Biggest Time Management Mistake

The biggest time management mistake you can ever make is forgetting your closest partner in life. The one who stays with you all the way from cradle to grave. The one who drives you through your daily and nightly routines, who runs all your habits. You want it or not, this partner of yours is the real manager of most of your time. His name is Your Subconscious Mind.

You and Your Subconscious Mind make one tightly bound team in everything you do. Whatever big or small project you undertake, you two depend critically on each other. And unless you both work in the same direction, your team hardly makes any big progress.

But how do you align those directions? Like in any team, communication is the key. You need to communicate to Your Subconscious Mind the specific target you want to hit and in what time frame. Of course, you can take the lead and set the direction to go. Yet, you still need to convince Your Subconscious Mind to follow you in that direction and hit your target.

The challenge is that Your Subconscious Mind has a stubborn and inert personality. If you just tell him what to do, he does not listen you well. He already has strong opinions about what you should be doing instead. After all, he is the one who holds all your beliefs that you absorbed throughout your life up to now. And he has a comprehensive toolbox of routines and automatic reactions to get you through your day.

But don't give up on this challenge. If you manage to convince Your Subconscious Mind to drive you in the direction you want to go, he has the power to make you unstoppable! The power that can keep you on course through the storms of every day distractions and interruptions.

But how? How do you convince Your Subconscious Mind to help you? You need to learn how to communicate in the way he accepts and understands. That special way of communication with Your Subconscious Mind is what goal setting techniques and skills are really all about.

While there are finer points that you can pick up in books or on my site, here is the core essence of goal setting techniques as a way of communicating with Your Subconscious Mind.

The most critical element of goal setting is WRITING your goals. For a number of reasons, this writing process is absolutely necessary for Your Subconscious Mind to take them seriously. Writing is the basis of the communication. Anything less than a clearly written goal will be discarded as unimportant noise.

Note that the goal writing process is a two way communication. When you write your goal, if Your Subconscious Mind does not accept that goal as reasonable, he will try block your hand until you actually write something more realistic.

The second critical element is about the way you formulate the goal when you write it. You want to get your point across to Your Subconscious Mind most directly and effectively, in the language he understands best. That's why you need to follow certain rules of goal writing.

In particular, formulate your goal in present tense, as a complete sentence that starts with "I". Make the goal as measurable and specific as you can. Correct and rewrite it until it is crystal clear.

Set a specific time frame. Set it by finishing your sentence with a deadline that you honestly think you can meet.

Keep those notes in a safe place and come back to them often to review and correct your written goals. Keep thinking about them throughout your day.

Finally, take a few minutes right now and actually write down three to five of your most desirable goals. Reconnect to that important partner of yours and start communicating. Right now, and from now on.

Sergey Dudiy, Ph.D., is a time management writer and web entrepreneur, founder of Time-Management-Guide.com, the definitive guide to personal time management and goal setting.

He also publishes free Time Management Fortress newsletter, dedicated to building a stronger foundation for your success skills. Subscribe today and get a free copy of his report Getting Unstuck When You Have Too Many Things to Do or Under Pressure.

If you reprint this article, your notification at http://www.time-management-guide.com/contac t.html would be appreciated, though not required.

---

Seven Ways to Say, No!

A common remedy for improving your time management is to... Read More

Balancing Your Work, Family and Social Life

Balancing Your Work, Family and Social Life... Read More

How Can I Get Some Time to Myself?

"I never seem to have any time for myself. What... Read More

Prioritize Your Life for Success

Today, it is hard to open an e-mail newsletter, a... Read More

TIME, The Undervalued Resource

We are all born equal! We all have the same... Read More

Will Your Epilogue Be ? I Got All My Emails Done?

Work life balance is the new Holy Grail; that search... Read More

Having Time on Your Side

Clarity brings accomplishmentOne of the most important things you can... Read More

Increasing Your ROI

All requests are not equal; all customers or clients are... Read More

Procrastination: Why We Do It and How to Change

PROCRASTINATION: You've known about it since high school or college,... Read More

Controlling Family Chaos - Time Management for the Family

Balancing a family's varying schedules can be near impossible. Soccer,... Read More

Todays Overload: Tommorrow

Whatever providence has in store for us tomorrow is not... Read More

Time Management: A Non-Renewable Resource

Benjamin Franklin wrote: "If you want to enjoy one of... Read More

How to Define a Successful Time Management Strategy

One of the most challenging aspect in life is time... Read More

Too Many Unfinished Projects?

Q. I have several projects going at once -- but... Read More

Time Management - Keeping a Clean Desk

I have worked with so many people over the years... Read More

How to Find More Time in Your Day-Balancing Career and Family

Goal Planning-Achieving balance in a person's life requires assessment of... Read More

If Only Your Brain Was the Size Of That Of an Ant You Could Easily Implement Habits

A year and a half ago I was introduced to... Read More

Making the Best Use of Your Time

Time - it is the one thing that we are... Read More

File It: Boost Your Productivity in Only 15 Minutes Per Week

Despite the best of intentions, most of us don't use... Read More

Just Remind Yourself

This is one more article on "Organizing and Enjoying Your... Read More

Your Most Important Appointment

An appointment is simply a mutual agreement to meet with... Read More

5 Result-Getting Time Management Tips

How often have you tried to manage your time in... Read More

Put a Couple of Elephants on Your Plate

How do you eat two elephants? The same way you... Read More

The 3 Biggest Priority Busters

As a professional organizer, consultant and trainer, I have come... Read More

Everythings Blurry Except For You

Riding the subway home yesterday, my typically silent car was... Read More

Where Do Your Priorities Fit?

An expert in time management was speaking to a group... Read More

Is the Goal to Reach the Goal?

In this fast and crazy world, we want to multi-task... Read More

Focus on One Thing at a Time to Get the Job Done

All too often we can feel overwhelmed by the amount... Read More

Reading -- 10 Ways to Find The Time

Why Read?It's been said that there are three kinds of... Read More

Let Someone Else Do It

When you decide to become self-employed, you automatically become the... Read More

Time Management And How It Affects Your Kids

Last week I attended a presentation from Parenting Expert and... Read More

Winning The Fight Between You And The Clock

"Slaves to the clock" was the cover story in the... Read More

Organization Tips That Add More Hours To Your Day

One of the most common complaints that small business owners... Read More