Developing Effective Time Management Skills is a MUST
One thing that you have to keep in mind when attempting to develop more effective time management skills is that your life is largely made up of your habits. There’s a famous quote--and forgive me for not knowing the author offhand--that says “We first make our habits, and then our habits make us.” True statement indeed. Beyond all the goal setting, productivity training, success affirmations, and time management techniques that you could gather up and accumulate, you must come to a place where you deal with the day-in, day-out grind of reining in your thought life.
You see, your thoughts produce your emotions, and your emotions (more often than not) affect your decisions. Your decisions then determine your actions, and consistent actions will develop your habits. Your habits will eventually determine your character, and your character will ultimately determine your destiny. This is actually an inevitable fact, even though on the surface it may seem like a “lofty” explanation of how our lives are formed and developed. Habits are a result of consistent action, and actions are always ultimately based on how we’re thinking, nothing more, nothing less.
So we must learn to deal with this wild, bucking bull known as our thought patterns and our thought life. If we never learn how to “catch ourselves in the act”, so to speak, when we’re living out a thought pattern that we so commonly follow, even if it’s detrimental to us, we’ll never get to the place of making a conscious decision to not go down the same “thought paths” and instead decide to move towards a new idea, a new approach and a new action.
I have actually read that, based on scientific research, the thoughts that we think repeatedly and consistently actually physically carve out “grooves” in our brains, making it that much easier to go that same route the next time we’re faced with thinking about that particular thing. All of us know that it’s much easier to walk down the “beaten path” than forge a new one…human beings by nature will most often take the path of least resistance.
This same thing is true with our thought lives; we will normally just think the same old way that we always think, because it’s simply easier to do so. The funny thing is that even if those thoughts produce undesirable actions and undesirable results, we’ll STILL think them, because it requires the least amount of effort! As Henry Ford once said, “Thinking is some of the hardest work that there is; that’s why so few people actually engage in it.” This applies very much in the time management and personal productivity department.
Yes, goal setting, planning, day timers, and other time management tools are important and they have their place, but if we never deal with our thought habits, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. You have to learn how to catch yourself going that same old route, giving yourself the same old excuses and the same old justifications for why you want to still do this or that thing. But eventually, in order to truly master effective time management skills, you’re going to have to make a conscious decision to put your priorities first (see my post about effective time management through the Principle of Priority) and make them the governing standards by which you will conduct your behavior. If you believe that you can just “drift” through life and let it happen to you instead of you living an intentional life, you’re already off course, because you’re going to find that your priorities get pushed to the side due to the “urgency of the immediate”, as it’s often called. Plus, as I’ve heard Brian Tracy say, “There’s only one way you can coast.” Well, I have to roll out because I’m hanging out with the family tonight, but I will be back with more effective time management principles later. Hope you enjoyed it!
You see, your thoughts produce your emotions, and your emotions (more often than not) affect your decisions. Your decisions then determine your actions, and consistent actions will develop your habits. Your habits will eventually determine your character, and your character will ultimately determine your destiny. This is actually an inevitable fact, even though on the surface it may seem like a “lofty” explanation of how our lives are formed and developed. Habits are a result of consistent action, and actions are always ultimately based on how we’re thinking, nothing more, nothing less.
So we must learn to deal with this wild, bucking bull known as our thought patterns and our thought life. If we never learn how to “catch ourselves in the act”, so to speak, when we’re living out a thought pattern that we so commonly follow, even if it’s detrimental to us, we’ll never get to the place of making a conscious decision to not go down the same “thought paths” and instead decide to move towards a new idea, a new approach and a new action.
 |
| Props to BrainyQuote for this one. |
I have actually read that, based on scientific research, the thoughts that we think repeatedly and consistently actually physically carve out “grooves” in our brains, making it that much easier to go that same route the next time we’re faced with thinking about that particular thing. All of us know that it’s much easier to walk down the “beaten path” than forge a new one…human beings by nature will most often take the path of least resistance.
This same thing is true with our thought lives; we will normally just think the same old way that we always think, because it’s simply easier to do so. The funny thing is that even if those thoughts produce undesirable actions and undesirable results, we’ll STILL think them, because it requires the least amount of effort! As Henry Ford once said, “Thinking is some of the hardest work that there is; that’s why so few people actually engage in it.” This applies very much in the time management and personal productivity department.
Yes, goal setting, planning, day timers, and other time management tools are important and they have their place, but if we never deal with our thought habits, we’re shooting ourselves in the foot. You have to learn how to catch yourself going that same old route, giving yourself the same old excuses and the same old justifications for why you want to still do this or that thing. But eventually, in order to truly master effective time management skills, you’re going to have to make a conscious decision to put your priorities first (see my post about effective time management through the Principle of Priority) and make them the governing standards by which you will conduct your behavior. If you believe that you can just “drift” through life and let it happen to you instead of you living an intentional life, you’re already off course, because you’re going to find that your priorities get pushed to the side due to the “urgency of the immediate”, as it’s often called. Plus, as I’ve heard Brian Tracy say, “There’s only one way you can coast.” Well, I have to roll out because I’m hanging out with the family tonight, but I will be back with more effective time management principles later. Hope you enjoyed it!
Comments
Post a Comment