Andrew Carnegie at his heyday called in a time consultant and said, “Tell me how to get more out of my day. I only got 24 hours in a day. Tell me, tell me. How can I get more?”
The consultant said, “I need you to write in the evening before the next day starts. Write a list of everything you need to do. Then number those by order of priority. What are the most important? Number those down to the least important. Then begin the next day starting with number 1 and working your way as far into the list as you can, and you will find your productivity going up.”
“How much do I owe you,” said Andrew Carnegie. And the consultant said, “Whatever you think it’s worth.” After experimenting with the time sheet, Andrew Carnegie sent the consultant a check for $10,000.
It meant that much to him. That’s what you’re getting with this sheet. It’s a simple sheet. You can organize it yourself.
Before the day ends, before the next day begins, before you start hearing from everybody who has this urgent need of your time, you make a list of the things you need to do the next day. You number them in order of importance and you work them in that order.
Are you going to complete everything? No. But you’re not going to allow the tyranny of the urgent rob you from that which is truly important. When you run out of time, you’re going to run out of time on the least important parts of your list. That’s the genius of this simple approach to time management.
Categories: Schedule Orientation, Structure, Time Competency
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