By Wanda Wallace
While making your way through this newsletter series and its exercises, you have surely realized the following: Many of our greatest problems, both at work and outside of it, are related to one entity: time.
Time is your most precious asset. Therefore, how you use your time is ultimately what defines your life – your relationships, your productivity, your sense of joy and fulfillment, your work, your mind, your legacy.
I hope this series has helped you change the way you use your time, and created physical, mental, and emotional space for you to focus on what really matters to you.
Before I leave you to make the most of your newfound time, here are a few key points I want you to remember.
There is never going to be enough time for everything. You will never get to a point where you have done it all. That feeling of completion you’re yearning for, the moment where you have ticked off everything on your to-do list and made everyone in your life 100 percent happy? It simply isn’t going to come. But positive change is possible, and it is in your power to make it happen.
However, you won’t sustainably change how you manage your time until you are clear what you are managing your time for. That means you must be clear about what is really important to you. At work, you need to know where your efforts will have the most impact. Where can you add significant value that will benefit you, your team, and your company in the long run? Outside of work, you need to identify the relationships that truly matter to you. Then find out what it is you need to do to sustain those relationships.
To make sure your calendar doesn’t fill with items that don’t have much of a pay-off for you or the significant people in your life, you have to be constantly asking the question: “Is this something only I can do?” If the answer is no, will you delegate it, automate it or disregard it entirely?
To preserve your time and mental energy, organize the things that do matter in a way that works for you. Put everything you need to remember out of your head and into a system, so that you are not wasting time searching for information, and worrying about the things you might have forgotten.
To ensure that you can actually use – and enjoy – the time you have carved out on the things that have the biggest pay-off, you need to also spend time on things that relax and replenish you. It only takes two hours a day of doing something you enjoy to put you at your maximum capacity. Work activities can be a part of that. Letting go of the guilt and taking time for the things that make you thrive will have a positive ripple effect on your work, and your relationships.
Lastly, remember that you will never stop fighting the battle for time. There is no magic solution or easy fix. Instead, the key lies in making a number of small changes and consistently applying the principles we have discussed.
That also means you will need to keep reviewing your choices at least once a year. Are you still spending your time in a way that makes the most sense? As your priorities and circumstances change, you might need to make adjustments to the systems you’ve created. When that happens, maybe you will come back to this series.
Until then, I hope you make the most of your time.
You can now find all installments of this journey in e-book format. To get access to the entirety of the creating leverage series, including tip sheets and bonus material, simply click here.
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