subject: How To Schedule For Realrapid Time Management Success [print this page] Many time management trainers teach techniques based on a 100 million dollar tip. Worth knowing about right?
You may have heard the story: Ivy Lee (an efficiency trainer from the 30s) taught Charles Schwab to: A. Have your senior management create a list of the 6 most important projects they have. B. Have them order them by importance. C. Instruct them to work only on those 6 things until done.
In 3 months Schwab decided the results were so good that he paid Lee US$35,000. Bare in mind that at the time workers were paid just $US2 per day! That single time management technique helped make Schwab the wealthiest steel man in America. Yes, he made 100 million dollars. In just 5 years.
So if it was good enough to make 100 million in 1930... Isn't it good enough for you and I in 2009? Well let's see... Just write down the top 6 priorities you need to get done... and do nothing else but them until they're all done... one by one.
But before you run into trouble... let's think about it for just a second. They lived in the 30s - known as the age of style, when times were good, and life moved at an easy pace. Certainly nothing like our modern hectic life we endure today. That one darn suggestion from Ivy Lee in the 30s has become the underlying principle of time management techniques STILL taught in training programs today.
I know it seems like common sense. And if you've never heard the idea before and think it will work for you, then by all means go ahead and use it. Make a list of what you want to achieve. Prioritize the list. Do the list.
But if life's distractions and responsibilities frustrate you, whilst you see opportunities pass you by almost daily, then we share the same view... that modern solutions to time management must be found.
In 2006 I put to the test dozens of time management techniques. I tried scheduling activities to time, monthly and weekly to-do lists, prioritizing by so called importance or urgency. I tried reducing my daily commitments. I tried increasing them. I read dozens of time management books and read from many discussion forums on the net.
But I did discover what really works. By all means do not bother trying to prioritize by importance and/or urgency. Avoid the ABCDE technique. Do not schedule activities to time. Here's what works: 1. Identify the things that you want and need to do. Organize your life around those things so that you are fully prepared. And then develop enough will power to blast through procrastination, because laziness is at the heart of failed time management - sorry to say.
By eliminating procrastination and organizing our opportunities, we can achieve a natural time management beyond the legacy of Ivy Lee's obsolete time management techniques.
