Rob Hatch

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You Will Find The Time

People talk about time a lot. They never seem to have enough. They’re too busy. They’re stressed. And of course, they are quick to tell you, “You have no idea.”

I do have an idea. I’ve felt this. I may have even said that.

But trust me when I say, you will find the time when it matters.

Years ago I was talking to a friend about feeling overwhelmed. I had a lot going on, and I was worried I wasn’t spending enough time with my four kids. She called me out on this and told me to track my time for two weeks.

The point of the exercise was to move me from how I was feeling to looking at what was actually happening.

As it turned out, I was spending more time with my children than I thought. I had been prioritizing them all along. And that’s what we do; we make time for the things that matter.

Yes or No

How we spend time is a choice.

We choose our family. We choose work because it provides income for our family.

No matter what you want to do, the time is there. It’s a matter of saying yes to one thing and no to something else.

When I was actively training for triathlons and marathons, I managed to find time to swim, bike, and run for 15-20 hours every week.

But It worked because I prioritized it. It worked because I said, no to lots of other things. This also happened around the time I was worried I wasn’t making time for my family.

We can find the time.

I’m not saying it’s easy, but it is pretty simple.

Everyone is Busy. You Can Still Find The Time.

Somehow we manage to find the time whenever something important happens.

When a friend is in the hospital, we find time to visit. When neighbors need help, we find time to support them. When a parent calls, we find time to talk. When a new season of House of Cards comes out, we find time to watch every episode.

The real question is never, “where will I find the time?” The question is, “what is important to me?” But we don’t always ask this question.

As you say yes to one thing, you say no to another. And that’s a good thing.

Here are four ways to find time for what’s important.

  1. Re-write your “To-Do” list every day. – When you write out “rebuild landing page” ten times, you’ll do it, or you’ll decide it’s not all that important and drop it from the list.
  2. Get specific and assign everything an amount of time – If you decide that rebuilding your landing page is important, figure out how long it will take you. Hint: add ten minutes for every 30 you think it will take. We always underestimate.
  3. Schedule it – If the page is going to take an hour, put it on your schedule. Don’t try to fit to-do list items around other things. You’ll never get anything important done that way.
  4. Protect it – Once the clock is running on a project, try to avoid interruptions. Stop checking email. Don’t look at your phone. Don’t check Instagram. Give the project what it needs.

And take the advice my friend gave me. Track your time for two weeks. Write down what you do every day in 20-minute increments.

When you do, you’ll get real data rather than just how you feel. It will show you a few things very quickly. Time is limited. We waste a lot of it. You probably can’t do everything you think you can. BUT….

You will find the time for what matters. We always do.

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More is not a number

Are you someone who measures your steps?

Specifically, do you use a device to track your fitness efforts?

There are loads of gadgets out there. Depending on your goals, you can measure everything from steps to calories burned, from miles biked to swim strokes, from how long to how far.

We’ve been told for years that we need to move more, but people still didn’t do it. That’s the primary purpose of these devices, to get you to move more.

What I love about this technology is that it took the idea of moving more and gave people daily targets and a way to measure progress. Quite literally, it breaks down your larger goals into steps.

More is not a enough

For most people it was not enough to know that moving more was a good thing.

That’s because more is not a number. In fact, more is so lacking in definition, pursuing it clouds your vision. More rarely motivates us and our efforts are often flailing and inconsistent.

To be successful, we need to define what more is. 

We need to give it a number and pursue and measure our progress towards it.

Starting can be as simple as asking three questions:

Where are you now?

Where do you want to be?

How many _______s will it take to get there?

With fitness trackers, most people choose a daily goal of 10,000 steps. This sounds like a lot unless of course, you are already walking 9,000 steps.

You need to know where you’re starting.

10,000 steps also sounds like a lot until you figure out that to lose five pounds this month, you need to hit 15,000 steps per day.

You need to know what it takes to get there.

Know your numbers

As we find more ways to measure every aspect of our lives, I’m always surprised by how many people don’t apply the same methods to their businesses.

Several months ago my wife did two things that changed her business dramatically.

Megin is a photographer. In her first few years, she set and managed to achieve many of her goals. But recently she’s been operating with a clearer purpose and the results to match.

The first thing Megin did was to identify a larger financial goal for her business.

After taking into consideration the needs of a growing business. She then identified three areas from our personal finances that the revenue from her business would cover. That total was the goal.

The second thing she did was to break down how much revenue she would need to generate each month to meet that goal. She figured out how many sessions it would take.

She looked at the past year’s performance and noted the trends.

There were some months where there was no room for growth. Of course, Megin would still have to fill those slots, but she knew those months were maxed out in terms of her time.

This narrowed her focus on months where there was greater opportunity for growth.

Larger goal. Monthly targets.

Since that time, she uses her numbers to drive her decision making, her marketing, and her daily actions.

It changed everything because the number enables her to measure her success.

Rather than simply pursuing more and hoping for the best, each month is directly tied to a goal, a contribution, and a purpose.

What’s interesting to me is not the financial results, although that’s wonderful, too.

