I am sitting at Gate B3 at the Nashville International Airport. I just spent 50 minutes getting through airport security. The line wasn’t that long; what should have been a 15-minute wait was more than triple that time. While the TSA agents were hardly models of efficiency, there was a bigger problem involved in the unreasonable delay.
Interestingly, I was just presenting on time management to a group in Kentucky yesterday, which is the reason I’m at the airport in the first place. It doesn’t matter what group I present to, I see the same issues over and over. My customers are always complaining that “There are not enough hours in the day” to get everything done. And it’s not that they need me to come in and tell them strategies. The reality is that they’ve heard it all (or at least a lot of it) before. And yet they still struggle.
After spending the last 20 years helping clients with time management, I’ve learned that I have to help them overcome two major fallacies that prevent them from transforming their lives. I want to share one with you now, as it relates directly to my friends at the Nashville International Airport security check-in and my new Kentucky customers.
The fallacy is that time management is ALL about doing things more efficiently, as well as being more productive and effective. In other words, it’s all about implementing the right tips, techniques and strategies. While you certainly can incorporate them and see improvements; they won’t be the cure-all to your time management challenges.
The cure-all is with your system; having a set of processes that provide a structure and framework for the strategies that you use. More importantly, you need a system that works in all kinds of situations and circumstances.
That was the issue with the TSA agents at the airport. Their system was clearly flawed when they got an increase in volume of people. They had a jumbled crowd funneling to eight lanes and then funneling into three checkpoints. On top of that, the TSA agents contributed further to the bottleneck by the haphazard way they were directing and processing the travelers.
So do you have a system that accounts for the time demands and special considerations of your work and personal life? Or do you just operate with a set of tools and strategies that you use on a hit-or-miss basis?
The concept of having a “system” may sound a bit formal and intimidating, like something that is needed for organizations, but not for you. The reality is that a system is what we all need and what most people lack. Don’t worry; a system doesn’t have to be complicated to be good. In fact, from my experience, the simpler the better.
The key to any effective time management system is that it provides and integrated structure for handling both routine and unplanned activities. In other words, it doesn’t just work when things are going smoothly, but it provides the necessary processes and flexibility when your day blows up and goes horribly wrong.
Want to learn more? Check out our upcoming workshop on October 31.
