Ruts, Routines, Rituals and Your Time

These are the three R’s of time management.
Ruts are bad time management habits that should be eliminated. An example is preoccupation. Work to control these.

Routines are activities that need to be repeated on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Systemize these by determining the best times, places and methods for getting them done. Then do them the same way every time. If you do you’ll be more efficient.

Rituals are personal techniques for putting yourself in the best state for accomplishing the tasks you are facing. An example is driving negative head talk out of your mind with positive affirmations. For example, “My presentation is going to go extremely well,” repeated over and over again.

Analyze your ruts, routines and rituals. Get out of the ruts, streamline your routines, and create some rituals. Your time will be more sublime.

Look Before You Leap

A sensible swimmer always assesses the water before diving in. An astute time manager first pauses and looks at the sea of options before plunging into chaos.

Here then is an important time management technique. Before plunging, pause momentarily and ask the instant time management question. It is, “What is the best use of my time right now?” Decide what it is, then do that thing first. You can use this question many times during the day to keep from drowning in a sea of irrelevancy. Try, it you’ll like it.