Everything requires time. It is the only truly universal condition. All work takes place in time and uses up time. Yet most people take for granted this unique irreplaceable and necessary resource. Nothing else, perhaps, distinguishes effective executives as much as their tender loving care of time. Peter Drucker, Management consultant (b. 1909)

In Lesson One, You Will Learn:

• That time is your life.
• How to relax at the 90% level.
• The typical daily time wasters.
• To exchange patience and action for complaining.
• How to say "No."
• How to delegate and manage projects.

   Time is your life. Therefore, becoming a master of time is essential. If you haven’t read through the Action Principles or written your mission statement; today is the day; now is the moment. If you’re headed in the wrong direction, it doesn’t matter how fast you’re going. There is a German proverb that says, "What’s the use of running if you’re not on the right road?" The French Emperor Napoleon observed, There is one kind of robber whom the law does not strike at, and who steals what is most precious: Time. The American Father of Education, Horace Mann, asked us to consider, "Lost yesterday, somewhere between sunrise and sunset, two golden hours, each set with 60 diamond minutes. No reward is offered, for they are gone forever."

   You need a map and your written mission statement and goals are that map. Time is not a renewable resource. God has given us time and the free will to use it. You do not want to squander this precious gift. This is your one life. You repay God by becoming an effective time manager and leading an exemplary life.

   Mastering time is choosing to live your life consciously and aware of what you’re doing and why you are doing it. Leo Tolstoy, the Russian novelist, wrote, "There is only one time that is important — NOW! It is the most important time because it is the only time that we have any power." He also said, "The strongest of all warriors are these two — Time and Patience." You don’t want to fall into a tedious daily routine where the mundane activities of one day simply lead to the mundane activities of the next day. This isn’t living. This is existing.

Exercise Refer to Action Principle #85 — Observe and Be Aware    Throughout the Master Success System, you will come to appreciate the skill of awareness. Wake up! Come out of the fog of your routine. Where are you? Where have you been? Where are you going? What is happening around you that you can change and what you can’t? How do rich people gain wealth? Why are happy people happy? What are healthy people doing to stay fit? How do good parent discipline and praise? Wake up! Be quiet. See, hear, feel, learn from the world around you. Stop. Stay calm. Remain centered. You will know what not to do. You will know what to do.

Start Organizing

   Each day you’ll need to write a prioritized to-do list. Some people like to keep it simple and jot down three to five priorities for the day on an index card. The back of the card is used for appointments and phone calls. Most computers come with a built-in personal organizer and scheduling programs for those who prefer to work from a more detailed and extensive daily plan. The important point is not the planning format but the fact that you have a written prioritized to-do list to guide you through each day. Each day becomes significant and each day brings you one day closer to realizing your goals.

   Have your daily to-do lists for annual review. It’s educational and motivational to see the incremental steps that you have taken to reach your objectives. In addition, this analysis will serve as a valuable reference when you undertake the master’s job of mentoring and teaching.

A Boring Life Is Your Fault

   If you lead a boring life, this is your personal problem. To live a full life, you must accept the promise and risks of change. Often, you must move outside your comfort zone. Life is not standing still waiting for you.

   Some people waste hours.

   Some people waste their entire lives.

   If it’s your fun time, you should be having fun and not worrying about your investments. Be in the moment. If it’s your quiet time, be quiet. Live your life on purpose and your goals and planning will give you that purpose. When you choose to live your life on purpose, you will be putting your time to its best use. You can’t always choose what happens to you. You can always choose how you react to what happens to you.

   Initially, goal setting and planning may seem like a lot of work. So be it. This is not a step to skip or to take for granted. Start today to write daily goals and in 21 days you will have begun to form an important positive habit. In this short three weeks, goal setting and planning will begin to become second nature. You consider options. You make choices. You are decisive. You gain confidence. With confidence, you become even better at decision-making. You become increasingly proficient in separating the urgent and the important from the interesting but inconsequential.

