Time is the most precious asset that each of us possesses. You can’t buy it, borrow it, or steal it. You get one chance and then time is gone. You can never get it back once it’s lost, you can never change it once it’s over, and you can never control it.

Time is elusive, a moment, an essence, an ethereal space. You cannot see it, feel it or taste it. It is simply an instrument, if we choose to use it, to measure our achievements. To identify if we are achieving a return on investment for the energy spent in the space we call time.

Together, it is our attitude and our productivity towards time that determines the level of success we will achieve in our lives. We don’t know when the clock will stop working for us, that’s why it’s so valuable.

Time only has value for those who know what to do with it. Much of today’s challenges have little or nothing to do with time, but rather with not knowing what we want to do with time or being unable to solve time-related problems.

Listen closely: “I never seem to have enough time in a day to accomplish everything”; “I’m bored not to do.”; “I’m working 24/7. I don’t have TIME to learn anything new!”

It seems that the above statements have to do with time, but in reality they have to do with problems related to time. Semantics, yes, however, to understand the above statements, we must first acknowledge that we have a problem, before we are willing to do anything about it.

Our fast-paced economic environment and the demands to make higher and more consistent term commitments also manifest as time shortages. We complete one task, but four or five more happily await our attention. The old 40 hour weeks now become 60, 70 and sometimes even 80, in search of happiness.

It becomes overwhelming to deal with endless to-do lists that allow us to jump from one task to the next. Believing that we are working hard and that if we keep going we will succeed.

Time is only a commodity if we use it with a specific purpose in mind. Failure to do this will simply result in the wheels turning, a lot of activity but very little result. This is the secret of successful CEOs of major corporations, business owners and financially successful. They have learned that the right action equals the right results, they take advantage of their activities and set the standard and push for it.

In the end, your results are directly proportional to the effort to establish a clearly defined plan. Nothing more and nothing less. Every activity you do should be part of the plan. That is what it means to direct and control your future in relation to time.

Using a day planner dramatically helps to stay focused. Helps you control your activities. It helps you say “no” to activities if they don’t match your goals. You keep your to-do lists organized but don’t let them take control.

The most difficult challenge we face when dealing with time management is learning to identify and overcome major time wasters. We can begin to establish the changes once we clearly understand the difference between efficiency vs. efficiency factor and incorporate it into our lives. What is the difference?

When we operate under the efficiency factor, we are very busy doing many things well. When we operate from the effectiveness factor, we are only working to do the right things. We can be very efficient and accomplish many tasks in our day, but if they are not aligned with our goals, no matter how hard we work and how well we do it, our end result may not be exactly what we expected. We will have accomplished many tasks, but we simply will not have hit the mark.