Time Management Self Improvement

I recently read the book “How to Become Rich“, by Donald Trump. I highly recommend it, if you only read it to understand that The Donald doesn’t have any more time in a day versus any of the rest of us. But his net worth has lately been reported at $3 billion dollars. That’s not too bad for a man who just 10 years ago owed almost 10 billion dollars to over a 100 banks.

The ironic part of life is that we all have different wealth, job, and health conditions; but at the same time, we all have the same amount of hours in a day - that is one thing nobody can change. The interesting thing, I discovered about Donald is he spends around 3 hours a day just reading newspapers, biographies, and books on philosophy. I also noticed he really doesn’t begin work until around 9AM every day. He also doesn’t have to commute, as he is smart, and lives in the same building where he works.

Another thing I recognized that helped me realize why this man is so successful was that when he does begin his workday he rarely takes any breaks. He pretty much works from 9AM - 6PM every day. He also claimed several times throughout the book, that he loves what he does. Have you ever noticed that rarely will you ever meet a successful man/woman who doesn’t truly enjoy what he does? You cannot work consistently and become successful if people don’t sense your passion. Even professional athletes and movie stars have to have passion about what they do, and for the successful ones it shows.

The other key ingredient, especially in business - is how you manage your time. I once had a boss who would ask me to do the impossible, and my comment was always “do you realize that we only have 8 hours in a day”? One thing business owners can never expect is for an employee to work harder than them, it’s not their business. Even though I didn’t always hit my quota, or my daily tasks, I did walk away usually knowing that I did my best most every time.

Knowing full well that you cannot change the amount of time in a day, how does one manage their time? I recently discovered since working out of my home, I currently get more done in 6 hours, compared to what used to take me on average 8 or 9 hours a day in an office. Why is that? Well, when I went to an office every day I always found myself socializing with other workers. In my last position, I was also very distracted, as my office was in the vicinity of about every co-worker who would walk directly past me. So, here I am today accomplishing as much in 6 hours a day, compared to what used to take me 8 or 9, and my commute is now just minutes, versus what used to take me sometimes over an hour a day. Now, I realize that some of you may not be able to change your current situation, but if you have ever heard the term Vector Changes - you will understand what I am talking about.

You see Vector Changes are those minor changes that over time will make huge differences. Imagine if you worked out a deal with your boss to work from home only 2 days a week, you just saved yourself 2 - 3 hours a week, if you have an hour or more commute each day. Maybe you can take 45 minutes for lunch instead of an hour; you just saved yourself over an hour a week.

Lastly, prioritize based on importance. I found that The Donald receives upwards of 100 incoming phone calls per hour. If he were to answer every phone call - he would never get anything done. Most of us don’t have to worry about that, but the question we should always be asking ourselves throughout our day is - “What’s really important and cannot wait”? We need to make sure that we are always moving forward. If you have a lunch date with a friend who you haven’t seen in 30 years, and there is a conflict with a project or sale that could generate millions, you might want to postpone the meeting with your friend until the end of the workday. Importantly, like The Donald its best to only return the phone calls immediately that are important, the others can wait.

The moral of the above is that we don’t have control over the number of hours in a day, but we do have control over what we do throughout the day. If you are working for a paycheck, unfortunately your company controls a lot of your time. But, you still have the ability to make vector changes that will make you more successful in your career and ultimately add more time to your bottom line.

John Lowery is a home based entrepreuneur who lives in Carlsbad, CA with his wife and son. He has been involved in Sales and Marketing for a number of years. He is also a published songwriter, writer, and a member of The Screen Actor’s Guild.

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One of the most important skills busy people interested in self improvement, achievement and success can learn is effective time management. There are more demands on our time today than ever, everybody has too much to do, and it is easy to be overwhelmed with the sheer amount of information that confronts us each day. For most busy people, all their time is taken up, or at least it seems that way.

Time is actually the most valuable thing we all have. Time can neither be replaced nor saved for the future. But can you really manage time? Everyone on earth has only 24 hours a day, so why is it that some people can achieve so much more than others? It may come naturally to these people, or maybe they’ve made a conscious decision to learn the necessary skills.

Thinking about and deciding what is most important in your life is probably the best starting point for effective personal time management. If you have worked out what you want to achieve in the most important areas of you life, it should automatically be easier to use your time more effectively. If you regularly think about what is really important to you, it’s likely you will want to spend more of your time on high value activities.

Another way to improve personal time management almost immediately is to simply make the effort to think about time before spending it. Ideally, at all times you should be working on your highest value tasks, tasks that will move you closer to you goals and desires.

One of the most effective ways to increase productivity and get more done in less time is to write down everything you have to do and then to put everything in order of importance. Your most important tasks are the ones you must do. These are the tasks that will bring the greatest benefits, or that will have serious consequences if neglected.

Next in order of importance are those tasks you should do, but aren’t as important as your ‘must do’ tasks. After this are the tasks that it would be nice to do, but are of little, or even no real importance.

When you put everything down in writing it helps to clear your mind and allows you to see things more clearly. You will often find that you actually have less to do than you thought. You may well find things on your list that you will be now consider, when seen in writing, as of no real value, that you can eliminate altogether.

The next step is to put your must do tasks in order of importance, and start working on the most important of these it until finished. Often the most important tasks are things that we don’t really like to do, which can make them the hardest to start. But this is one of the most important of all steps for increased productivity and effective time management. At all times you should be working on your most important and highest value tasks. Less important or lower value tasks should never be started when there are more important tasks unfinished.

One of the worst ways to manage time is to start something and leave it to move on to other things. When you return to it, you’ll have lost momentum and track of where you were, and sometimes will have to almost start all over again. Some estimates claim that this can cause it to take up to 500% longer to complete any task.

If you have decided your most important task and started working on it, the reality is, that according to your own priorities, anything else, by comparison, is a waste of time.

There is no doubt you will greatly increase your productivity by writing down and prioritising everything you need to do, and sticking to your most important tasks until they are completed. It takes discipline and perhaps some practice, but it’s one of the most valuable of all time and life management skills.

“Lost wealth may be replaced by industry, lost knowledge by study, lost health by temperance or medicine, but lost time is gone forever.” - Samuel Smiles

About The Author: Garry Zancanaro is the founder of http://www.SelfImprovementDirectory.com a website dedicated to all aspects of Personal Development, and to helping people live more successful and fulfilling lives. Visit to claim a FREE copy of Napoleon Hill’s classic THINK AND GROW RICH.

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