Fly with time

find your value

S INCE T IME MANAGEMENT is really life management,

improving your personal productivity begins with an examination of your values. One of Murphys Laws says that

before you do anything, you have to do something else first.

Its not possible to manage your time properly unless you

know exactly what your values are.

Good time management requires that you bring your

control over a sequence of events into harmony with what is

most important to you. If it is not important to you, then you

will never feel motivated and determined to get control of

your time.

Ask yourself this: Why am I doing what I am doing?

Why do you get up in the morning? Why do you do the job

you do? What is your reason for working where you work?

Meaning and Purpose

Each person has a deep need for meaning and purpose in

life. One of the major reasons for personal stress and unhappiness is the feeling that what you are doing has no meaning

and purpose as it applies to you and your innermost values

and convictions. You must always start off by asking the

question Why?

You can become more efficient with time management

techniques, but it wont do you any good if you just become

more efficient at doing something that is meaningless to

you. Greater efficiency will simply increase your sense of

alienation, frustration, and anxiety

What Do You Value Most?

The next question you need to ask is, What do you value

most in life? What do you really care about and stand for?

What will you not stand for?

You will only feel really happy, valuable, and worthwhile

to the degree to which your day-to-day activities are in harmony with your values. Almost all stress, tension, anxiety,

and frustration, both in life and in work, comes from doing

one thing while you believe and value something completely different.

There are many reports about executives experiencing

burnout as the result of the stress of their work. But people

who love what they are doing, and put their whole heart into

their work because it is a reflection of their values, seldom

experience stress or burnout of any kind. When you are living consistent with your values, you seem to experience a

continuous flow of energy, enthusiasm, and creativity. Stress

comes from working at things that are not consistent with

your highest values.

Examine your values, your innermost beliefs and convictions, and ask yourself what changes you could make to

bring your activities, on the outside, and your life priorities,

on the inside, more into alignment with each other.