Why Traditional Time Management Techniques Are Not Enough -- and What You Can Do to Find More Time - By Michael Erwin

Thousands of people all round the modern world struggle to manage their time each day. Why? Why is it that we are always running out of time, running late, and unable to find time? I suggest it is because traditional time management techniques don't work anymore.

In my first year of coaching, ALL my clients and many other potential clients complained about not having enough time. I changed my business name to Time Creation, and I focused on the niche of helping people create more time.

Everyone I work with finds more time. Some people work 20% less per week. Some reduce their stress from 9.9/10 to 3/10. Others improve their productivity by 50%.

What was happening in my programs that made so much difference to these people when all the time management tools they tried didn't help? I believe there are three main reasons:

* Responsibility
* Personalization
* Letting Go

This was the starting point for the Time Management from the Heart principles.

THE TRADITIONAL TIME MANAGEMENT TECHNIQUES ARE NOT ENOUGH

The time management techniques that are being taught now have essentially been based on the same principles for nearly 100 years.

The BIG question to ask is "Are these techniques effective today, in the 21st century?"

Let's have a look and see. Here are some of the most popular techniques that form the basis of most time management courses:

* Daily to-do lists
* Prioritized lists
* Allocating specific times for tasks

Let's see how these approaches really work. Many, many people use daily to-do lists. You ask yourself, "What do I need to do today?" and then write it on your to-do list. In my experience, this does improve most people's use of time, initially. Brian Tracy (author of "Maximum Achievement") suggests that a to-do list can improve your effectiveness by up to 25%. I have seen this happen for a short time.

Rhonda is a great example. She wanted to stop reacting to everything that came her way, both at work and in her personal life, and to feel more in control. She tried using a to-do list and felt better.

THEN things started to change. Her to-do list got longer and longer. The list continued to grow. The list got so long that looking at it made her feel stressed and under time pressure. Rhonda actually felt overwhelmed by her to-do list -- the very tool that was supposed to help her. Rhonda gave up on her have-to-do lists. Her stress levels came down by not using a to-do list.

Rhonda's story is very similar to many hundreds of people who have been through our coaching or DIY programs.

The simple fact is that in the 21st century, there are too many tasks to do. You can't do them all. You will never catch up. Each day the list grows, the stress builds and you feel worse.

Some people who have this experience then try prioritizing the list. Like Glen. Glen used the A, B, C, D method for prioritizing. At the end of the day, Glen had added more tasks to his list than he had completed. Glen didn't feel this was working, but he decided to try it for a full week. By the end of the week, he had gone past 100 tasks; nearly 50% were 'A-priority.' Glen considered using A1, A2, A3, but he decided it was too complex.

Prioritizing tasks does NOT help you get things done. And it seems to create more stress and time pressure because you see a growing list of A-priority tasks that are not getting done.

A to-do list does not help you get more done or manage your time. A to-do list only lets you know all the things that you think you need to do and haven't done. It is really a have-to-do list. How do you feel about a task when you are told you have to do it?

Another method that many people use is to allocate a time to do a task. David is one client who used this approach. He would look at his to-do list and then pick a time to do the next task on the list.

Well, what do you think happened? The same thing that happens to almost all people who try this. He did NOT do the task at the time allocated. Why? Because "stuff" came up, and David didn't remember the task, or he didn't remember to look in his diary, or it just didn't fit in to do the task at that time anymore.

It was very clear to me that the majority of people are not able to use these systems to help them improve their time management. The other factor is that most people have far too much to do than they can actually do in the time available.

I did some research and uncovered that most time-effective people have a simple time management system that takes an hour or so a week to update, rather than a complicated system that takes hours to keep up to date each week.

All of these people have a system they had worked out for themselves. The systems had some similarities but many differences.

The BIGGEST factor I noticed was their use of what I initially called intuitive time management -- and this became a major part of Time Management from the Heart.

Here are Time Management from the Heart principles. These principles are the foundation for the Time Management from the Heart system.

1. Let Go - You can't get everything done. You need to accept this is true.

2. Responsibility - Take full responsibility for how you spend your time.

3. Whole Life - Whole in one.
a. Structure - Use a structure and your intuition.
b. Capacity - Know your capacity.

4. Personalize - Develop your personal version of the approach.
a. Style - Recognize your thinking style and adapt your approach to suit your style.
b. Values - Get clear on your top 5 values and the behaviors that reflect these values.

5. Instincts - Trust your instincts.

6. Feel Success - Success is about how you feel, NOT how much you get done.

7. Build Your Personal Time Management System.

About the Author:

Michael Erwin is one of Australia's leading executive coaches, specializing in the areas of return on time, emotionally intelligent leadership, and work/life balance. Michael has an impressive list of clients that he has successfully helped to achieve their desired results in less time with less effort. http://www.time-management-central.net

Check out the Experts page for Michael Erwin, the SelfGrowth.com Official Guide to Time Management.