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WHEN TIME SLIPS AWAY

Do You Feel That There's Not Enough Time to Accomplish Your Goals?  
Here's How to Shape Time to Your Advantage.

c2009 by Mike Foley

Steve Garrett, an inventor in California's High Desert, was out of a job for six months, spending 10-12-hours daily in his home workshop. The extra time allowed Garrett to perfect a prototype for a new tool he was developing.

But when he finally returned to a regular position as a roofer, Garret's time in the workshop dwindled. "When you're working full-time, it changes everything," he says. "You need rest and you want to spend time with your family. Suddenly there just isn't enough time for workshop."

Garrett's complaint is common among inventors and business people. As life's pace picks up, there just doesn't seem to be enough time. And that can lead to stress, frustration, and a feeling that we'll never reach our goals. And if you're balancing a full-time job, time often seems to disappear.

Fortunately, there are ways to shape time and use it to your advantage. And with a few simple steps, you can "create" more time for yourself and still be productive with your own dreams. All it takes is a bit of honesty and a willingness to make a few changes.

So how do you "shape" your time? Let's take a look at a few steps.

1. List Every Activity That Takes Your Time--This is an essential first step. Focus on a typical day in your life and list everything that takes up your time, no matter how trivial it seems. Your job will obviously take some of your time. But also look at smaller things--time spent on the computer, the phone, watching television, doing daily chores, shopping, etc. Be sure to put your "dream time" on that list--any time you spend working on your new product or business idea.

2. Prioritize the List--Now that you've made the list, begin relisting everything in the order of importance. Marriage and family will most likely rank high on the list. But your dreams, your product-development or business goals, should also rank high. If they're down near the bottom, you'll need to ask yourself why. Perhaps you'll be more comfortable considering your dreams as a "hobby," rather than a business goal. Prioritizing the list helps you see where you place importance in your life. There's no right or wrong here--it's simply how you view your life.

3. Decide Which Activities Can be Dropped or Delegated--You may be able to get a friend or family member to cover certain chores. Others can be dropped altogether. Some product developers stay off the computer (where the Internet and email can steal time) until they've finished a day's activity in the workshop. Others give up television time to accomplish their goals in the workshop. The small sacrifices can make a huge difference over the course of time. Again there's no right or wrong here. The approach will be different for everyone. Decide what you can drop and make time for your new product dreams.

4. Lump Activities--If you have outside errands to run, try to take care of them all in one trip. Make a route that allows you to accomplish these things in the least amount of time, without backtracking. The less time spent accomplishing the small things, the more time you'll have to work on your new product or small business.

5. Be Realistic--When setting goals for yourself, break long-range projects into smaller chunks, smaller short-term goals. For example, if you say that you're going to have your product drawings completed and a prototype made in a single week, you're being unrealistic. At the end of that week, you may feel like a failure who hasn't accomplished much. And, of course, that isn't true. You've just been unrealistic in setting your goals. When the long-range projects are broken down into shorter goals, your view of time will serve you much better. You'll feel that you actually have more time, and you'll work much more efficiently.

6. Be Regular--You don't have to accomplish something every day, but at the same time, you want to be sure that you're making regular progress on your dreams and goals. If, for example, you begin working on a new product idea in March, and your second session with that idea is in November, you're not being regular enough. And that can kill your enthusiasm for a project. Of course, everyone will define "regular" in their own way. Find the hours that work for you and make sure you're seeing good progress on your dreams and ideas.

Remember that although it seems that time is tight or that you don't have enough hours in a day, that's just a perception. By setting priorities and getting creative, you can set aside the necessary time to explore your great ideas and carve out a life of happiness and success.

Mike Foley has been the Dream Merchant editor since 1990. To view Mike's services for aspiring writers, visit his website: http://www.writers-review.com

  

         

            

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