Time Management

Time management books often deal with how to focus your time and energy to obtain the biggest effect for the least amount of expended energy. This concept is termed “efficiency” and in fact Winners are always efficient, so that their time and energies can be focused in investing in themselves. Working long and hard doesn’t mean working smart.

To reach your true potential we are advised to focus 70% of our time and energy on developing strengths. That is, spend time focusing on what you do well as opposed to what you do wrong. To put this into practice you have to believe that you have value regardless of what your detractors might want you to believe.

That is not to say that constructive feedback from your supervisors and peers that is provided to give guidance that assists you in meeting the requirements of your job should not be heeded. Work related feedback should never affect your self worth and if you find that it does then perhaps you should evaluate what you hold dear. Feedback about job performance should be used to improve your job performance and should not be used to define you as a person unless what defines you as a person affects your job performance in a negative way.

Likewise, 25% of your focus should be on new areas of your life that have never been explored. Spend time thinking about how you might want to grow and change. The pursuit of personal betterment will keep you young and energetic. There are always new horizons to explore. Avoid getting mired in the clay of past accomplishments. It takes courage to explore new vistas but this courage is what Winners have.

Focus 5% of your focus on those areas of weakness that allows you to make bad decisions so that this pattern can be broken. Nobody is entirely free of weaknesses and sometimes just admitting that you have them and enlisting the help of others can get you the help you need to shore up your weaknesses.