In this article I want to give you some tips for time management. Now, I’m not a person who LOVES dealing with time management. As a matter of fact, I’m not even what you would call a very “organized” person. So why should you listen to me? Because I was able to discover one secret time management strategy that helped send my business and results through the stratosphere.

Listen closely, because I think this tip is gonna do you a lot of good. The first reality I want you to accept is that we all have the same amount of time in the day. Each of us has 24 hours. That’s it. And no matter how hard we try, we can’t invent more time. The good news is we can make more money, and that in turn lets us get more out of life because we can use other people’s time.

Now here’s my first time management tip:

1) If you don’t have a purpose for your time, someone else will

Simply put, you have to bring order to your time or your boss, your spouse, or a “time stealer” will take your time right from under you. And this goes hand in hand with telling people NO. If you’ve struggled with that, let me ask you this. Have you ever had someone ask you for help with something (like moving furniture – ugh!) and you quickly said no because you would be at work during that time.

That worked because you had a LEGITIMATE reason why you couldn’t be there. You were working. You had a PURPOSE for your time. Of all the time management tips, that might be the most important one in this article.

2) If you are short on time, buy someone elses.

Sadly, many people fall into the first category we talked about. They don’t make good use of their time and they have no purpose for their time. But the flip side is that these people are in a position for you to come in and pay them for their time. I do this a lot with friends or family who aren’t doing anything. I will pay them a few bucks to do tasks that I just don’t have time to do. Or tasks that aren’t worth my time.

This may sound harsh, but it’s reality. If you are a business person and you spend 3-4 hours a month working on your yard, you might not be spending your time right. Unless you ENJOY working on your yard. Hey, some people do. But the real key here is to spend your time wisely and outsource the menial, do the mental.

Let me quote that again:

Outsource the menial, do the mental!

If you follow these simple tips for time management you can go a long way towards achieving the kind of success you crave. And before this article ends, I’ll throw in one more time management tip that I like to use. It has to do with “list making”.

3. Create a list of the top 6 six goals you want to accomplish each day. I call it my “Super Six”:

This doesn’t mean write down 6 impossible goals like stopping world hunger and bringing peace. I’m talking about 6 real “things” you need to accomplish that day. Not easy things you can just scratch off in 10 minutes, but real honest to goodness goals you are trying to get done. They should be work related.

As a matter of fact, you can make a different list for every area of your life if you’d like. (relationships, work, spiritual, etc). But here’s the real key here for this to work. Don’t worry if you don’t finish all 6 goals. That’s ok. Actually that’s probably good because you gave yourself some pretty tough assignments.

So, whatever you didn’t finish the day before, go ahead and move that to the top of your list for the next day. This will keep you focused on the goals at hand. Here’s why this is important. Have you ever had that time of day when you’re staring at your computer thinking that you should be doing something, but you just can’t remember or you’re not sure?

I have, plenty of times. That’s when I just open my Super Six and see what’s on the list. I never lose track of what I’m doing and I easily break down larger projects into bite sized manageable ones. It’s easy to do. As far as keeping track of my Super Six, here’s what I do. I create a text file on my computer and save it as “SuperSix.txt”.

Then I write down the following:

Super Six For Wednesday May 19, 2010 (whatever date it is goes here along with the day)

1) Record Audio For Sales Project
2) Write Blog Post/Submit Article/Submit Video/Update Fan Page
3) Setup A Blog To House The Training Material (get theme from *****)
4) Send out reminder/invite emails to list
5) Call ***** to discuss working with a new vendor
6) Comletely Outline my ********  Marketing System

Then I leave a section for notes below that. I just save “Notes:” and add in stuff as I think of it. This is a big one because by the end of the day I usually can create my Super Six for the next day. This is the most invaluable time management tip I think I’ve ever shared with anyone. This is how I accomplish more in a day than most people get done in a week.

I hope you enjoyed my article and I sincerely hope these tips for time management will serve you well in your business and in your life. Remember, it’s not just about the quantity of what we get done, it’s also about the quality. So always make sure to focus on getting it right instead of just getting it done.

Tips for Time Management Video: