How will you use your remaining dots?

See the image above. I am 51 years old. The filled-in dots on this page represent the months I have already lived; the empty dots represent the time I have left until 90.

These dots remind me that the time I have left is finite. This realization is moving me towards planning to spend more time on things that matter to me. I intend to define what I want and act on those things, while spending less time doing things that serve no purpose that matters to me. I think often of my personal mission, and I am now doing things all the time that help me fulfill it. It feels like I have woken up. I feel more alive than ever before.

I attended a leadership workshop led by entrepreneur Warren Rustand recently and he gave us—and I give you—his rules for taking control of your time. I find them very helpful in guiding my actions towards purpose.

You must recognize and act on the knowledge that:

the root cause of poor use of you time is poor habits
you must control your time or others will
you can only spend time, you can’t save it
it is necessary to learn to say no
if you don’t have time to plan, you cannot work efficiently
you must organize your time or lose it
you must act on the knowledge of the dollar value of your time
your greatest asset in life in achieving your goals is time
it will require continued courage on you part to defeat the time wasters
the key to success in time management is to build good time management systems and act within them

My message with this article: think about the dots you have left and plan to use them wisely and with purpose. You can’t do that without an effective time management system. Use a system that works for you daily, weekly, and monthly, and improve on it constantly to achieve the things you want to achieve.

The most influential book I have found on how to do this is Getting Things Done by David Allen. I suggest you make time on your calendar to read it.

Enjoyed this week’s blog?
Subscribe to the IBEX Payroll Leadership Blog for great tips and insight right in your inbox! We publish new leadership and employee engagement content every week !!

IBEX Payroll extends our profound respect and immeasurable gratitude to all the ancestors and keepers of the land on whose traditional territories our work takes place. We acknowledge that we are on Treaty 1 territory, the traditional gathering place of the Anishinaabe, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene people and the traditional homeland of the Métis people. This land is sacred, historical, and significant.

Every time we acknowledge this truth, we have an invitation and an opportunity to reflect on the wrongs of the past, what we do in the present, and what we can do to continually honour the people whose lands and water we benefit from today.

This statement only acts as a first step in honouring the land we reside on and its peoples, and must be paired with education, understanding and informed action.