20 Jul A surprisingly simple but powerful time management strategy!

A surprisingly simple but powerful time management strategy!

I’m passionate about helping people to dream bigger, think better and do more of what they were put on the planet to do.

Since I live and breath this mission… the subject of time management comes up A LOT.

Which makes sense.  I mean… Whenever you start to get clear on a big dream or goal… it usually means that you are also going to need to make some time to pursue it.

It might mean that you’ll need to find:

• An extra 15 minutes here or there to do some research
• An extra 60 minutes in an already busy day to meet with someone to expand your network
• Or maybe it might mean finding an extra two hours a week to take a class.

No matter what… achieving big dreams doesn’t happen by accident.

It takes effort.

It takes… time.

So time management is key.

That’s why I like to provide time management hacks that I’ve either discovered myself or learned from others.

Today’s might surprise you.

It’s GRACE.

Yup… grace.

Let me explain.

A while back, I posted on a  strategy for eliminating the “bright and shiny object” syndrome.  

Not only that… I committed to using it.

It was a simple plan.

You could even call it “straight forward.”

But then, I posted it to my friends on Twitter and Facebook in order to invite them to join me.

What’s ironic is that my very strategy for eliminating “bright and shiny objects” caused a distraction.

How?

Well… because I was a tech dork and I posted a bum link.

As a result, I received a few frantic emails from friends to let me know.  So, I wound up having to spend some time figuring that out,  responding to emails… and re-posting the link.  UGGGG!

So… let’s review:

The very thing that I did to eliminate distraction… caused distraction.

Funny?

Yes.

Ironic?

You bet.

And for a “recovering perfectionist” like me… it was enough for me to dump the whole idea.

You know… “If it doesn’t work in the first 15 minutes… I’m just NOT going to do it at all!”

Or… “I knew this wasn’t going to work.  Forget it.  Okay, I’m going back to the old way of doing it!”

But instead… I allowed myself some GRACE.

(See… this is where the grace comes in.)

I took a breath.

I reminded myself that I’m never going to get things perfect. AND that if I wait until I can do them perfectly, I won’t ever do them!

Plus, I recognized that I only lost about 20 minutes of time.

The irony gave me a reason to laugh.

And as long as I allowed myself a little grace… I was back on track in no time.

After that… the strategy worked and I cranked out more work in the next two hours than I had in the previous two days!

Yup… so, my time management strategy for the day is grace.

When you try something new (like a new time management strategy)… and it doesn’t work out perfectly the first time…  (Or you’re like me and you do something to muck it up in 30 seconds or less.)  Take a breath.  Give yourself some grace.  Learn.  And try it again.

How about you?

Are you in?

Is there somewhere in your life (and your pursuit of big dreams and ideas) that you need to give yourself a little grace?

Maybe it’s your commitment to be more focused this week.

Maybe it’s a new strategy you just picked up from a book you’ve been reading.

Maybe it’s a new habit you’re trying to instill.

Or… maybe it’s some other area in your life?

Where you do need to give yourself a little grace?

Give it some thought and see where it takes you.

Where do you need to give yourself a little more grace?

Who knows?

By giving yourself some grace, it might just allow you to get back on track quicker… and get more done. And have more fun in the process!

Think about it.

And in the meantime… keep dreaming bigger, thinking better and doing more of the good stuff.

Mitch

By the way, comment here with your ideas for being more focused!  I’d love to hear from you!