What is Your Agenda?

"Don't be a time manager, be a priority manager."

---Keith Elkins

Do you start the day with a to do list or agenda of what you want to get accomplished? I know that I do. I need that daily checklist or agenda of things that I need to accomplish, just to stay on task. However, I found that many times I would get derailed from my agenda by the agenda of everyone around me, family, friends, and co-workers. At the end of the day I would look at what I set out to accomplish that day and experience a level of frustration because I didn't even get close.

I would let others impose what they needed to get done on me as if it were more important then what I had planned to accomplish for myself. I am not talking about being selfish and self centered. I am not talking about not being willing to help others. I am talking about you not being responsible for other's to do list. Time management is pretty much a joke. TIME MARCHES ON! We cannot manage time, but we can manage ourselves and our priorities. So, I learned to say "NO"! That was difficult for me because my nature is to help others. But at the end of the day I started to feel a sense of resentment towards the people around me that I love and care about. Not a great feeling to have. Then I discovered that it wasn't their fault at all. It was my responsibility to manage my time as I see fit.

What are your top three priorities for the day?

Because my nature was always to drop everything when someone wanted me to, I discovered that I had literally trained them to expect me to do so. Saying NO was quite the surprise for them. I have developed what I call The Rule of Three. I list in my planner the top three most important things for me to accomplish that day and I stay focused on just that. After doing this I feel better about what I get accomplished and have retrained the people around me to not always expect me to drop all of my priorities for theirs. I now guard my time and my agenda. Funny thing is that it has actually empowered those people around me to do the same for themselves. Interesting how just saying NO can empower everyone.