Time Management Is A Symptom

How long would you let a workmate pop headache pills for a recurring headache before you said something? Three days? A week? A month? How long would you let it go before you offered your opinion that there's a bigger underlying problem in which he or she should really see a doctor?

Treating a symptom with a few pills doesn't resolve a problem. But that's exactly how most organizations operate: they treat the symptom and not the root cause.

Time management is a symptom. It is not a strategy for addressing a root cause. When an employee is consistently late in meeting deadlines, seems to have a procrastination problem or doesn't seem very organized then the standard thinking is to enroll the employee in a time management program to solve their time management issue. But in actual fact, time management isn't the issue. Self-discipline and attitude are the issues and no amount of time management training will solve it. Why? Because the concept of time management is based on the premise that all people have good self-discipline and strong work-ethic. But if they don't, time management doesn't work.

What if the problem isn't time management, just poor personal management based on a poor self-image? Treating that with Time Management would be a monumental waste of time.

Time management is a symptom of a larger problem. If you want the symptom to go away you treat the root cause. The root cause is usually attitude. And here's how you overcome a time management symptom. You're going to need to address three specific attitudes: an attitude of leadership, an attitude of resilience and an attitude of money, security and safety.

Adopting an attitude of leadership doesn't mean that you have to be in management. It means that you simply have to have enough self-confidence to be able to take control of your own responsibilities. That's part of an attitude of leadership.

An attitude of resilience says that whatever you're facing right now you are able to handle whatever is in front of you no matter what. It's an attitude of resilience that gets you through the tough times and allows you to feel more control and feel less overwhelmed.

An attitude of money, security and safety allows you to feel safe and secure in the performance of your duties. When you feel safe and secure in your abilities you feel less overwhelmed, less stressed and more in control.

Allow people to feel that they have control over a situation and they will rise to an occasion. Time management won't be necessary. Besides, if time management really worked, you would have solved all of your problems years ago.

Time management is a symptom -- attitude is the root cause. Work on attitude and time management solves itself.

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Attitude w/ ATTITUDE

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