Successful Time Management For Dummies. Zeller Dirk

      Dirk Zeller

      Successful Time Management For Dummies®

       Successful Time Management For Dummies®, 2nd edition

      Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken , NJ 07030‐5774 www.wiley.com

      Copyright © 2015 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey

      Published simultaneously in Canada

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      Library of Congress Control Number: 2014954667

      ISBN: 97‐811‐1898266‐2

      ISBN 97‐811‐1898267‐9 (ePub); ISBN 97‐811‐1898268‐6 (PDF)

      Introduction

      Time is the only resource that people can’t borrow, buy, or barter. And time refuses to follow one of the main tenets of the law of supply and demand: the idea that when the demand goes up to a high level, the supply will increase to meet the demand. People may use different amounts of time to accomplish results, but everyone is endowed with the same amount of time each day: 86,400 seconds.

      Your ability to manage that time is really one of the top two causes of success or failure in your life. Investing greater amounts of time into a need, goal, objective, or even weakness can tip the balance of success in your favor. At numerous crossroads in life, I had to be willing to apply more time than my competitors to achieve a competitive advantage over them in the marketplace. I certainly didn’t take for granted that my mental power was far superior to that of my competitors. Rather, my willingness to invest more time in certain tasks or use my time more effectively equalized the playing field.

      Of course, if you invest too much time at work, you can be a success at the office but a failure at home. A true champion always has his or her pulse on home life and invests the right amount to keep vital relationships in life growing and thriving. The good news is that this book has both arenas covered. Congratulations on investing in yourself, your success, and your life!

About This Book

       Successful Time Management For Dummies is about using your time more effectively to create greater results at the office and at home. Note that in the spirit of saving you time, this is a reference book. In other words, you don’t have to read it from cover to cover. Just look up what you need and put those ideas in action.

      Personally, I think you should read every word of this book. I wrote it, after all! However, if you’re the bare‐bones‐info type, you can skip the sidebars that appear throughout the book. Those gray boxes contain interesting, often anecdotal information that’s related to the topic but not essential to understanding it.

      This book

      ✓ Helps you with your organizational habits, discipline, systemization, goals, values, management style, persuasion, and even travel.

      ✓ Offers real techniques, strategies, and tools that I’ve personally used, taught, coached, and spoke about. I’ve seen them bring forth a bounty of results in my life as well as in the lives of countless others.

      ✓ Helps you mentally wrap your brain around the problems of time management.

      ✓ Explains how to establish a solid system that you can replicate over time.

      ✓ Introduces you to prioritization systems, time‐categorization systems, time‐blocking strategies, and appointment‐setting strategies.

      ✓ Helps you grab back control and distill time management down to its essence.

      ✓ Sets you up for success and then helps you establish and align your goals with your time.

      ✓ Delves into prioritization strategies and tools.

      ✓ Takes you deep into the most important characteristics of a great time manager.

      ✓ Tells you how to time‐block your way to greater success.

      ✓ Contains the tips for you to take your business and career to the highest level, no matter your job title.

Icons Used in This Book

      To help you navigate this book a bit better, you can rely on the icons in the book’s margins. The icons act as little signposts pointing out the important info.

      

This bull’s‐eye icon points out little‐advertised nuggets of knowledge that are certain to give you an edge in increasing your time‐management skills.

      

This icon denotes critical information that you really need to take away with you. Remember these points, if nothing else. They address the issues that you come across repeatedly with time management.

      

Consider this the flashing red light on the road to making a sale. When you see the Warning icon, you know to steer clear of whatever practice, behavior,