Choosing What is Best – The Key to Time Management - Part 2

By Action Coach Dave Beam

I work with so many clients that feel overwhelmed and out of control.  They believe the lie that if they just had more time, or if they managed their time better, that they would lose that feeling.  The fact is that the feelings of overwhelm are rooted in a lack of clarity about what is best.  Almost everyone has more to get done than time to get it done.  If you lack clarity on what is most important, then you will feel overwhelmed and indecisive and will lack focus as you try to accomplish whatever you choose to do.  Another common myth is that we can multi-task.  The truth is you can only do one thing at a time.  You may be master at changing from one thing to another quickly and jumping from one task to another, but at any moment you are only doing one thing.

So the key to losing the sense of overwhelm is determining what is most important to you, and this itself takes an investment of your time.  Again, the feeling of overwhelm and fatigue hits the hardest when we are taking actions incongruent with our deepest values and beliefs.  So how can you determine what is most important?

Find a peaceful place, perhaps outside in the woods or by the ocean or lake, or even in your local park.  Relax and use your imagination to consider this future event…  See yourself riding in a fine automobile, and being dropped off at this event.  See yourself walking into a large, formal room. Notice that all of your friends are there, and many of your most loyal business associates.  Your family members are there as well, all gathered together for this event.  You notice that their attention is directed to the front of the room, to a large rectangular container.  It’s a box, and you’re in it!  It’s your funeral, and everyone that you care about is there.  They are taking turns, speaking about your life, and what you meant to them.

Now answer this question:  What do you want to hear them say about you?  What do you want the others in the room to be thinking about you?  Write it down.  The comments from your family, your business associates, your fellow church members, and your old and new friends.  You are now gaining a true sense of what is most important to you. 

Here is the lesson. It comes in the form of another question:  Are you planning and choosing activities and projects that will create the comments and thoughts that you want to hear at that event? 

Now capture and review all of your to do’s on a single list, and review them in light of what you have just learned.  If you have followed my instructions, you are much better prepared to choose your priorities based on what is most important and valuable to you.