   Most people don’t set daily goals. Of course, most people don’t write hit songs, make a million dollars in real estate, get elected mayor, start successful businesses, retire early or raise self-reliant happy children. You can make progress every day on your success journey. Start today. To master time, you need a daily plan of action.

Plans backed with decisive action

   Without clear goals, ambition or firm direction, the tendency will be to spend too much time doing small easy tasks, leaving insufficient time and energy for the larger, more difficult and, perhaps, more important projects. You start settling for less than what was possible. Perhaps you are even missing rewards that were within your grasp but that you didn’t see. Are some tasks worth doing at all? Which tasks are urgent and must be done immediately? What activities are time sensitive and which aren’t? Which tasks are important but can be planned? You set your priorities. Your aim is not simply to do more work but to get the more important work done. Nation of Islam Leader Malcolm X once said, "In all our deeds, the proper value and respect for time determines success or failure."

Beware The Skilled Time Wasters

   As one involved in the Master Success System, you will often be called upon to assume a leadership position. Therefore as both a supervisor and an example you should be aware of the different types of time wasters that you may encounter. From the American statesman Benjamin Franklin, "Lost time is never found again." The Victorian English author Charles Dickens warned that "Procrastination is the thief of time."

   There are do-nothing people. Do-nothing is an attitude and not a social program. Do-nothing people are not necessarily unemployed. They may be very skilled and ingenious at doing nothing. They may have found a way to blend in while "working" for large corporations, government or educational institutions. They may have found a nothing to-do niche or even created such a position for themselves. Many of these people have an over-inflated self-esteem and think that they are too good for the work that others suppose they are doing. They may feel under-appreciated and, as long as they can get away with it, entitled to do little or nothing while others work.

   Then, there are the perfectionist types. Perfectionists may seem like hard workers, even workaholics, but while appearing busy they never accomplish very much. They will flutter and fidget endlessly on small details. They are endless information gatherers and endless planners who can’t make decisions. They worry about too many things that will never happen. For perfectionists, it is safer to work on small jobs and small problems because in doing so they can only make small mistakes and thus avoid confrontation and criticism. They appear to be above average workers, students or children when they are not.

   Both types of professional time wasters may talk a good game but scrutiny of their behaviors tells a truer story. They may be well dressed and carry attachés and clipboards. They look like they belong while contributing little or nothing to an organization’s progress. Of course, time wasters aren’t only found in work environments. They can be found anywhere. A supervisor, teacher or parent must have clear organizational goals and periodic performance reviews to identify skillful non-achievers.

   In the short term, the time wasters around you may seem to be the smart ones who are beating the system, but don’t envy them. The parasite has few friends. You have chosen a more difficult but honorable path. Yes, there may be an easier road but you have not chosen this road. You will be self-reliant. Be proud that you are always willing to do your share and more. You will be able to stand tall. Your conduct will be masterful.

You will never be wasting time if you are improving yourself and helping others.

Common Time Wasters

   Here are a few typical time wasters to guard against:

• Not planning or poor planning	• Lack of self-discipline
• Not prioritizing tasks	• Mistakes
• Pointless meetings	• Perfectionism
• Poor communication	• Equipment failure
• Socializing during work time	• Inability to say "No"
• Inability to make decisions	• Inability to delegate
• Lack of motivation or interest	• Procrastination
• Unwarranted demands by or on others
• Not listening or ignoring instructions

Exercise Refer to Action Principle #79 — Work at Work    Look at the list above and honestly evaluate your time wasting. Try to thing of specific instances. What did you do? What do you wish you had done? Now, think about the people that you work with and how they waste time. Do you know of any people who do little or nothing while others carry the load? Do you know perfectionists who endlessly fuss over meaningless details? Is time wasting a chronic or acute problem at your organization? What can or should you do about time wasting?

