If you are like most business owners or leaders, it’s no wonder you’re overwhelmed— you have way too much on your plate. There’s too much to do and too little time to do it.

You’re not alone. Very few people truly know how to manage their time well. It’s often because they have bad habits related to time management. 

Here’s a test for you:

• Do you have a clear idea of what your work goals and objectives are every day? 
• Do you know why you’re doing what you’re doing? 
• Are you easily distracted and do you constantly find yourself checking email and social media? 
• Do you feel that you put in a solid daily effort? 
• Are you tired at the end of the day but can’t put your finger on what you really accomplished that matters?

A fact that I find whips people back to reality is that we all have the same 24 hours or 1440 minutes in every day. 

There are people out there who achieve their goals much more quickly than the average person. Those self-made millionaires and billionaires out there have the same amount of time to work each day as you do.

We all have lofty goals when it comes to time management. Are you disappointed in yourself as to how you manage your own time? 

You can manage your time as well as those millionaires and billionaires. You can work less and earn more money, whether you work for yourself or you work for an employer.

If only you could get more done, you reason, your life would be so much easier and happier. 

You wouldn’t be so overwhelmed. You wouldn’t have too much on your plate. You’d be more like the people you aspire to be. You’d have more time to do other things you love, like spend more time with your family and friends, or pursuing your hobbies.

Let’s go back to your current situation— the problem is you have slipped into bad time management habits. These bad habits hold you back in more ways than one. Habits become sort of second nature for you. They happen on autopilot, infecting your actions and mindset. They’re not productive; they just happen. 

It can feel impossible to break away from these bad habits. Here’s the good news: It’s NOT impossible! You can easily become more productive and it can happen more quickly than you think.

There are proven methods that will help you change in major ways. Following these tips can help you live the productive life of your dreams.

It’s time to change your bad habits. It’s time to drop the bad and grab hold of new, positive habits that will help you get a lot more done.

It’s time you were able to approach your work with happiness and a feeling of empowerment. Right now, your work style probably makes you feel slow, disorganised, and incompetent. No worries—that’s a thing of the past now.

Why it’s Really Hard to Manage Your Time

First, let’s talk more about why it’s hard to manage your time. A big part of the reason is because we live in an age with unlimited distractions. There are the typical distractions of family and life. Those are necessary distractions that can be managed better. 

There are also unproductive, time-wasting distractions that should be eliminated.

Distractions All Around

You can do something about most of the distractions you encounter. If you think about your typical workday, how many times do you tend to check your email and social media accounts? How many times do you find yourself watching funny videos on YouTube or reading an update from your favourite blogger? Those are the kind of distractions you need to do something about.

There are also distractions in your environment. For instance, maybe you’re trying to work in a cluttered room or at a cluttered desk. Maybe there’s a lot of noise around you – either from other people working, your family (if you work from home), street noise, sirens, and so on.

The good news is that most of these distractions can be handled. You can stop yourself from wasting time online or wear headphones to block the noise. You can do something about your cluttered environment, your cluttered mind, and time-wasting distractions. You can change a lot about your work environment and mindset, therefore eliminating most of the distractions you’ll encounter.

Dealing with Uncertainty

Another reason it’s hard to manage your time is because you are probably dealing with uncertainty. 

Are you very clear on your goals? Do you know exactly what you’re doing and why you’re doing it? Do you have huge work projects looming in front of you and you don’t know what to do first? Have changing circumstances impacted on what you need to do next or how you will need to do it?

Part of successfully managing your time is eliminating uncertainty. You need to have a solid grasp on your personal goals and your work goals. It’s no wonder that you don’t get a lot done if you don’t know exactly what you’re supposed to be working on every day and why.

Indeed, one of the major things that separates successful people from those who are less successful is that successful people know exactly what their goals are. 

Not only do they know what their goals are, but they have most likely written them down and set time frames for their completion. They know exactly which actions they can take to accomplish their goals. They don’t give up – they move forward until they have exactly what they want.

If getting clarity on exactly what you need to do in the next 90 days is important to you have a look at our 90 Day Action Plan   http://kmginfo.com/go/90day-action-plan 

For most of the business owners and leaders I know, at the moment there are more than enough problems to be solved.  So today I thought I might share a simple but very practical process for problem solving. 

There are lots of different approaches to problem-solving out there, and there’s no one right way to go about the process.

