3 Filters to Perfect Time Management Skills

You can’t manage time. However, you can manage yourself. This effects how you experience time. Let’s discuss how to leverage your time and develop your time management skills.

Guys, no matter how you look at it or chop it up, you’ve got 24 wonderful hours in a day. You’re in good company. Bill Gates, Tony Robbins, and Jeff Bezos all have the exact same amount of hours in a day.

Somehow, these guys seem to squeeze a little bit more out of their time than most.

I’m not sure what their secrets are. However, I can reveal to you ways that will impact your time management skills and give you instant results.

Time Management Skills

FACT: Time management skills are self-management skills. How you get more out of a day, is by asking better questions and leveraging your resources.

If you want to stop reading now, cool. Everything else I am about to say is about elaborating on the above fact.

The games we play

The reason you struggle with time is that you are playing a game. That game is Time Vs Tasks.

Each task takes up some time and before you know it, there is no time left yet still some tasks left.

This is the game we are all conditioned to play. This is what they teach us in school. We mentality accept this and bring it into the workplace with us.

We play the game of Time Vs Money. In exchange for the time, we make money. We run out of time, we stop making money.

This system is flawed because there are a finite amount of hours in a day. Meaning there will generally be a low ceiling for your earning potential. Even if the ceiling is a high one, the idea that you can double your income is very unlikely.

What can we do about it?

Ask better questions, you get better answers. Here are three questions you can ask yourself:

• Delegate: Can I delegate this task to someone else?
• Automate: How can I automate this?
• Detonate: What is the most important task for me to do now?

Let’s discuss each one in detail:

Delegate

Guys, listen, Bill Gates doesn’t clean his own toilets. Probably, he doesn’t do his own accounts and I have no doubt there are many things he doesn’t even consider doing. Love him or hate him, it really doesn’t matter. Here is a man who has mastered the art of delegation.

Ask yourself and filter any task you have through the following question:

“Can I delegate this task to someone else?”

Maybe the answer is no, but if it’s yes and you have a willing participant, what you achieve is time and space left open to yourself. You can now free up your day to do more of the things that make you effective.

Automate

We live in a world of automation. If you’ve ever used an alarm clock you already get the concept of automation. You don’t wake up every morning to activate your alarm clock. No, it happens automatically daily from your pre-set time.

We live in a world that is increasingly automated. Isn’t it time you took advantage of all the tools and apps out there. Allowing you to reclaim some of that time for yourself.

You won’t be able to automate everything. However, get into the habit of filtering your tasks through the following question:

“How can I automate this?”

This leads you to think differently. As you ask this question on a daily basis, opportunities to automate will reveal themselves to you. If an automated system can do it, it will most likely do it better than you. With more accuracy, consistency, and an overall greater impact.

Detonate

Let’s be honest, you’ve got to actually do something in relation to your task list. It won’t do itself. No matter how good you are at delegation and automation.

Eventually, your finger has to pull the trigger to get the job done.

But the question is not: Should you do the task? the question is this:

“What is the most important task for me to do now?”

This question ensures you do the tasks with the biggest impact. Furthermore, if a task is not a priority, you can simply schedule it later. This means you are either doing important tasks or freeing up your time to do the things that are in fact important and have an impact.

The habit of filtering

To enhance your time management skills get into the habit of filtering every task you have to do, through these three filters.

Not only will you free up your time, but you will find you are much more effective. You will find that you are getting so much more done, in less time.

You may even feel guilty about it because you’ll be working less and getting more done.

I’m sure you won’t have a problem filling up those empty slots. But when you fill them up, they will be filled with tasks that matter to you.

You’ll be living the life you want and not the life you have to live.

Do yourself a favor, ask yourself better questions and get better results.

If you’d like to use your time management skills to build the life you want on your terms, check out the FREE Video series on digital marketing.