Once upon a time there was a professional adult woman who worked 80-100 hours a week. She (I) thought that it was the only way to make it. Stress was my way of life. It was showing in my health and in my attitude. My teeth actually started to loosen and come out. Plus, I was not much fun to be with. Time Management saved me.
One year the biggest sale of the year failed to book regardless of all of my efforts and excellent Master Sales Strategy skills. It was devastating and I didn’t make my sales quota for that year. I hit a bottom of sorts and knew I couldn’t continue the way I was. It was going to kill me. That was when I changed. No matter how hard I worked, how much I knew about my business and what kind of professional I was, there are some things that I just couldn’t control.
So I let go. I worked a full week but not every night and weekend. I enjoyed my family, stopped worrying and accepted what will be will be. Nothing external to me changed. It was an inside job, I changed.
Crater Lake National park Oregon
Then while hiking at Crater Lake National Park in Oregon (amazing, beautiful, want to go back) the biggest order of my career booked. I had done all the work but didn’t stress over it. I showed up and cared and took care of everything but the driving fear was gone. More orders kept booking. My family went on an all expense paid trip to the Caribbean as a result of winning a sales contest due to that year’s sales numbers.
The company that I worked with noticed the change in me and the increase in sales. I was asked to speak on time management at the next sales meeting.
It was time to codify what I was experiencing and now doing naturally.
Simultaneously I was studying to be a Professional Organizer. I found that one of my professional organizations, National Association of Professional Organizers, NAPO, offered many courses on Time Management. These course address in many styles and interpretations of time management. I read all the books, took all the course and get to know all the acronyms for Time Management. My challenge was how to impart what I knew and was practicing myself to my clients in an easy to understand way. All of my organizing clients were too busy to learn any of that.
June's Core Values
I attended The Productivists’s, Mike Vardy’s, presentation on Time Management at the NAPO conference. The light bulb went off for me. This is what I was now doing naturally, understanding Important VS Urgent. More info on Mike here The Productivist.
There is so much documentation on Important VS Urgent that I am not attaching any other links. This is the basis for much of Steven Covey’s work. Eisenhower is credited with using Important VS Urgent as a decision maker in World War 11. Too many to mention but all appreciated.
Time management as I see it is not about time. It is about priorities and taking care of ourselves and what is important in our lives. It came to me through brute force built on the anvils of hard experience. But once I got it it is a pleasure to live this way.
Now, I use the format of Important VS Urgent with all my clients in our first meeting. That is how I get to know someone and they are getting to know themselves. My core values are in a frame on my desk. As I am making decisions I can ask is it important, urgent or both. And sometimes I just use the short version, “How Important is it?”.
See more on GYST* Solutions 34 Minute Time Management at 34 Minute Time Management Process
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