   Be a person of action. Demand excellence of yourself in all your endeavors. However, concentration on impossible standards in one area can only lead to imbalance in other areas. To find peace and happiness, you need to balance all areas of your life. If you’re starving yourself to be on the high school wrestling team or to be a cheerleader, your priorities are misplaced. If you are always working nights until 10p.m. to get a promotion and are ignoring your family, any monetary benefits of the promotion aren’t worth the lost family time. If your priorities are misaligned, you will be wasting time. The German poet Johann Wolfgang von Goethe said, "Things that matter most should never be at the mercy of things that matter least."

Work At The Personal Mastery Level

   As you commit to a life of self-improvement, it is important to differentiate your path from the slippery slope of perfectionism. Man is human and therefore can never become a perfect master.

   Your pursuit of the best you is an ideal pursuit. Your pursuit of perfection would be an unhappy endless obsession. You want to work at a high level in all your endeavors as you continually improve toward your personal best. This journey is personal mastery.

   For a student, a grade of 90 is attainable and laudable. When a student is pressured to do any more, the student may become fixed on the testing rather than the learning. If you get a 90, pat yourself on the back, relax and do something else constructive. Next term, you can take a more challenging course. This concept of the 90% level can be applied to many areas of your life. If your car and house are 90% of what you would wish, relax and re-evaluate. If your sales performance is better than 90% of your colleagues, relax and re-evaluate. Learn to relax and re-evaluate at the 90% level, the "A" level, of whatever you’re doing and you’ll be much happier and, in the long run, a much better user of time.

   By committing to personal mastery, you will win many races without having to feel inadequate when you don’t win all the races. While you will wish to allot time in your schedule for professional development, you don’t have to go to an Ivy League college, become the company president, drive an expensive car or live in a huge house to be successful. Spending your time acquiring grander and grander possessions is a hopeless trap. The guy with the big boat is probably spending most of his time working on the big boat. Work to your own personal master level and relax. When you have a nice house, a vacation property, one or two nice cars and reasonable savings for emergencies and retirement, you are a winner. You have won the financial game. Now, concentrate on your hobbies, family and doing good for others. This is mastering time. If you want to work harder at work and earn much more, make sure that it’s for a very good reason such as early retirement.

Follow the Action Principles. Retire early. Work hard at doing do. Rest in peace.

Benefits Of Time Management

   If you are organizing your days by means of a written daily to-do list and reading your mission statement every day, you are one in a hundred. Be proud of yourself for making this important choice. Golda Mier, the former Israeli Prime Minister, who accomplished so much for peace in the Middle East, said " I must govern the clock, not be governed by it."

   To understand how to master time, continue to examine how productively you are spending your time. For example, if you are an average American adult, you now spend four hours per night watching television. Is this the life you want? Can you plan your television viewing so that you are watching only the programs that you really want to watch? Now, we have the Internet, which is a wonderful research and entertainment medium but also a seductive consumer of your time.

   How would your personal relationships, your family and society benefit from your having extra time?

   Don’t get into the bad habit of giving up your sleep time. You will find some people who claim to get only 3-5 hours of sleep per night. However, watching infomercials at 4a.m. and then spending the day walking around in a semi-brain fog and being grouchy are not conducive to successful living. Sleeping is restorative. For the majority of people, getting less than 7-8 hours of sleep is not a time management skill to develop. Sleep deprivation can make you cranky, weak, sick and old before your time.

Time Wasting Is A Choice

   Many people do not plan because they don’t want change. They don’t want to make choices and yet avoidance is a choice and often a poor one. They don’t want to start anything that holds the possibility for disappointment, disapproval or failure. Again, some are lazy. Others will engage in mindless, time wasting activities to avoid dealing with serious life situations like bad relationships, disruptive children, or money and personal emotional problems. In the latter category are those pretend do-gooders who involve themselves in everyone else’s problems to avoid dealing with their own. They can justify letting their own lives pass while they move from someone else’s crisis to someone else’s crisis.

