Have you ever found yourself thinking about work when you were supposed to be enjoying time with your family… or thinking about your plans for the evening during your work day?  Nearly every day, I hear someone tell me they wished there were more hours in the day or that they feel overwhelmed with too many things happening at once.   There are two questions, if you get in the habit of asking yourself and then give yourself an honest answer that can immediately help you become more effective.

Question One: "Is what I am doing right now moving me closer to my goals?"  By stopping and asking yourself that simple question, you will quickly be able to identify whether or not you are working in the right area or just wasting your time.  And if you are wasting your time on something not important to you, STOP IMMEDIATELY and move on to something meaningful.   Question Two: "Is what I am doing RIGHT NOW the most valuable use of my time?"  By focusing on what is truly the most valuable use of your time, you will avoid spending extra time and effort keeping yourself busy rather than being productive.  The behavior that I most commonly observe in people who are feeling overwhelmed is that they are confusing ACTIVITY with ACCOMPLISHMENT.   Many of our students have commented that by forming the habit of asking these two questions, they not only find themselves accomplishing more than they did in the past, they often find that they are doing more in LESS time.   You can not manage time, but you can certainly manage your focus.  I look forward to hearing YOUR success stories as you begin asking yourself the two most important time management questions.

  Be FREE!

Eric Plantenberg