling yourself that you're going to get that
garage cleaned out. You're going to write that paper, you're going to
start that book. Whatever it is. Okay, when are you going to do it? Your answer is
now. Not right now because you and I are having a conversation right now.
What "Now"? Pick a time on your calendar that has a start time and end time. And
that one's important by the way don't leave it off because psychologically, you
don't want to get thrown into some endless nightmare. If you put an end time
on it, it gives you a psychological out. You can do anything for a little chunk
of time. And one of the reasons you avoid things is because it seems overwhelming.
Start time end time. And a specific task in between. You're not going to do other
things during that time. I have a lot of things that I want to do. I'm not doing
them right now because right now I'm talking to you. Actually when you're
viewing this, I'm probably doing something else because this is recorded.
Which is a little interesting thing about how you can spend your time. That's
probably going beyond the scope of this particular video. But you've got it, right?
Start time, end time, specific tasks in between. Do it now. Not right now. This now.
The second tip that I have for you today about time management is called the Ohio
principle. Now, for those of you listeners, if you live in Ohio, I'm talking to you.
If you don't live in Ohio, that's fine because the Ohio principle is simply
this. It stands for Only Handle It Once. --Ohio.
O-H-I-O. Only Handle It Once. This is huge especially for all of the stuff that
comes in through your inbox. When stuff shows up for you, if you're doing the
Ohio principle, you only handle it once. I have a little confession to make. I'm an
amateur hoarder. Maybe you can relate to this because I don't do the Ohio
principle as well as I want to. I'm still working on it. Sometimes when
things come into my inbox, I look at it. I'm handling it now. I look at it and I
think, "You know what? This is interesting I'm going to do something with that
later." And I put it on a pile. Those piles grow to the point where eventually I'm
like, "Oh, this pile is really annoying me." And I sweep away the pile. I get rid of
it. I toss it. Or I spend hours going through the pile trying to sort it out
and handling it again. Now, I'm handling it at least twice. Maybe 3 times. Only
handle it once. The Ohio principle is when this hits me for the first time,
this is the only time I'm going to handle this. I'm going to make a decision
about this thing. This task, this demand this request. Whatever it is. This piece
of mail. Here it is. Is this important to me? Do I value this? I'm going to ask a few
of those questions. And there's yes or no answers to those. Is this valuable to
someone that I'm close to or someone that I love? I'm going to answer that too. So,
that I can assess how much value does this have to me. What is this asking me
to do? Now, if it's something that requires less than a minute of my time,
I'm going to do it now. If it's going to require an extended
period of time, I'm going to put it into and now like we talked about in that
first tip. I'm only going to handle at once. If I create a now for it then it's
been delegated to be handled in that now. The Ohio principle. Now, one final tip for
you and then I'm going to let you get on to your next now. The final tip is to
create a "Stop doing" list. Most of us get really good at creating these long
lengthy lists of things to do. We even call it our to-do list. You're going to
start working on a Stop-doing list. Why? Because you've only got 86,400
seconds. And if you're spending it on stuff that is less valuable to you,
you're wasting your valuable seconds. Stop doing list helps you to get clearer
about the things that are taking you away from the things that you truly
value. As you're investing in your own personal development through this and
other videos, check out our positive personal development playlist here on
the channel. And also, would you consider sharing this channel and these videos
with other people in your realm of influence? I think they'd appreciate you
for that. And if you're visiting us here I'm
LinkedIn, you've got a lot of connections that are really going to benefit from
this episode.