Create Account / Log In

Biggest Time Management Mistake

The biggest time management mistake you can ever make is forgetting your closest partner in life. The one who stays with you all the way from cradle to grave. The one who drives you through your daily and nightly routines, who runs all your habits. You want it or not, this partner of yours is the real manager of most of your time. His name is Your Subconscious Mind.

You and Your Subconscious Mind make one tightly bound team in everything you do. Whatever big or small project you undertake, you two depend critically on each other. And unless you both work in the same direction, your team hardly makes any big progress.

But how do you align those directions? Like in any team, communication is the key. You need to communicate to Your Subconscious Mind the specific target you want to hit and in what time frame. Of course, you can take the lead and set the direction to go. Yet, you still need to convince Your Subconscious Mind to follow you in that direction and hit your target.

The challenge is that Your Subconscious Mind has a stubborn and inert personality. If you just tell him what to do, he does not listen you well. He already has strong opinions about what you should be doing instead. After all, he is the one who holds all your beliefs that you absorbed throughout your life up to now. And he has a comprehensive toolbox of routines and automatic reactions to get you through your day.

But don't give up on this challenge. If you manage to convince Your Subconscious Mind to drive you in the direction you want to go, he has the power to make you unstoppable! The power that can keep you on course through the storms of every day distractions and interruptions.

But how? How do you convince Your Subconscious Mind to help you? You need to learn how to communicate in the way he accepts and understands. That special way of communication with Your Subconscious Mind is what goal setting techniques and skills are really all about.

While there are finer points that you can pick up in books or on my site, here is the core essence of goal setting techniques as a way of communicating with Your Subconscious Mind.

The most critical element of goal setting is WRITING your goals. For a number of reasons, this writing process is absolutely necessary for Your Subconscious Mind to take them seriously. Writing is the basis of the communication. Anything less than a clearly written goal will be discarded as unimportant noise.

Note that the goal writing process is a two way communication. When you write your goal, if Your Subconscious Mind does not accept that goal as reasonable, he will try block your hand until you actually write something more realistic.

The second critical element is about the way you formulate the goal when you write it. You want to get your point across to Your Subconscious Mind most directly and effectively, in the language he understands best. That's why you need to follow certain rules of goal writing.

In particular, formulate your goal in present tense, as a complete sentence that starts with "I". Make the goal as measurable and specific as you can. Correct and rewrite it until it is crystal clear.

Set a specific time frame. Set it by finishing your sentence with a deadline that you honestly think you can meet.

Keep those notes in a safe place and come back to them often to review and correct your written goals. Keep thinking about them throughout your day.

Finally, take a few minutes right now and actually write down three to five of your most desirable goals. Reconnect to that important partner of yours and start communicating. Right now, and from now on.

Sergey Dudiy, Ph.D., is a time management writer and web entrepreneur, founder of Time-Management-Guide.com, the definitive guide to personal time management and goal setting.

He also publishes free Time Management Fortress newsletter, dedicated to building a stronger foundation for your success skills. Subscribe today and get a free copy of his report Getting Unstuck When You Have Too Many Things to Do or Under Pressure.

If you reprint this article, your notification at http://www.time-management-guide.com/contact.html would be appreciated, though not required.

Time management a major problem in Africa Business Daily Africa, Kenya - 14 hours ago ... in markets across the continent, I was continuously intrigued by the similarities many of our brothers and sisters had when it came to time management. ...

Time management and multi-tasking employees Economic Times, India - Nov 18, 2008 And it is time management that churns out this skill in an employee. “ Time management makes an employee more productive, helps him/her reach his/her goal ...

For Star Player and Scholar, This Game Day Is Different New York Times, United States - 3 hours ago He calls Rolle a role model for time management and remembers his spending hours tutoring his teammates. “He had this endless clock where he never seemed to ...

Stanford junior Gerhart looking to go out on top USA Today - 7 hours ago Time management and being able to consistently keep up with his studies are important, he says. "I don't feel like there's a lot of stress one way or the ...

Cayman Net News

Chamber Holds Time Management Course Cayman Net News, Cayman Islands - Nov 16, 2008 Twelve Chamber of Commerce members recently took part in a Time Management and Productivity course hosted by the Professional Development and Training ...

Does Time Management Even Exist? Baruch College The Ticker, NY - Nov 13, 2008 So "time management" is a mislabeled problem, which has little chance of being an effective approach. What you really manage is your activity during time, ...

Big Rocks - The Super-Power of Time Management By: John Carpenter ... Healthy Wealthy n Wise, WV - Oct 31, 2008 Effective time management is not always as easy as it seems. There will be things that you intended to do that somehow just didn't get finished. ...

WPU Holds Seminar on Time Management Pioneer Times, NJ - Nov 10, 2008 A healthy diet and adequate exercise are just a few tips Samantha Benson suggests to students in help of managing their time. It is a struggle to manage all ...

IT Consultancy Secrets for Getting Long-Term Clients ITworld.com, MA - Nov 18, 2008 Most consultants face serious time management issues at nearly every stage of their businesses. The fact is, no matter what, you need to focus on building ...

Time Management KVUE, TX - Nov 4, 2008 And fate just seemed to be on their side. But looking back with those 20-20 glasses sure makes you wish time management had been on your side.