Welcome back to the 41st episode of the Thursday Meditations show! This is the show that helps you overcome average, and step up above mediocrity. Before we get to the show, here are a couple announcements: Join our facebook group! The link is https://www.facebook.com/groups/thehardthingpodcast (https://www.facebook.com/groups/thehardthingpodcast) Share the podcast with someone you know Check out our website: http://thehardthingpodcast.com (thehardthingpodcast.com) Help us raise $1,000 for the non profit O.U.R. by going to https://www.gofundme.com/f/overcoming-average (https://www.gofundme.com/f/overcoming-average) Give me some feedback on the show at: https://mailchi.mp/5e94a17af33d/thehardthingpodcast (https://mailchi.mp/5e94a17af33d/thehardthingpodcast) 

May is all about time. Today is the first part of a 2 part episode. Today we talk about Top Time Management Skills, and next week we talk about how to develop them. First let me tell a little story. You go to work and, and work takes longer than you wished, but like it so don’t mind. You come home and your significant other is upset at you coming home so late. This happens often. After coming up with some lame excuse, you both decide to get take-out instead of cooking a meal, because they were also busy today. If you do have any kids, you say hello to them, not creating any deep meaningful conversation, just staying surface level. At the end of the night you stay awake to work on a side hustle. You think that maybe if you could make some extra money, it would all be easier. You go to sleep no closer to your goals than before, waking up for another day. That is the cautionary tale of not being good at time management. To avoid that, here are the top skills you need to develop. Prioritization Priority means the only important thing. So many of us get caught checking email, that we neglect the most important things. Sometimes we spend undue amounts of time at work, taking our eyes off our families, or the most important thing. Strategic Thinking We might view ourselves as firefighters, running into burning buildings pulling people out, extinguishing the fire, preserving other buildings. We wear that hat only occasionally. Other times, we must be scientists and architects, creating buildings that don’t burn. This is the ability to put tomorrow’s problems in front of today’s problems occasionally. Focus You have to be able to hone in on what you are trying to accomplish. It doesn’t matter how much time you have if you spend it trying to do 10 things without finishing any of them. Focus means diving in, shaking things up, and finishing the most important thing, rather than getting halfway on 10 other things. This is what Cal Newport means when he talks about Deep Work. Communication Your time is not always your own. Often, we’ve pledged our time to other entities that require us to fulfill that commitment.  Hard Work Time management only works if you work. This is probably a duh… but I mention it still because a lot of people worry about not having enough time. Maybe you should worry about using your time better, like working to get done what you need to get done. Wisdom Part of time management means you include blocks of time that fulfill all parts of you, even parts that just want fun. Self-Awareness You need to be able to know when you are sinking. You need to understand how much you can handle effectively. Time management is really You Management. You need to understand yourself in order to manage yourself. Organization and Visualization You need to be able to organize the different time blocks as well as visualize how to put them all together. This takes attention to detail and focus, as well as the occasional flexibility. Gratitude If you are grateful for something, you usually don’t waste it. By developing gratitude for your time, I believe you will start to use your time more effectively because you won’t want to squander it.