Getting Honest About Your Time

“Time is neither our friend nor our enemy; it is something that gets measured out to us, to see what we will make of it”
–Richard Gaylord Briley, Author

In This Issue:

Getting Honest About Your Time
by Krista Jones

Early this summer, I noticed a disturbing pattern. Even though I always felt like I was busy as all get out, most days I still wasn’t completing one of my high priority tasks.

It wasn’t like me. I couldn’t think of anything I was doing differently than in years past. So why in the world did I keep coming up short?

One morning in early August, I decided to get real honest with myself about what I was doing with my time. I wrote down all the things I was doing on a typical work day—balancing two or three projects, going to the park, working out, talking on the phone, watching TV, and picking up around the house.

Then I drew a circle on a blank sheet of paper and labeled it “Where I Currently Invest My Time.” Next I divided the circle into pie slices that represented the proportion of time I was spending on each of the activities I had listed.

When I finished I had a pie with five slices: Career, Exercise & Recreation, Copy Protégé, TV, and Miscellaneous. The size of each of the slices was a real eye-opener!

If you ever wonder where you’re truly investing your time, I urge you to try this exercise for yourself. And then, if you feel that you’re currently not accomplishing everything you’d like, take it one step further.

Draw another circle and label it “Where I Want To Invest My Time.” Now divide that circle into pieces that represent how you feel you should spend each day, based on your professional and personal goals.

At first, you may be dismayed by how different the two pie charts are from each other. But don’t despair.

Use the charts to help you do two things:

  1. Become more aware of how you habitually spend your time, and
  2. Pinpoint exactly what adjustments you can make to maximize your number one resource: time.

Believe me, when you see the charts side-by-side, it will be quite clear which patterns demand change if you want to reach your goals.

When I looked over my “Current Time” chart, I quickly saw how I could recoup two full hours of productive time each day. I cut 15 minutes from Exercise & Recreation, 1 hour from TV, and 45 minutes from Miscellaneous. The best part was I didn’t feel like I was sacrificing anything—it was simply becoming aware of the small ways I was wasting time.

I encourage you to do this exercise some time this week. I’m confident you’ll find ways to free up some time.

Then next week, we’ll talk about productive ways you might fill the “extra” hour or two you create in your day. (One of the people in the Copy Protégé Mentoring Program is using the approach I’ll share with you next week. So far he’s accomplishing more than ever.)

Resource Referral: A Secret to Success

I’ve written you before about a powerful audio program that can make the most of your time.

The program, which is called The 80/20 Principle: The Secret to Success By Achieving More with Less, is based on the Pareto Principle that states 80% of results, rewards, or outputs are generated by 20% of causes, efforts, or inputs.

In other words, when it comes to getting the results we want, only a very few things we do really matter. Knowing how this principle affects you lets you use it as a tool to improve your life by finding and focusing on the most important 20% of your resources in every situation in your life.

Nightingale-Conant is currently offering $40 off the regular price of this best-selling program. So if you’re serious about learning how you can use your time more wisely, this is a great time to check it out: http://www.tinyurl.com/38zh73/

Reader Feedback: Don’t Forget to Ask Permission

Joe L. sent this message in response to last week’s essay that mentioned recording phone conversations for your copywriting projects.

“Krista,

I very much enjoy reading Copy Protege. Each issue has something useful. You and Monica are doing a great job and providing a great service.

The idea of recording conversations is terrific and can only help a copywriter be accurate class=”openquote”in representing the clients product. However, some states require both parties be notified when a conversation is recorded.

Undoubtedly you have called a credit card company or other organization and heard that the call "may be monitored for quality purposes," or something similar. In many of these states two party consent is not required if the call is not part of a criminal investigation, but some states require notification.

Personally, I don’t think it’s likely that a person would get in trouble recording conversations in the manner you describe in your essay. I don’t want to come off as an alarmist, nor do I desire to nit pick. But I think that it would be a good idea if people were aware that these laws are out there.

Here is a web site that explains the laws, both Federal and state.

http://www.callcorder.com/phone-recording-law.htm#Consent

Hope this helps.”

Joe L.

Krista’s response: Joe is absolutely right. If you decide to record calls, make sure you comply with applicable laws.

Just so you know, I ask for permission before I record any call, and then I erase it after I’ve transcribed the notes.