• Have you struggled with managing your time effectively?
  
  
• Do you have an endless to-do list?
  
  
• Are your to-do list a reminder of how inefficient, ineffective and unproductive you are?
  
  
• Does having so much uncompleted tasks feed negative thoughts in your subconscious mind and make you feel like you may never accomplish certain important things in your life?
  
  
• Has this impacted your self confidence in anyway?
  
  
• Has this impact your decision-making and made you feel like there is no point making new resolutions because you don’t have a good track record of following through?
  
  
• Does it cause you stress, anxiety and uncertainty about the future?
  
  
• Do you think you don’t have enough time or resources to get important things done at work or in your personal life?
  
  
• Do you have broader and more important responsibilities at work and in life but can’t seem to stop spending time checking e-mails because they seem important?
  
  
• Do you think you have attention deficit disorder?
  
  
• Why do some people appear to accomplish more than others but we all have the same 24 hours in a day?
  
  
• Are you mistaken movement for achievement?
  
  
• Are you checking off your to-do list and feeling good about it but, deep down, you know you are not making progress towards your dream or goal?

Many people have struggled and will continue to struggle with managing the best use of their time and live an unfulfilled life of worry, stress and disappointments unless they take action. The truth is that having more time is not the problem. It’s all about one’s psychology of time management; call this self-management.

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.” Pablo Picasso

” Stop managing your time. Start managing your focus.” Robin Sharma

"Wherever focus goes, energy flows." Tony Robbins

Make Time For What Matters Most 

How would you know what matters most if you haven’t given it enough thought? So why would you waste a second launching into things without first taking the time to think on paper (or other forms), identify what really matters, why it matters and planning how to accomplish what really matters - your outcome or results?

You can start a new chapter of your life and be a better version of yourself and also achieve a work and life alignment by focusing on what matters most, why it matters and taking specific structured steps to go after it.

In relation to work:

I start with work because a lot of people spend more time at work than in their personal life. If this brings fulfillment at the end of it all, it’s a choice.

Make your day about creating value. If you don’t have a plan for your day, the day will always have plans for you. While this statement might sound like a bumper sticker, it is true.

I’ve personally endured countless tactical and day-to-day firefighting and distractions that seem important instead of executing a careful plan on specific daily work goals. I have also spent countless of times going through a never ending to-do list of tasks. I decided a while ago to stop reacting and start playing on the offense. My top recommendations regarding managing the best use of time at work are as follows:

• Spend at least half hour at the start of the day identifying what your goals are for that day. Ideally, you do this the night before so you have a productive day ahead.
  
  
• Be clear and focused on why you want to achieve the goals and how to accomplish these goals. Let the goal(s) be aligned with what you’ll get measured on by your business (what matters most to your business).
  
  
• Work on your goals daily! Politely say “No” to a lot of things that come your way. What has worked for me is that I block off my calendar to reflect my plan for that day and I stick to the plan.
  
  
• Reserve at least half hour at the end of the day to reflect on the day and how you did and take notes on what worked and didn’t work. The purpose of note taking is to take any remedial action needed to accomplish the set goals.
  
  
• Spend at least one hour to reflect on your accomplishment by the end of each week.
  
  
• Spend at least an hour each day outside work reading about a subject that’s of interest to you – something that increases your knowledge or expertise in an interested area or that will help you in your career.

In relation to personal life:

When happy at work, it reflects in other areas of your life and when happy in personal life it reflects at work. You become what you spend more time doing and focusing on. Hence, why I didn’t mean to be insensitive to those that believe family or personal life should come first. Either way, personal life could come first if one feels more fulfilled in this area. In the end, the goal is to be fulfilled and to live a life with no regrets.

My top recommendations regarding managing the best use of time for one’s personal life are as follows:

• Identify what’s most important to your immediate family. Not you. If you are like me, you already spend too much time working hard and getting fulfilled hopefully in that area; a significant portion of the rest of your time needs to be devoted to family. So back to the question. What’s most important to your family [your spouse, children or loved ones]?
  
  
• Focus on how to accomplish this “most important” thing with the family. Be focused and do not be distracted about work. This is predicated on the assumption that you’ve worked very hard focusing on work. Now, don’t rob your family of such quality time.
  
  
• Let your family know a little bit about your work and what you do. Share positive learning experiences so they feel like they are part of your work-life, which takes up a lot of your time anyways – this is even better if they are interested.
  
  
• Spend time on activities that makes you healthy as an individual physically, spiritually, and mentally. For example: Being active regularly, being a part of religious or enlightenment group, feed your mind regularly by reading and learning from people and helping others. Make this a family affair if the family is interested.