What is the biggest secret about time management? It’s that time management is really not about managing; it’s about managing priorities. Priority management is the secret weapon of successful managers and leaders.

A restaurant manager knows the importance of focusing on priorities every shift. Priorities on a shift can include making sure the prep is done before lunch, hitting service times, managing labor while delivering great service, or hitting food-cost targets while serving great food. As a leader in your restaurant, you focus your team’s efforts on these priorities too.

Are you using the same skills to focus on the priorities of your life?

Each week, we have 168 hours to do with it what we will. Once a year, we get to cheat (if you observe daylight-savings time), and once a year we get cheated, but other than that, we have the same timeframe to work with every week. With so much practice then, you’d think we would all know exactly how we spend our time—but when is that really the case? Well, in another 168 hours, it will be!

A restaurant manager takes daily, weekly and monthly inventories. Interestingly, you can also take an inventory about aspects of your life.  I call it the Timeframe Inventory  a great way to track how you spend your time during an average week.

The Timeframe Inventory has four areas of focus for you to inventory your time: personal, personal connections, wealth creation, and community connections. The following definitions are provided to help you inventory your time; however, consider them as a guide to categorize and frame your time.

  “Personal” timeframe, consider your habits. How many hours do you spend on activities solely for your benefit, like hobbies, relaxing, exercising, sleeping, and planning your life?

 “Personal Connections” timeframe, focus on the people in your life. How much time each week do you spend on your relationships with your significant other or spouse, your friends, or your family (for example, siblings, parents, children, and other family members)?

 “Wealth Creation” timeframe, concentrate on your career and the ways you create financial opportunities for your life. For example, each week, how much time do you spend at your job (including commuting to work), furthering your career (networking, attending seminars and conferences, etc.), managing your budget, investing money, reducing your debt, improving your credit score, or gaining knowledge about personal finance?

 “Community Connection” timeframe, think about the time you spend on supporting and giving to others. For example, each week, how much time do you spend on community involvement, volunteering, or spiritual growth?

Each timeframe is interdependent of the others, and together, they frame a whole picture of the choices that you make with your time and more importantly your priorities.

The Timeframe Inventory allows you to see if you are managing your priorities or just making it through another day.  Here is an opportunity for you to take your own Timeframe Inventory.  Take the next week and track your time to see where it is going. There is no right or wrong answer, so be honest with yourself. Track down those mystery hours that seem to disappear—those are the very ones you might soon be spending differently. Be sure that your total week adds up to 168 hours.

 Successful managers and leaders know to achieve more by doing less they most focus on priorities.  At the end of the week you will know what your reality looks like, take a look at what a shift in your Timeframe Inventory might look like. What would your life look like if you were to reframe it so that you invested more time in what was really a priority to you? What would it look like if your time were aligned to the priorities of your life?

If you make it a habit to consciously manage your priorities, just as you make it a habit to ensure that you always have the right inventory of products, you will not be limited to having to settle for just what is available or just what is in stock; you will be able to make choices based on moving your life forward to new levels of success by achieving more by doing less!

Visit www.kwoodpartners.com to download Timeframe Inventory Worksheets.