Never Enough Time
Author: Paul Lemberg

It's a cliche of executive life: you don't have time to do
everything. Whether you use little slips of paper, a planner,
scheduling software or a Palm Pilot, all attempts at time
management fail. Rather than throwing in the towel, I suggest
that you need a new frame of reference. Change your focus from
time management to priority management.

Create a list of priorities

Your strategic plan should highlight your business priorities.
If you don't have one, take a look at my articles on the
subject. . Answer the question, "What is most important to
accomplish in this time frame?" Make those priorities explicit,
write them out. Keep a list prominently posted by your desk.

About priorities

The word priority is derived from prior, meaning before, and
related to the Latin primus, meaning first. And while some
things are more important than others, your list of priorities
should contain all the items of first importance - Only the
items critical to developing your business, and nothing else.

Rethinking your to-do list

If you are like most people, your to-do list is a long
hodgepodge of everything you have thought to do now and in the
future, ordered simply by when you thought it. Perhaps you
write little letters or numbers next to each "task" and cross
out what's done. Your list grows and grows - you re-write it
only when it becomes unreadable. Throw it away!

The List of Seven

Start fresh every day. Today's list, written today for today,
should contain no more than seven items. Based on your
priorities, list today's most important item first, and so on.
Each item on the list must advance a critical issue in your
business. If it doesn't, why are you doing it? Remove it from
your list. If you still think it's important, but not that
important, delegate it to someone else.

Planning and Reality

Each day brings scheduled and ad-hoc meetings, walk-ins,
sit-downs, and emergencies. Plus, you have daily rituals -
answering email, your half-hour reading, or reviewing sales
figures. Each meeting and each ritual should be evaluated
against your highest priorities. If it doesn't address your
priorities, don't do it. Don't participate. Give it up.
Delegate it away. The time remaining after meetings and rituals
is available for your to-do list. Don't squander it!

Using the list

Put your energies into doing the first task on your list until
it's complete. Only then, move on to the second item. You may
not complete today's list today - you may not even complete
item one - but if you've spent the day advancing your highest
priority, you've been productive.

Tomorrow, make a fresh list on a fresh sheet of paper or its
computer equivalent. Don't automatically carry anything over.
This will give you a sense of completion and force you to
freshly evaluate what's important. If you have multiple
"highest priority" tracks to follow, break up the available
time into fixed time slots, and advance several priorities at
once.

Evaluation and balance

At the end of each week, match your accomplishments against
your list of strategic priorities. Check to see that you are
making progress with all your objectives - that all your
priorities are moving forward. Don't let key areas in your
business languish. Evaluate your progress against the list
provided in New Year's Planning.

There may still not be enough time for everything, but the
things that are critical to your business will get done.
Everything else can wait.

Visit http://www.paullemberg.com/toolsandtips.html for a free
copy of our "Priority Setting Worksheet."


About The Author: Business Coach http://paullemberg.com and
Strategist, Paul Lemberg is the President of Quantum Growth
Coaching, the world's only fully systemized business coaching
http://quantumgrowthcoaching.com program designed to create
More Profits and More Life™ for entrepreneurs.