Your Purpose Should Dictate How You Spend Your Time

Saturday, January 28th, 2012

This is from Maria Gracia of Get Organized Now and too good not to share. Enjoy!

You don’t have time to waste or squander. Your time is valuable, precious and limited. Make the best choices concerning your time each day. Choose what yields the greatest results when it comes to your time.

Start by writing a mission statement for your life. A mission statement highlights your intended purpose on Planet Earth. Your mission statement should include your talents, abilities and skills you want to contribute to the world. A mission statement will keep you focused. It will also help you be decisive about how you spend your time.

Your mission statement should be used to create the tasks to accomplish your goals. It takes time and energy to see the results of your goals. Time spent on endeavors that are not related to your purpose is time lost or wasted.

Your mission statement is the written purpose or vision for your life.

Developing a mission statement for your life helps you feel empowered. It helps you strategically move forward in accomplishing your goals. Your written purpose, however, does not keep you from encountering people who compete for your time and energy. Your time and energy should be spent to fulfill your purpose.

So many people have the inability to say ‘No!’ The struggle to say no is when you try to please people. You put what’s important to you aside to please someone else. The five deadliest words that rob you of your time are from drop-in visitors who ask, ‘Have you got a minute?’ Knowing how to deal with interruptions is one of the best skills you can learn.

Eric Garner also talks about managing interruptions in his article ‘Say No To Time Stealers.’ He says learn to be brief because in business your time is your money. He further states that wasting time with unnecessary long meetings with others is a way to let money trickle down the drain.

Using a planner is one way you can account for your time. It also helps when your schedule is in sync with your purpose. A planner helps you account for every second, minute, and hour of your day. You can use daily, weekly and monthly planners. A planner can also serve as a record keeper to show how you spent your time for the year.

Before you waste another second, minute or hour, draft your life’s mission statement. Think about your talents, abilities and skills. What purpose do you feel you serve on Planet Earth? When you know your purpose, you have clear direction. A mission statement helps you maximize on how you spend your time.