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TIME MANAGEMENT AND THE LEADER

In my few years of working and theorizing about leadership, I came to the conclusion of who a leader is, which has a lot to do with time. A leader is one who knows what to do, when to do it, why to do it and how to do it in moving himself and others from point A to B within a record time having achieved the leadership purpose. That is to say that the lead understands the dynamics of events happening within time and space and positions himself to seize the moment.

The fundamental truth you must be aware of is that everything is seeded in time. That is to say, if you will achieve anything at all in leadership, it must be done within time and space. And time, significantly, is the space between thoughts, actions and deeds.

Time management is one of the things that has flawed man in history because he is yet to understand clearly what it is, really. Every challenge you face had something to do with the management of time, and the difference between where you are now, the place you had been, and where you need to be is time.

Alex McKenzie believes that the key to successful time management is doing the most important task first and giving it your utmost shot. However, when you have the grand knowledge of time, you will prioritize your life properly because it will become obvious to you that time is the most important asset in life, given to everyone equally.

For you to manage time well, I will suggest that you should pay attention to Murphy’s Ten Laws of Time Management:
1. If anything can go wrong, it will do so.
2. Nothing is ever as simple as it seems.
3. If you mess with something for long enough, it will break.
4. If you try to please everybody, somebody won’t like it.
5. Nothing ever works out exactly as you expect.
6. Whatever you want to do, there is always something else you have to do first.
7. If you explain something so that no one could possibly misunderstand, someone will.
8. Nothing is certain until it has happened (and then you should check it more than once).
9. If everything is going according to plan, then it is a sure sign that something is about to go wrong.
10. The only predictable thing about your day is that something totally unexpected will happen.

If you desire to manage your time well as a leader, then read again those ten laws one more time with the intent of digesting them.

Elvis C. Umez
Leadership Consultant
IDB Consult

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