If one of your resolutions is time management you are not alone. In fact, a lot of the reason that efforts at weight loss, happiness, career development, health improvement fail is that people simply do not manage their time well. This is a habit. It becomes a reflex.
We are just starting to understand the impact of lifestyle on our genetics - Epigenetics. They are significant. Time management is a big part of that.
One of the most important leaders in this field was Steven Covey. He made it simple and effortless, and no matter if you are a Mother of 4, an Olympic Athlete, or a single career girl in NYC, learning and making sense of this, will make 2016 your best year yet.
We use this matrix behind all of our health programs for our Professional Athletes, and decided when we reviewed our new programs, to make it a backbone for everyone.
So, as Steven says, "Put First Things First." Download the overview and study the principal which is applicable to every faucet of life - not just a job or profession. (5 minutes)
All done? Awesome. Now put practice into principal using whatever method is best for you.
In our experience, and in no order people use:
-one index card a day
-outlook
-google calendar
-day planner
Here is one strategy that works great for our clients and patients at this time of year.
Take your resolution list. What are the 3 most important things you want to achieve?
Write those in Quadrant 1.
Every day - now when you plan and block out your priorities - you need to include action steps on these before everything else. The smallest step is the biggest action over time.
As we suggest in the document follow this for 1 week - simply using a printout method of the quadrant page and add reminders in your daily calendar after you fill in each day. At the end of 1 week - review these pages, and you can see clearly where you had success, and failure and why.
Reassess your time accordingly. Notice, how your brain shifts to accomplish the priorities.
After one week - your to-do list will change dramatically.
Hint: If health is your priority this year - then scale actionable steps daily. If being happy is your priority this year - scale actionable steps that affect mood - start of the day, mid-day and end of day.No one is too busy to accomplish better time management.
You may decide to do one of these for your Professional Life in addition to your Personal. Athletes use a separate one to focus on training goals. Some couples have a separate and joint plan. You get the idea!
We will be doing a series on various areas of lifestyle throughout the first 2 months of 2016 so we help you achieve your January 1st resolutions, dreams, success, which are all great for your genetics!