You are not spending your time wisely if you are out saving the world while abdicating your own responsibilities at home.

   Once you master time you will be different. What will you do with all this extra time? Improve yourself and help others? Giving of your time is a precious gift. Start with those closest to you.

   You will not only take action, but you will take the right action. As you plan and organize and choose, keep these words of Dr. Martin Luther King, the American civil rights activist, with you, "The time is always right to do what is right."

Action Challenge E-mail Your Friends    We need your influence. Please take this opportunity to e-mail your friends, relatives or associates and give them the opportunity to learn about the power of the Action Principles and the Master Success System. Electronic Word-of-Mouth (e-mails) based on your personal testimonial is the best form of advertising to promote our mutual work to give hope and inspiration to others.

Using An Activity Log

   Many time management systems advocate the use of an activity log. Over the course of a week, you record each activity throughout the day. Are you working, eating, sleeping, primping, planning, traveling, or gossiping? Your hope in keeping the log is to identify non-productive patterns of behavior that you can alter. Don’t kid yourself. It is clear that most people don’t need a log to tell themselves ways to improve. Most are painfully aware of what changes they should be making. They just have to commit to those changes and they have to be persistent for the 21 days that it takes to replace an old, bad habit with a new, good habit. In the first century, Ovid, the Roman poet, wrote, "Habits change into character."

   For example, reading business books is a positive activity. If you can’t find enough time to read, you can buy books on tape and listen to the tapes during morning drive time. This is a choice. If you don’t pay bills until you have four copies of each bill, you will be deluged with paperwork. Make the choice to pay bills on the day they arrive. Handle paper once. Take charge of your desktop. Clean your desktop before you leave each night. If you take an hour for lunch and just gab, take a half-hour and gab. Be aware of how you are spending your time so that you can make the best choices for yourself.

Getting Organized

   There is an old Persian proverb which says, "Luck is infatuated with the efficient." Get organized. People respect organization. Being organized, you will find yourself with less stress and with more room, time and money. The heart of organization goes right back to goal setting and planning. Know what you want. Prioritize. Guard your work time. Eliminate interruptions. Get the job done with a positive mental attitude and don’t get distracted arguing or socializing.

   But a price on your time and interests. Spend your time doing what you want to do. What smaller jobs can you have others do so that you can concentrate on higher priority tasks? You may find that hiring others to do ordinary tasks for you is not an expense but a cost-effective investment. If you hate housekeeping, hire a cleaning service. If you don’t like mowing the lawn, hire a landscaping company. In most areas, you can find a host of service providers from dog walkers to handymen to grocery delivery services to nannies to personal shoppers.

   How about your job situation? If you are being constantly interrupted and getting bogged down on routine tasks, you may benefit from hiring a secretary or a personal assistant. If you are engaged in a big project, hiring temporary workers may be warranted. Hiring exceptional personnel will produce long-term dividends for you and your company. If you see a hard worker with a pleasant personality at the video store or deli or the bank or anywhere, this may be a person that you’d like to hire. Give them a copy of the Action Principles book and watch them shine. Then, watch your work load decrease, productivity increase or both.

   You live in a world of technological wonders. You must have a computer and probably a cell phone. Look for other equipment gadgets that can make your life and job easier. Can you make use of an electronic organizer, digital camera, fax machine or mini-voice recorder?

   As an organized person you will find that you will be doing one task at a time. You will make sure that you know what to do before you start a job so that you don’t waste time doing the wrong thing. Your objective is to take enough time to do things right the first time. The American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote, "It takes less time to do a thing right than to explain why you did it wrong."

Learning To Say No

   Are you in control of your life? Or are your parents, children, spouse, bosses, employees, friends, television or addictions? There are a lot of people, places and things vying for your time. What do you want to do or have to do? Your daily to-do list enables you to prioritize the people and activities in your life and then to invest your time accordingly.

