While New Year’s resolutions are good for you, University of Scranton’s New Year’s resolution statistics show that only 8% of us are successful in achieving their resolutions. One of my goals this year is to have a zero tolerance to time excuses. In plain english, I intend to get much better at keeping my time promises.
Do you keep your time promises?
Time is the most precious element of human existence. The successful person knows how to put energy into time and how to draw success from time – Denis Waitley
Your attitude to time is one of the things that could lift you up from the floor of mediocrity to the heights of excellence. Winners do not tolerate time excuses from themselves or from the people they deal with.
I love F1 racing. However, I am one of those fans who cannot bare to sit down and watch grown ups driving round in circles at high speed for sometimes more than 66 laps! One thing I am crazy about are the incidences around pit stops. The pit stop is where the cars get a change of tyres, their damaged body parts replaced, and their front wings adjusted in a matter of seconds. The fastest time for a tyre change pit stop is 1.923 second. Now think of one crew member making an excuse for overrunning by 2 seconds. The team principle is likely to have a zero tolerance to time excuses.
It’s up to you to make the effort to keep your promises regarding time.
Time-related issues to consider.
- Turn in the report on time
- Pay your bills on time
- Arrive for meetings on time
- Start and end the meeting or event on time
- Finish your speech or presentation on time
Having a zero tolerance to time excuses is a good start to boosting your chances of achieving your time-related goals this year. It all starts and ends with your attitude towards time.
Five things worth considering as you aim to be on time this year.
- Have a time and place for everything. This can save you the time it takes looking for your keys or wallet.
- Start your day the night before. Make sure that everything you need from the time you get out of bed to the time you get out of the house on your way to work or wherever you are going is all laid out and ready.
- Organise your work environment. Someone once said rather colloquially, that ‘a scattered table means a scattered mind’. A tidy desk is worth its time in minutes. Take time to organise your physical and electronic files.
- Don’t run a tight schedule. Allow some time for some events to overrun. Late trains and traffic jams can be out of your control. Plan for this in your day’s schedule.
- Continually develop time-saving and productivity habits.
Now you can put your newly saved time to some good use by reading, writing or prayer and meditation.