how you spend your time determines your results

Some of us are born bigger, stronger and richer than others. The one thing that we all share in common is how much time there is. There are 7 days in a week, or 168 hours or 10080 minutes in each week. How you spend this time will determine your results.

Everyone complains about not having enough time. In fact I can't remember talking to anyone who had too much time on their hands. Are you making the best use of your time?

One of the best solutions to time management that I've come across is by Stephen Covey in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. He categorises all activities that we do into 4 quadrants.

Quadrant 1 - Urgent and important
Quadrant 2 - Not urgent and important
Quadrant 3 - Urgent and not important
Quadrant 4 - Not urgent and not important

An example of a quadrant 4 activity would be spending excessive time watching TV or playing Playstation.

A quadrant 3 might be answering a phone or checking your email inbox.

A quadrant 2 activity might be exercise - it's important, but you don't need to do it right now.

A quadrant 1 is also known as a problem. For example not having enough money to pay your rent, or missing a session that you had booked with a client.

The secret to managing your life and avoiding quadrant 1 (problems) is to put effective systems in place to manage quadrant 2. This may include booking systems, financial systems, personal health systems, client booking systems, heads-up time working on your business and so on. If you're short of time - check in on your quadrant 3 and 4 activities to see if you can free up any time for quadrant 2 activities.

At PT Plus we're big on systems. Systems PRECEDE growth. Making a bigger business without systems will create more chaos. Our best product to help you develop your business systems is Business Starter Pack. The last business starter pack for NZers and Queenslanders starts on November 20th. This is spread over 15 weeks and will allow you to create not only a profitable business, but a business with systems that is able to grow. There are 3 more places available for this course. Contact our office at newzealand@ptplus.com.au to have a chat to us about this programme.

Dave Liow