The Top 3 Time Management Mistakes and How to Correct Them Read the entire report…Introduction to the Free Time Management Report Do you feel like you are…

1. Lacking Focus?
2. Disorganized?
3. Doing too much?

Are you stressed, struggling to get everything done during the day, burdened with a bottomless “to-do” list? You’re not alone. In fact, being busy and getting distracted is epidemic even among people you might think of as very successful.

If every day you wake up with some sort of mental “to-do” list buzzing through your brain and you feel the stress and the pressure of the crushing deadlines of all the projects and tasks you need to accomplish, this report is for you. Not to mention that you would like to improve your work/life balance and find more time to spend with your family and friends, and – of course, you know you need to exercise and find time to sleep.

But, you never seem to have enough time to get it all done. Do you?

And consider this…What if you got everything done? Would it make your life more meaningful?

Watch this 3-minute video to learn more about The 7 Minute Life.

3 Time Management Myths to Beware

You keep thinking…
“If only I had more time”
“If only I could get more done”
“I will have more time once I…”

In the meantime, the hopes and dreams you truly want to spend your time on keep slipping away from you or are put off until another day that never comes. Why? Because the three statements listed above are myths—they are fantasies that trap you.

“IF I ONLY HAD MORE TIME”
The bottom line is that we all get the same 24 hours and 7 days a week. You can’t add to or take away from these. Highly productive people don’t think about needing more time, instead, they optimize the quantity of time they have.

“IF ONLY I COULD GET MORE DONE”
Frankly, this myth depends on your to-do list. If your list is populated with your highest value activities (the things that matter most to you) then getting more done will actually bring you greater meaning and productivity. But if you’re feeling stressed, burned out, and longing for a better life, I think we can safely bet that you aren’t filling your list with high-value activities. That said, getting more low-value activities done will only add to your sense of being overly busy.

“I WILL HAVE MORE TIME ONCE I…”
If you are waiting for your big break to do the things you truly want, you will likely never find it. Again, highly productive people optimize the time they have right now. Now simply push back the low priority activities and make room for the higher value activities.

So What Are The 3 Top Time Management Mistakes?

Time Management Mistake #1
LACKING FOCUS

Feeling productive and experiencing greater meaning is almost impossible if your life energy is scattered in ten different directions. Much of our sense of meaning and accomplishment comes from completing goals and completing them well. Both of those experiences are compromised when your efforts are scattered. Goals take longer to complete and the quality of your accomplishments are typically inferior to what you could truly achieve if only you had dedicated more focused attention.

For example, you’ve probably had the experience of completing an important project just in time for a critical deadline, only to feel a certain degree of guilt because you know portions of it could have been much better. Or, entire sections were left out because “there simply wasn’t enough time.”

Wouldn’t it be great to accomplish projects and have the satisfaction of knowing you didn’t cut any corners—there weren’t 3 more things you wish you could have done to make it better? Wouldn’t it be great to know that a report was truly your best work and not just finished?

Lacking focus is often a result of living reactively. For example, you walk through the door of the office and open your email. You think, “I’ll just skim through and delete the junk,” but then a message grabs your attention and you respond. You get that done. Another friend’s email sends you to a funny YouTube video. While you’re watching it the phone rings. You take the call. The person on the other end has a question, which sends you digging through a stack of papers on your desk…and so on. Before you know it half the morning is gone and you have yet to touch the project you need to be finished by lunch.

The same thing can happen at home. You walk through the door and want to help your son with homework, but when you go to change into something comfortable you notice your laundry bin is overflowing. So, you decide to throw a load in the wash. Oops! Hang on, you can’t get started with him on homework yet…you have to get dinner ready. Part way through you realize you’re out of butter. Now you make a quick unplanned trip to the store. And so on, and so on. Before you know it, it’s 9:30 pm, you’re whooped and he’s only halfway through his math problems. Looks like it’s going to be a late night and not one you had hoped for.

Time Management Solution

Prioritize – If you aren’t clear about what is most important to you, then everything is important. Doing one thing is just as good as the next. You live with everyone else’s needs and agendas. The escape hatch from a reactive life is knowing what’s important and putting those activities first.

Big Warning
Here is where 90% of people fail at prioritizing. Prioritizing starts BEFORE you make a list. You must clearly understand this, or you will fail at prioritizing. When most people hear “you need to prioritize,” they immediately think that means they just need to take their existing list and reorder it.

No! What you need to do is become absolutely clear on what matters most to you BEFORE you make a list.

Don’t look at what you are currently doing and just rearrange it. If what you were currently doing isn’t already making you happy, then changing the order won’t change a thing. You are working on the WRONG list.

Life-changing prioritization involves clearly knowing your highest values and life purpose.

Let’s repeat that…
Life changing prioritization involves clearly knowing your highest values and life purpose. Once you have those in place you can set goals that are meaningful. You can create an agenda for your day that matters: one that is fulfilling, brings you great joy and honestly moves your life forward into a better place. At that point, you will be working on the right list.

This is just an excerpt from our downloadable Free Time Management Report:
The Top 3 Time Management Mistakes and How to Correct Them Read the entire report…