“Strategy and timing are the Himalayas of marketing, everything is the Catskills.”

                                                                                                                        –Al Ries

            Time management is a myth.  Time is the province of God.  No matter how hard you try, how many resources you dedicate, or how capable you are, you’ll never control it.  The real key is Task Management, which, when it comes to systems management, needs to hinge on your values.  When Chris Pollinger was in college, he had a sign taped to his ceiling which read; “Why are you getting out of bed this morning?”.  Simple concept, but easily forgotten.  Without being attached to your values, a goal will never be accomplished commensurate with your ability (if at all).  Although you can’t control the march of time, you can certainly decide where it will be spent in your life.  If you know what you want and who you are, time will be an asset and a gift vs. a stressor.  This article will focus on how to integrate proper timing into your infrastructure vs. how you should spend it (that comes later).  When allocating time towards a future task, exercise the following three principles;

            1.         Sufficiency:    Probably the best piece of advice I’ve ever received on task management was from my pastor Rick Warren (author of The Purpose Driven Life).  He advised us to put a 15 minute buffer between scheduled activities throughout the day.  Make sure that you account for the “oh shoot” moments throughout the day, especially if you have children.  If you have a staff or team under you, please ladies and gentlemen, allocate proper time towards their own planning process.  The Marine Corps uses the 1/3 to 2/3 rule from senior to subordinate.  You already have the vision, now they need the time to understand it and come up with a course of action, which they’ll later brief you on.  One thing we keep seeing at Mastery Coaching is well-meaning leaders getting involved in the “guts” of operational planning.  As a result, the joy is sapped out of the creation process.  What’s also lose is an opportunity for the rest of the team to be empowered intellectually and vocationally.  We’ve found that if junior executives begin to feel unchallenged, their mindsets will quickly devolve into believing they’re unworthy of significant responsibility.  The same applies to older executives, yet instead of staying on and feeling insignificant, they’ll just pick up and leave.  Give others the time (puls a little extra) that you yourself would appreciate for the same task (despite if you know you could do it sooner).  And by the way, sufficiency (in terms of time allocated, not so much planning) is especially important for your loved ones, especially children, who in the words of Pastor Warren, spell love; “T-I-M-E”.

2.         Sequencing:    Not only do things have to have the proper amount of time to happen, they must occur in the right order.  The more “moving parts” your operation has, the more important this principle is.  Take D-Day for example.  Gen. Eisenhower wisely decided to pound the beaches of Normandy for several hours to soften up German defenses in order for the infantry to establish a beachhead.  Once that was done, the support services would show up and the infantry and armored forces would move inland.  A few hiccups, costly ones at that, but the right order got the job done.  If the infantry would’ve landed before fire support was executed, they would’ve been massacred on the beach.  Perhaps the best depiction of proper sequencing in war is the battle scene at the beginning of “Gladiator”.  The enemy is showered with arrows and other missiles while the infantry advances, Roman legionnaires close with and gain the barbarian’s attention (called “fixing” in the military), and the final step is for the cavalry led by Maximus to take them in the rear.  Bad guys are surrounded, cut off from escape and reinforcements, and slaughtered.  Sequencing was just as important then as it is now.  A marketing plan designed to edge out a competitor in your tract or the unraveling of a larger advertisement campaign is just as important. 

            Although there are many offshoots to these two principles, they all relate back to having enough time to do what you need to do (Sufficiency) and doing things in the right order (Sequencing).  If you can figure these two out, then when you must strike will be a given.  Mastery Coaching has the tools and templates available for you to properly identify and quantify the timing requirements in your business and personal life.  We also provide the services which will liberate you from tasks which are not the highest and best use of your time.  Always remember that when you’re running a race (a timed event), it’s difficult for any runner to tell how they’re doing.  Don’t let your only feedback be victory or defeat.  Learn where the next opportunity lies before your competitors do, and get there before anyone else.  As Wayne Gretzky once said; “Skate to where the puck is going, not to where it is.”.