Episode 938: Making the Most of Your Time

[00:00:00] Scott Maderer: Thanks for joining me on episode 938 of the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:00:06] Roger Whitney: Hey, I'm Roger Whitney. I challenge you to invest in yourself, invest in others, develop your influence and impact the world by using your time, your talent and your treasures to live out your calling, having the ability to work for your future.

[00:00:21] As a key, having the ability to work for one more sec, having the ability. Having the ability to work for your future is key. And one way to be inspired to do that is to listen to this, the inspired stewardship podcast with my friend, Scott Mader,

[00:00:40] Scott Maderer: whatever scale it is, spending that time thinking about what is one, two or three is important. Cussed her out, all of this process, you really have to think about yourself. Self awareness is key. What are your goals? What are your priorities? What is [00:01:00] important to you? Welcome. And thank you for joining us on the inspired stewardship podcast.

[00:01:06] If you truly desire to become the person who God wants you to. Then you must learn to use your time, your talent and your treasures for your true calling in the inspired stewardship podcast. We'll learn to invest in yourself, invest in others and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.

[00:01:27] In today's episode about investing in yourself by stewarding your time. I talk with you about not just managing, but maximizing your time. I share how you can use a few simple techniques to actually do this. And I also share why doing this actually having self-awareness around your time is. As we talk about stewarding your time.

[00:01:50] Wouldn't it be great. If you could support this podcast and do it without just taking too long, it turns out you can't. All you have to do is use inspired [00:02:00] stewardship.com/amazon. When you're ready to make a purchase via Amazon and a small commission, we'll come back to support the show. Just that quick.

[00:02:08] If you enjoy the show, when you are ready to buy from Amazon, just use inspired stewardship.com/amazon. I've talked before on the podcast about how I really don't like the term time management. And I don't know that I've always explained exactly why, but the truth is when you hear the word manage, you'll see things or your old understand or you'll think about things like dealing with coping wielding, these sorts of limited words around.

[00:02:43] Looking at your time, it makes it seem like time is something that is against you and that you have to control it. You have to grab a hold of it and make sure that you contain it in some way. It leads you to making to-do lists trust, and don't get me wrong. I love it to do list and there's nothing [00:03:00] wrong with them.

[00:03:00] If you're using them correctly, it leads you to just looking at. More things done and moving from task to task, crossing them off your list, and yet still going crazy. It leads to those days where you feel like you were busy all day, and yet you got nothing done. This is all comes out of this idea of managing our time.

[00:03:23] And some of the things that I've seen and been reading lately. Talk instead about maximizing your time. If you think about it, that word and maximizing has a different implication. It talks about making something as big as possible. Making the most of something. If you maximize the experience you make the most.

[00:03:43] It's looking at your time as a valuable resource and thinking to yourself, what am I putting into this time that actually fits with my bigger goals that moves me forward. That gives me a sense of enjoyment that has [00:04:00] a way of building relationships, whatever it is you're looking at each moment and thinking is this moment.

[00:04:07] Getting me in a direction that makes things as big as possible that maximizes the value that I get out of them. Now, the truth is that we can go through life today and be busy each and every day and yet get nothing done. So let's look at this a little. What are some strategies that you can use to maximize your time?

[00:04:31] And you're going to have heard some of these before, but I want to make sure that I explain them a little bit about how it's focused on the maximization. So the first thing is looking and going to your calendar, using your calendar. As a strategy for making the most of your time, don't look at things as they come up.

[00:04:51] Don't look at what's the next thing that pops up in my email and that's what I have to deal with, but opening your calendar and actually scheduling [00:05:00] time to deal with things. Have a scheduled time to follow up on your emails, have a scheduled time to have meetings with clients, have a scheduled time to actually just think and plan for the week or for the day.

[00:05:14] Actually blocking time off on your calendar for yourself and for other things that you need to do think about every hour of the day in terms of what can I put into this hour to maximize what I get out of it, to make it as productive as possible to make it one of those days. And one of those moments where I look up later and I go that hour was.

[00:05:39] You can start looking from a blank calendar. If you've never done this before and begin to fill in what is the best use of my time? Where can I get maximum value? What are the things that are most in alignment with what I'm trying to get out of my life, block those off and put them on your calendar first.

[00:05:58] So that way [00:06:00] we can actually block in and figure out where we're focusing. Don't just do busy work. Don't just do the things that need to get done, but instead block and schedule and control your time so that you can spend it on the things that are most important. The second strategy is thinking through what I like to call the deed.

[00:06:24] Is this a task. When you look at any tasks, when you look at anything that comes in, whether it's an email, whether it's a new thing that your boss has put on your desk, whether it's a project that you're working on, or whether it's spending time with your family, think to yourself, what are, what D do I need to apply?

[00:06:41] Is this something that I just need to do it? I just need to stop putting it off and stop pushing it around and stop delaying it and just knock it out. Is this something that I can do quickly and just get it off my desk? Is this something that I need to delete? Is this something that I don't need to have in my [00:07:00] life anymore?

[00:07:00] And what can I do to get rid of it? Maybe it's something that you can't delete, but it turns into something you can delegate something you can pass off to somebody else, something that you can help identify, somebody else who's able and willing to do that job. Is it something that you can decide. Is it something that you can say, am I going to do this?

[00:07:25] Yes or no. Can I make a final decision right now? Because a lot of times we have those things that we just move from stack to stack from day to day, and don't really ever close it out. Or is this something I need to put a date to? I need to actually schedule this on my calendar and commit to doing it at a particular day and time, then put it on your calendar and forget about it until.

[00:07:51] By the same token. One of the things that happens is everything seems to come to us at once and we can't really focus on what is the most important. [00:08:00] So spending some time and thinking to yourself, what is my number one thing? What is my number two thing? What is the things that I really want to get done and get out of today or out of this week or out of this month or out of this year at whatever scale it is spending that time thinking about what is one, two or three.

[00:08:20] Is important because throughout all of this process, you really have to think about yourself. Self awareness is key. What are your goals? What are your priorities? What is important? Spending that time reflecting and thinking about what is the moment in time that I'm spending today and is this moment in alignment with my bigger goals means you've actually had to have spent some time thinking about what are your bigger goals.

[00:08:51] That's one of the vital steps to all of this, because you can't really make the most of your time. If you're not able to [00:09:00] know what it is that you want to get out of your time. Thanks for listening.

[00:09:05] Thanks so much for listening to the inspired stewardship podcast as a subscriber and listener, we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen, but act on what you've heard and find a way to live your calling. If you like this episode on the stewardship of time, be sure to sign up. For our stewardship of time tips series by going to inspired stewardship.com/time or texting 4, 4, 2, 2, 2 time tips.

[00:09:43] Yeah. And that'll get you our best tips on stewarding your time. Until next time, invest your time, your talent and your treasures. Develop your influence and impact the world.