What I find most interesting is how it has fueled her creativity. By being focused on meeting a defined goal, she looks for new ways to serve her clients to hit her goal.

People do the same thing with their step counters. If they haven’t hit their steps by mid-day, they start looking for opportunities to get there. They get creative.

Pursuing more just doesn’t do that for us. And knowing your number makes it easier to get more of whatever it is you’re after. You simply have to define it.

 

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Are you solving the wrong problem?

I was speaking with a coaching client who helps companies put the right person into the right job.

However, many of her clients first come to her with the challenge of “motivating employees.”

Her response is always, “You don’t motivate people after you hire them. You hire people who are already motivated.”

The Wrong Problem

If you sell cars, the target most likely to increase sales would be test drives.

The more people you can bring in to test drive your cars, the more likely you are to get a sale. People coming to the dealership to take a test drive are more motivated to buy a vehicle.

So, rather than simply putting all your attention on more sales, the goal is to get more test drives.

This Changes Everything

For a House Painter, the target is “estimates.” For a Realtor, the target is “showings.”

Figuring out this target, the number before the number changes the way we approach the problem of sales and marketing.

The challenge goes from being either overly broad, “how do I reach more people?” or myopically focused on transactions, “how do we sell more?” to the one thing most likely to drive the result we ultimately need.

If you can identify One Number that is likely to increase sales, then your focus, energy, and actions will shift to driving those results.

When you know that more test drives get more sales, your efforts should focus on getting more test drives. The sales will come.

Do you know your number?

What is your target? What activity drives more sales for you?

Even when you’re running a non-profit or you’re serving on the board of your church, there is a sale involved. There is also a point just before they become a donor or join your church that increases the likelihood of their commitment.

It’s critical to identify the target action most likely to make that happen.

What is your number before the number?

Are you solving the right problem?

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2019 – The Year of Intention

One of the most important trends in 2019 will come in the form of reclaiming control over our time and our attention.

People are feeling the negative impacts and unintended consequences of being overly connected. Some are already talking about using their phones less and extolling the virtues of disconnecting from social media. Others will advocate deleting accounts entirely. And some others will take breaks, go on “fasts,” or attempt to decrease the time spent online.

Of course, there’s a lot of this that is New Year’s resolution material, and that will fade fast. The problem is significant though and the act of taking back our time and attention can shape the culture of 2019 and beyond.

We’re tired

One of the drivers rests on our current political climate. It has made participating in social media, exhausting. Regardless of your political leanings, the pace at which we receive new information is overwhelming. Combine that with blatant attempts to trigger a reaction from us with sensational headlines, and it has worn us down.

We’re starting to realize that blocking or unfriending in an attempt to filter the information we didn’t want to see or like, isn’t the solution.

The noise has become too much, and we are desperate for a reprieve.

We’ve also become increasingly aware of the intrusion of devices into our lives and homes. We are more cautious about the sacrifices of privacy in the name of connection and convenience. And we are seeing the effects of how much it has cost us.

The constant connection has added to the frenzied, harried nature of our daily lives. Seeing everyone around us impacted by the same forces only serves to normalize it.

Lest you think this is a generational thing, my teenage son and his friends all grew up with phones in their hands. Interestingly, they also share a particular disdain for the onslaught of devices touted for their ability to connect. They enjoy the conveniences but see it for what it has become. And attempts to peer into their young lives aren’t as welcome as you might think.

Of course, this is still happening. Technology will continue to evolve. We aren’t about to completely detach from it.

And our time and attention will continue to be the most valued commodity.

The question is, will place the same value on it ourselves? Will we take back the control we’ve ceded, and become more deliberate with our time and our attention?

Perhaps the biggest challenge social media channels or phones in general present is not just their ability to capture our attention. It is how they are designed to keep it.

We’ve all lost 10, 15, 30 minutes or more mindlessly scrolling through social media feeds. Our original intent may have been to check a simple text message. We somehow become instantly distracted and may never end up reading the message we intended to read in the first place.

This is the power technology has come to wield; to divert our attention away from our intentions.

It happens before we even realize it.

And that’s the first step, recognizing what’s happening so we can take back control and act with deliberate intention.

2019 – The Year of Intention

Taking a break from your phones, social media, or media in general, is a noble idea. The real question is, for what purpose?

Is it that you just need a break or do you need to consider reshaping our relationship with the way you consume information?

Will a “fast” be enough or, rather than reacting to the stimulus of technology, can you set it up to serve your needs?

Many applications can be easily customized, but all too often we accept the default settings. There’s nothing wrong with that device in your hand. There’s nothing wrong with using social media or watching Netflix or any of it, as long as you are the one deciding when, why, and for how long.

Technology is wonderful. It’s even better when we take control.

We all have goals or at the very least, hopes for what we will accomplish this year. To make them a reality, we have to act with intention.

Acting with intention starts by understanding that our time and attention is valuable, and it is in our power to choose where and to what we give it.

Acting with intention starts by finding the space just before we decide, where we can align our thoughts with our value and then take action.

2019 is the Year of Intention.

That is, as long as you decide it will be.

 

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