   You want to help your family and friends. You do not have to be their servant. Are some customers and clients more work than they are worth? Avoid those who are time wasters and are not bringing you closer to your goals.

   Bring your schedule and calendar with you to meetings. Defend your schedule, your goals, your plans, and your to-do list. If you can avoid it, don’t say, "I’ll get back to you." This creates a future obligation and more work. If you can make a decision on the spot, do that. If you have the authority, weigh commitments to new projects carefully before agreeing to them. Be prepared when requests are made of your time and resources. Does the task fit with your priorities and skills? Will the new task interfere with your present workload? Do you understand the specific requirements of the task? Are the time and performance expectations realistic? The best time to deal with any potential problems is before you assume responsibility for the task.

   Discourage people from just dropping in and interrupting your work. If you have a secretary or assistant, they can take messages and arrange appointments for you. Voice mail and e-mail have a place in protecting your work time. Be sure that you have the skills, time and resources to complete requests before accepting them and allowing them to interfere with current projects.

How To Delegate

   You get a lot done. You can accomplish more when others help. Whether you are leading your family, company or softball team, you must be able to delegate assignments. Delegating means to pass responsibility to others. Delegating helps you to concentrate on what you do best and allows you to think, plan and improve organizational efficiency. You delegate tasks that are cost and time effective for others to do for you. You also delegate tasks that people can do better than you can do.

   Here are a few suggestions on effective delegating:

• Match the right person to the right task.
• Explain as precisely as possible your expectations for the task.
• Establish a date when you expect the task to be completed.
• Be sure that sufficient time and resources are available to complete the task.
• Ask the person to assume responsibility for the task.
• Encourage feedback if problems develop.
• Ensure that the person understands the task and due date.
• Schedule times and methods for checks and updates.
• Say, "Thank you."
• Follow up.

How To Manage Projects

   As you plan, you will be translating your goals into manageable sized projects. You will do this by asking yourself a number of questions:

   Exactly what has to be done?

   How important is the project to you and the company?

   Who is assuming responsibility for the project?

   Is there a deadline? Is there a start date?

   What is the estimated time for the completion of the project?

   How much will it cost and do you have the resources?

   Besides money, what other resources are needed and are they on hand?

   How will success be measured?

   What projects will be postponed to complete this project?

   What are my options for completing the project?

   With whom can I brainstorm?

   To whom can I delegate?

Key Concepts

   To master your life you must master time. Each day you must have a prioritized to-do list. Whether it is written on an index card or logged in a computer you need to plan each and every day.

   Focus on the matter at hand. Be aware of the typical ways people waste time and guard against them. Put a price on your time. Spend your time doing what you want to do. When people try to convince you to do things you know aren’t that important, learn to say no. Your time is your life.

   You must set clear goals in order to guide you in prioritizing your daily plans. Be careful that you are not devoting all your time to the small, easy tasks while the important, more difficult projects are avoided.

   Discover your own time wasting habits. Adopt new, more effective habits. Stick with these habits for 21 days and they will be a part of you. Instead of getting involved in solving other people’s problems, start by improving yourself. Don’t engage in activities that are nothing more than ways to avoid dealing with your own situation.

   Learn to delegate. Delegating helps you to concentrate on what you do best. Delegate tasks that are more cost and time effective for others to do.

   As the Spanish proverb says, "Time and I against any two."

Your Assignment    Your assignment for this chapter during the next 21 days is: 1. Observe people around you and identify the best time managers. What lessons can you learn from them? 2. Monitor your own activities, looking for personal patterns of time wasting that can be changed. Consider how any freed time can be put to more productive use for you, your family and society. 3. Write and follow your daily to-do list and each day read your mission statement.

Extra Curricular    Talk to people who have retired early and ask them how and why they made that decision. Talk to people who are wealthy and still working and ask them why they continue working to earn more money. If you could, would you retire early? How much money would you need? How would you spend your time?

Go to Lesson 4