15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management pdfdrive com

In Their Own Words…
About six months before an Olympics, I would relate all the decisions I made to the ultimate vision of
winning gold. The simple question I would ask several times a day was, "Will this activity help me
perform better and therefore help us win gold?"
–Briana Scurry won two gold medals as the starting goalkeeper for the United States women’s soccer
team in 1996 and 2004.
I work more on time alignment. Is this part of my mission? Does this serve others or strengthen my
ability to serve others? Those two questions keep me tight to my map. That's how I best manage my time
and priorities.
–Chris Brogan is a bestselling author and CEO of Owner Media Group.
I always start with the most important thing on my priority list. If you didn't spend your week working on
the most important thing, it was a week wasted.
–Randy Gage is the author of nine books including the New York Times bestseller, Risky Is the New
Safe.
Most people set goals for health, wealth, and relationships. Others add things
like spirituality, charity, and recreation.
Regardless of your focus areas, conventional wisdom dictates that your goal
be specific and measurable. Instead of writing a goal to “save money,” it should
be something like “Save $5,000 by the end of the year.” Instead of “lose
weight,” you would specify, “Lose ten pounds in ten weeks.”
After identifying your most important goal, you need to identify which
activities will lead to goal achievement and which activity is most important
right now.
Don’t get sidetracked by the goal setting if you don’t already have identified
goals. In fact, other experts, like CEO coach Peter Bregman, suggest that there is
a downside to goals. Instead, Bregman suggests picking focus areas.

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For example, at the time I’m writing this book, I know that I really want to
increase my passive income this year. But I don’t have a specific dollar amount
in mind and because I have plenty of money, I’m not feeling any pressure to
define it.
But in order to grow passive income, I also know that I need to create all
kinds of things like books, assessments, and online training. Right now, when I
ask myself: What is the single most important task (MIT) to get closer to my goal
right now?
I know it’s working on this book. Once the book is done, I’ll create spin-off
content. And once I have more stuff to sell, my “one thing” will likely be
working on marketing material or webinars to spread the word. But for now, I
know that my MIT is writing this book.
Your own MIT may look very different based on your job and personal goals.
A rookie salesperson’s MIT might be cold calling in order to hit a sales target. A
software engineer’s MIT might be to debug a particular module in order to hit a
launch deadline. A senior software executive’s MIT might be recruiting a new
programmer in order to develop a new app. A startup CEO’s MIT might be to
create a slide deck in order to land venture capital. A student’s MIT might be to
find a tutor in order to do well on an upcoming exam. A stay-at-home parent’s
MIT might be to reserve a campground site at the state park to line up the
family’s favorite summer vacation.
Mark Pincus on His MIT
Identifying your MIT makes your scheduling decisions much easier. Having
identified what is most important to you, you’ll need a very good reason not to
be spending time on it.
The social gaming company Zynga is probably best known for its game
Farmville, which at its peak had over 265 million active users. Zynga CEO,
Mark Pincus, clearly has his MIT well defined and believes in spending at least
half of his time on it.