Does sitting at the beach, sipping a virgin Pena Colada sound like something you’d like to be doing right now?  It’s relaxing, peaceful, and totally what any one of us could use, particularly after a hectic week.

Often, those ‘hectic’ weeks come because of our lack of understanding time and discipline.

One of the greatest understandings you can have about managing time is that you can’t manage it.  Each of us have the same amount of hours today as we will have tomorrow.  The key is managing yourself during those 24 hours.

Do you want to Create Vision, Reveal Power and Inspire Action in your life? Then you’ll want to read:

The Proper Use of Time – Pillar Four

Jim Rohn is one of my all-star mentors.  He once said, “Don’t start the day until you have it finished.  Don’t start the week until you have it finished.”  He also said, “You wouldn’t start to build the house unless you have a plan would you? Then don’t start the month until you have it finished and don’t start the year until you have that finished too.  Save room for unexpected challenges but if you wake up in the morning saying, ‘what am I to do today?’ well then it’s too late!”

In the book “Twelve Pillars” by Jim and his friend Chris Widener, Jim spoke about suffering from one of two pains: “…the pain of discipline or the pain of regret.  The difference is discipline weighs ounces while regret weighs tons.” No truer words were ever spoken for my own life.

I once took a Johnson Taylor Temperament Assessment (or TJTA as it is commonly known) and it revealed an interesting assessment.  I scored in the 99th percentile on being self-disciplined and I was shocked. I thought that they either had someone else’s results mixed up with mine, or I must have cheated on the test.  Neither was true, but it seemed to me that I would know if I were a self-disciplined person or not – right?   So in my attempt to prove the test inaccurate I walked through that day in my own mind.

“Lets see…

• woke up and had prayer time
• showered, dressed, made the family breakfast and lunch
• got kids to school and myself to work
• got home, cooked, cleaned, bath youngest and put her to bed
• spent 1 hour with husband
• went to bed

A normal day just like any other.  Oh wow, what did I just say?”

It was true.  It was just like any other day and I did it so well I could do it over again in my sleep.   “Oh my, being disciplined isn’t bad,” I thought, “but being so robotic that my days go by without so much as knowing whether or not I enjoyed it, or impacted anyone else by my being here is!”

I knew something had to change but I didn’t know what or how I was to change it.  It took another year or better before figuring that out.

May I share some of the insights I’ve learned along the way that have helped me create my Vision~Power~Action Plan?

Before I share them I’d like to remove an elephant that might still be in the room.

Mr. Denis Waitley once said, “Stop watching television in prime time and start ‘living’ in prime time.”

Prime time is between 7 pm and 11 pm at night when most of the world watches television.  If you really want to ‘live‘ then Waitley suggests you write in prime time, talk with your children in prime time, go to an ethnic restaurant in prime time, spend quiet moments with your partner in prime time and I couldn’t agree more.

You may be saying, “Prime time is when our family usually sits down and watches our favorite programs and unwinds from the day.”

Okay, then here is something else to consider.  If you watch television for 5 hours a night it could be costing you around $40,000 a year to watch it and it could also be costing your life according to the Wall Street Journal.

Think about this…

Years ago the Wall Street Journal did a study on television viewing in America.   The study indicated that once someone gets into the millionaire status the average person watches only 5 hours a week and most of it is pre-recorded.  In the homes of lower to middle class socioeconomic status it is viewed, on average, 7 hours and 15 minutes a day.

Another interesting fact is that in the homes of the wealthy the television is in a separate TV room altogether so you have to intentionally go to that room to watch it.  In the homes of poor people the only place they can afford to have it is right in the center of the home where everyone is. Further more its on most of the time whether people are watching it or not.

If you add up all the time you put into watching television you may want to consider how much it equals in 1 year.  If you take 50 weeks times 20 hours that equals 1,000 hours.  If you divide that by 40 you’ve given away 25 or 26 work weeks which is a half a year.

So there is the elephant and I’ll climb off my soap box now.

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To be more self-disciplined would mean you could get yourself out of debt and get into a great relationship, become a writer, a wrestler, a foreign exchange student or whatever your dream is.  The idea here is to just pick one and start positive changes for your life today.  The only way to master something is to do it repetitively until it becomes a habit.

Here is where I give you some “How’s”

Take a few moments to read what some of the greats, such as Brian Tracy, Donna Krech, Jim Rohn, Chris Widener, and a host of other well-disciplined people indicated would be valuable traits to help you manage your time more effectively.

1. Get your high priority items done first, without moving on to the next one, until you have the first one done.
2. The key to high performance is to set the priority the day before.  If you ask which task would be the one before you get called away then that is the one you need to do now.
3. Never handle the items in your inbox more than once.  Touch that email only one time.  Drag it to a folder for later action, reply to it or delete it but touch it only once.
4. Make appointments for yourself.  Set aside appointments for time alone, or time with family and friends.
5. Know your energy levels and get your high priorities done when your energy levels are high.
6. Make a list of how much time each task is going to take you. If you see 18 to 20 hours on your list then you need to move something to another list for the next day because that is too many hours.
7. Do some type of workout.  When you have a specific time each day that you work out you will keep your appointments and be more clear headed.  Bring your CD player while you are exercising and combine different things.
8. Delegate your work and recognize what only you need to do.
9. Learn to say No. (I’m going to write a post on this topic very soon!)
10. Control technology, turn off the cell phone when needed
11. Use templates whenever possible
12. Every item on your desk will attract your attention if it is not cleared off before you sit down to work
13. Develop systems to automate your work

These are all great ideas about how to use your time more effectively, but there is one that I try to always begin with each day and that is Prayer.  Get in touch with the most important decisions you make so you are not distracted toward the trivial matters.  To do this you have to listen to that inner voice that can be your GPS for total success!

Thank you for dropping by and if you enjoyed this post please comment and share! You’ll find the helpful retweet button at the  top and the comment box at the bottom.  My next post won’t be this long and I’ll try to combine two pillars into one whenever I can, but if  you missed the past four and want to catch up you can find them here—-> PILLAR ONE – PILLAR TWO – PILLAR  THREE PILLAR FOUR

Abundant Blessings!