Our job was to fill up 200-300 seminars each month with 30-40 people who wanted the peace of mind of being in control of their lives. If they do, I’m more than happy to help them spend it. A dull pencil is sharper than two bright minds. If you’re not getting the results you want, and if time management seems to elude you, then take a look at how you are focusing on relationships and results. The prioritization step takes time. Then I added a fifth item, a sixth, a seventh. It is only our actions that bring results. Satisfaction = Function(our Expectation | Realization), 2. “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem”. On a good note, Getting Results the Agile Way (my best-selling book on time management), puts relationships and results, front and center. He promoted time management to a whole new level. After I had built all four daily recurring actions into habits, I dramatically improved in my steadiness. Watch your habits, they become character. He wrote a defining statement after each one. It sounds like you found your personal power. This makes it especially hard to get up early every morning. Exercising. Electronic devices are great for scheduling and managing contacts but still struggle in tasks and notes. I hung it on the inside of the door that went out of my apartment so it would just sit there in my path and bother me until I did my daily recurring tasks, and marked it. A Franklin Day Planner is one of the best time management tools ever invented. Then we add the pebbles and the sand, then pour the water around to fit it all in, or not. We often read our favorite poem: I am your greatest helper or heaviest burden. Stephen Covey reviews a performance pyramid-based planning system. Daily Recurring Actions. I will push you onward or drag you down to failure. First Things First, by Stephen R. Covey, A. Roger Merrill, and Rebecca R. Merrill. For the first few months I was up and down, like a rollercoaster. I came back and marked a chart with roughly 60 columns and several rows. You may run me for profit or run me for ruin -. The important tasks that align with our roles and principles; we put them into our schedule first. The most effective planner is the one which you can personalize it in a way you find most effective for you. Oh, and make it a great day, a great month, and a great year. I didn’t get paid to be there, in fact, I was paying my own way just to knock doors for two years in the humid summers of the Deep South. For example, I find time boxing activities is a great way to leverage our time and energy to give us the best outcome. Every year I stand up in front of my company, InsideSales.com, and talk about time management right before the new year. Covey recommended that we begin the week with the big rocks. Franklin Quest taught us that controlling the events of our lives brings peace of mind. “Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. And this time I put things for me to build into habits and for my family to do together. In life, habits shape our character. An event is a task with a date and time (a deadline) attached.