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The Four Ds of Effectiveness The first D is desire: You must have an intense, burning desire to get your time under control and to achieve maximum effectiveness. The second D is decisiveness: You must make a clear decision that you are going to practice good time management techniques until they become a habit. The third D stands for determination: You must be willing to persist in the face of all temptations to the contrary until you have become an effective time manager. Your desire will reinforce your determination. And finally, the most important key to success in life, the fourth D, is
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“My life is precious and important, and I value every single minute and hour of it. I am going to use those hours properly so that I accomplish the most I can, in the time that I have.”
This law says that you feel good about yourself to the degree to which you feel you are in control of your own life. This law also says that you feel negative about yourself to the degree to which you feel that you are not in control of your own life or work.
There is a big difference between action that is self-determined and goal-directed and reaction, which is an immediate response to external pressure. It’s the difference between feeling positive and in control of your life and feeling negative, stressed, and pressured. To perform at your best, you must have a strong feeling of control in the important areas of your business and personal life.
If you do not change your beliefs about your personal levels of effectiveness and efficiency, your ability to manage your time will not change, either.
See yourself as organized, efficient, and in control of your life. Remember, the person you “see” on the inside is the person you will “be” on the outside.
Helen Keller said, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
There is a rule that every minute spent in planning saves ten minutes in execution.
Henry Ford said, “The biggest goal can be achieved if you simply break it down into enough small parts.”
A goal without a deadline is not really a goal. It is merely a discussion.
PERHAPS THE MOST powerful time management tool is a daily list of activities that you create to serve as a blueprint for your day.
According to time management specialists, it takes about twelve minutes each day to write out a list of your tasks for that day. But this list will save you ten times that amount of time in improved productivity. Twelve minutes spent in preparing a daily list will give you a payback of 120 minutes, or two hours of increased productivity,
Your most important tasks, your highest priorities, are both urgent and important. This is called the “quadrant of immediacy.”
The key to good time management is for you to set priorities and to always be working on what is both urgent and important—that is, your most pressing and important tasks. Once you are caught up with your tasks that are urgent and important, you immediately start work on those tasks that are important but not urgent at the moment. The tasks that are important but not urgent are usually those tasks and activities that can contribute to your career in a meaningful way in the long term.
single-handling can reduce the time you spend completing an important task by as much as 80 percent, and dramatically increase the quality of the finished work.
What the experts have discovered is that multitasking is actually “task-shifting.” The fact is that you can only do one thing at a time. If you stop doing one task to turn to another task, you must shift all of your attention and energy to the new task. When you turn back to the previous task, you are simply making a shift of attention, like pointing a light beam from one target to another. Then, you must bring yourself up to speed on the old task before you get started again.
Multitasking is tempting, but it is an insidious use of time. It can actually sabotage your career and undermine your ability to accomplish the most important tasks upon which all your success depends.
Your ability to overcome procrastination and to get the job done on schedule can make all the difference between success and failure in your career.
These are perhaps the most powerful words you can use to increase your productivity. Whenever you find yourself procrastinating on an important task, repeat to yourself, with energy and enthusiasm, “Do it now! Do it now! Do it now!”
It is estimated that only about 2 percent of people move quickly to get the job done. When you develop a reputation for having an “action orientation” and for getting the job done quickly, you’ll move onto the fast track in your career.
Remember, you are a potential genius. One of the areas where you can demonstrate your creativity is in creating blocks of time when you can get more done and start moving ahead faster in your career.
Remember, “readers are leaders.” It is not possible for you to keep current with your field and be on top of your industry unless you are feeding your mind, continually but selectively, with the information that is being generated today by some of the smartest people who ever lived.
