Being successful at anything is about determining the steps we need to take to be more successful and putting those steps in the right order. If you think success is a one step process – think again! We can have the right steps but apply the wrong order, and we will not achieve the result we want. The steps and the order must both be correct for change to occur with efficiency. In time management, most people start trying to change without taking the proper step of evaluation.
We have been taught to plan our work, and then work our plan. That approach sounds reasonable, but it leads to failure without taking more essential steps before we plan our work. Most of us start with planning our work or start planning our tasks. I have a few phone calls to return – we list those. I need to make these marketing pieces or put a sign or lockbox up at my new listing today. The truly productive individual starts at the opposite end from where most people begin. They start by working to determine where their time actually goes. They don’t begin by planning – they begin by exploring where their resource of time goes. Once they know where their time goes, then they work at managing the time to increase the amount of time in DIPA (Direct Income Producing Activities) activities.
They focus on lowering the PSA (Production Supporting Activities) that they do in their business, and then they work to increase and compartmentalize their discretionary time in the largest amounts possible. These blocks of discretionary time are grouped together, so the individual achieves the largest value from their time invested in personal enjoyment. This whole process starts with recording their time. There is really a 3-step process to this:
- Recording your time
- Managing your time
- Consolidating your time
The most successful people acknowledge that time is the limiting factor to their greater success. The limits of anything in life are determined by the most valuable and scarcest resource. In achieving greater success in life, that scarce resource is time.
I talk about the four probabilities of success being knowledge, skill, attitude and activities. The ratio at which we increase any of those four is in direct relation to our success. To be able to increase any of those four takes one thing – time.
We must have more time to increase our knowledge. We must have more time to practice to increase our skills. We must have time to increase the activities we do that generate a higher probability of income. Changing our attitude takes time invested in thinking, planning, reading books, listening to motivational CDs, and attending seminars. This all takes a greater control of our time than before. The scarcest resource in life is time.
Time is the great equalizer of life. As a resource, it is unique unto itself. We all possess the same amount of it. With all other resources, we have unequal amounts. Some of us have more money, more skills, greater knowledge, more energy, or even better looks. We all have exactly the same amount of time, which makes time unique.
The other unique characteristic of time is it doesn’t follow one of the tenants of the law of supply and demand. One of the key tenants of the law of supply and demand is that when the demand goes up to a high level, the supply will increase to meet the demand. When Ford comes out with a home run of a car like the Explorer, when the demand for Explorers is significantly higher than they can produce, they increase capacity. They increase the supply to meet the demand. Ford goes to around the clock shifts. If that doesn’t work, they change out other manufacturing plants they have to build more Explorers. That is the way it is with all resources except time.
We cannot rent, borrow, hire, or buy more time. Even a heightened level of demand will never increase the supply for us. It is also finite and perishable; we can’t store it for the future. We are all marching toward the end of our day. The end of our day will come and be gone forever. The path where we marched and what we did is the true value. Time will always be in short supply.
In most resources, there is a substitute. But with time – there is no substitute. We can substitute more knowledge to achieve a greater result. With the greater knowledge, we can accomplish a more significant result. A Sales Person with a solid sales process and sales skills can create a higher rate of return than a less skilled individual.
We can substitute money or capital for labor. Most Real Estate Agents understand this one well. They spend a fortune on marketing to avoid the labor of prospecting. In the end, there is not substitute for time.
D. Zeller
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