But problems tend to multiply if they are avoided or ignored, and spending disproportionate time choosing  between different problem solving methods is usually a waste of time.

So let’s start with a simple problem solving process that will help you to move forward quickly and surely.

Knowing a quick and easy process for dealing with problems as you encounter them can be particularly helpful when the problems seem overwhelming and never-ending. 

Step 1 – Understand the Problem

In order to get started on the right foot, you must first be sure you understand the problem you’re facing. When you are suddenly facing a crisis, challenge or difficult situation, it’s easy to misinterpret things and to find yourself chasing an issue that isn’t truly relevant. 

A bit of analysis and thought will save you time and frustration in the long run. 

Rather than allow the problem to exist as a vague idea in your mind, it’s best to work it out on paper. Jot down some ideas about

• what the issue at hand may be,
• how it started,
• who is involved and
• what the primary negative effects of the situation may be. 

These notes will get you thinking in the right direction toward narrowing down and defining your problem. Through this step, you’ll be able to hone in on the main issue so that you can postpone any side problems for later. You don’t want to allow less important issues distract you. 

After you’ve done this spend a few minutes thinking about whether there could be any positive outcomes from this problem. I can understand if you feel resistant to this, but if you allow your mind to think this way for a few minutes, you may discover some amazing opportunities.

Step 2 – Brainstorm Solutions

This next step involves using your creativity to generate a list of possible solutions. At this time, it’s not important to analyse or judge these ideas. Simply get as many of them as possible out of your head and onto paper. 

Who knows what ideas might actually work once you’re able to add analysis and planning to the mix? The purpose here is to generate as many solutions as possible without dismissing anything. 

Step 3 – Analyse Your Possible Solutions

Here’s where the analysis comes into play. This is the step where you get to play detective and to employ your critical thinking skills. 

Consider the pros and cons of each idea you generated. Be sure to take all circumstances into consideration, along with any other relevant criteria. Not every solution will work in every situation. 

Consider your current life circumstances and how the proposed solution might evolve within this context. 

Think about any opportunities you identified.  Should you be pivoting to something quite new, or do you need to modify or improve on something you were previously doing?

This part of the problem-solving process allows you to see which solutions might actually have promise and set aside those which might not. 

Through analysis, you might find that some ideas you would have once ruled out actually have potential under certain conditions, and you can feel more confident in giving them a try. 

Step 4 – Choose Your Path Forward

The last step of this problem solving process is to actually choose and test your solutions. 

Take a look at all the ideas that remain from your analysing activity. Then rate those from most likely to be effective to the least.

Maybe one solution stands apart from all the rest.  If that’s the case you now know exactly what to do next!

If you have a cluster of possible solutions that could all be effective, rate them from easiest to implement to hardest. It makes sense to start with the easiest, most effective solution. 

So, give your first idea a try. If it doesn’t work, you can either tweak it a bit by making adjustments or scrap it completely and move on to give your second possible solution a try.

Revision and revisiting may be required. It can also help to talk through your process with a trusted advisor or coach. (You can find details about our coaching services here.)

But you now have a very basic problem solving process that should suffice when difficult situations abound in your business or team.

By implementing this method regularly, you’ll start to get a feel for what works and what doesn’t. You’ll soon begin using this strategy in your business and life automatically, leading you to feel much more confident in developing sound solutions to challenging problems. 

Let me know how you get on in the comments below.  Kind regards, Kerrie 

There will always be bad days and there will be times when we suffer setbacks. And at the moment many people are facing setbacks they could never have imagined only a few weeks ago.

No matter how much self-confidence you possess, there will be days where you’re feeling low and there will be times when your feeling of self-worth is tested. It is part of life and it’s ok.

It’s ok to feel as though the setbacks you are facing are insurmountable. Even though it’s not strictly valid.

There are powerful, proven ways to cope with whatever setbacks life and business throws at you and come out the other side even stronger. I know that as a coach.  I’ve seen it (and experienced it) many times.

I’ve just set up an audio course about Coping With Setbacks which will take you step by step, in ten short episodes, through how to best cope with setbacks.

http://kmginfo.com/go/setbacks

It’s worth way more than the tiny price I’m asking. You can complete this coaching coarse in under an hour (or just a few minutes a day for 10 days) – your choice. 

You can do this!  You can cope with whatever life throws at you. I know you can and I want to help.

http://kmginfo.com/go/setbacks