Many people, although they time manage their day, really don’t time manage their life.  In order to really manage your time you need to set goals for 1, 3, 5, 10, and 20 years.  Once you do this activity, you work from back to front.

For instance, if you have a 20 year goal, you set points of accomplishment along the way to track your progress.  Let’s just say in 20 years you want to be 130 lbs and have a healthy lifestyle.  Well in order to accomplish this goal you have the end in mind . . . now you start setting yearly goals, quarterly goals, monthly goals, weekly goals, and then daily goals to get there.

Now what I would like you to do is go back to the yearly goal you set earlier and create one quarterly, one monthly, one weekly, and one daily task in which you get the greatest benefit toward your goal.

In planning out my life, my husband and I take one weekend a year just for the purpose of goal setting and time management.  We set our 1, 3, 5, 10, 20, and life time goals.  We set forth our yearly points of reference and work on the next quarter, month, week, and day.  Each day, we plan for the following day, each week we develop the forthcoming week, and each month we take some time and plan out the next month, and each quarter . . .

Keeping your goals in your view, helps you manage your time so you are doing tasks according to your goals.  It makes it easier to say no.

A very important key to time management is to learn how to say NO

This could be a whole talk on its’ own, but I will leave it at this . . . If someone is pushing you to do something you really don’t want to do and don’t have time to do but you are feeling guilty for not doing it, don’t be afraid to say no!  It is easier not to feel guilty if you look at your goals and your time and it doesn’t line up with either.

Everyone has the same amount of time; the difference is how they choose to spend it.

I like when there is what I call an equal playing ground.  Some people may have more money, more talents, or more Charisma, but everyone has an equal amount of time.  It all comes down to how we spend it.

I want you to do a mental exercise with me.  Close your eyes and think of yesterday . . . the things you did and how you spent your day.  Now mentally tear out the page from your date book, rip it up and throw it away.  It is gone.  No matter what we do we can never get it back.

Now jump forward a day and focus on tomorrow.  What are you going to plan to do tomorrow?  Now, mentally, at the top of your date book for tomorrows date write promissory note – We don’t have tomorrow yet.  Something could happen today and you might not be here tomorrow.

Now focus on today.  All we have to spend in our bank account is today, the present.  Yesterday is gone; we can never get it back.  Tomorrow is a promissory note we may not receive; but what really matters is how we spend today.