Do You Need Time Management Tools When You Have a Job You Love ?

There is a powerful ancient wisdom quote that gets horribly misused, and it’s robbing people of valuable time, energy AND results!

Here’s the quote:

:Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.”
Confucius inspirational quotes

A lot of people feel that if you love what you do, that must mean that you should want to spend as much time as possible doing it. 

But is it possible to love what you do, yet cause more harm than good?

Howard’s Story: He LOVES what he does…and so should anyone he wants something from!

Howard works from home and loves what he does. He doesn’t appear to be making much money at it, by the way, but he tries to give the impression of success.

There is so much he wants to know, and he’s willing to bother anyone at any time of the day or night to satisfy his needs.

No, he does not invest in himself or his business..

Howard has a habit of trying to pull people into Skype chats and conversations.  And he has no particular regard for anybody else’s schedule or availability.

He does not ask whether the person is actually available to speak.  He simply calls them up using Skype.

Since Howard has not set an appointment or even asked whether the lucky recipient has time, the end result is most definitely disruptive.

What happens with Skype is that a wide banner that spans most of the screen comes right up in the middle of the workspace.

Certainly the phone can ring at any time, and anyone always has the option either to answer or not to answer.  Skype calls are more “in your face” than a normal phone call.

Howard never considers what he does to cause a big disruption. He’ll intrude three and four times a day, given half a chance.

Howard calls at any time of the day or night. He LOVES what he does, so calling someone at 1 AM or 6:30 AM or anytime he pleases suits HIM well.

His attitude is that if you love what you do, then nothing is work, and thus it’s perfectly OK to have absolutely NO boundaries about talking business.

As a matter of fact, he expects any entrepreneur in his world to let him pick their brain (without paying them) at any time of the day or night.

His feeling is that because he loves what he does, he need not set any boundaries on his day.

It doesn’t matter to him what time of the day or night something crosses his mind that he wants to talk over with someone more experienced.

Therefore, it shouldn’t matter to anyone else, because they’re also supposed to love working from home and have no life beyond work.

 It doesn’t matter when somebody can meet, what they’re doing, or whether they want to have a balanced life…

…because he loves what he does, nothing else matters! 

He even said, “Well, if you really love what you do, time doesn’t matter.”

The implication is that whomever Howard wants something from should take his calls and answer his marketing questions any time of the day or night with no compensation —

—all for the love of it.

Ha!

People are blocking him from Skype and otherwise distancing themselves in order to avoid him.

Howard laughs at time management tools!

Howard feels no need for time management tools. He loves what he does and nothing else matters (at least until the house goes into foreclosure or he lands in the hospital or dies of a heart attack..

“There will come a time when we will sit down to dine at the banquet of our consequences.”

Robert Louis Stevenson inspirational quoteson success

Ah yes. Consequences.

Every choice brings consequences. Whether they will be a banquet of culinary delicacies or a mouthful of bitterness is the question.

Can Confucius’ beautiful words of wisdom about having a job you love lead people astray?

The message he is really delivering is that when you love what you do, you should let your entire life get way out of balance so that you can continue doing it at the cost of everything else in your life.  

According to this line of reasoning, loving what you do also includes using and devaluing other people and their time,

The Dark Side of Loving What You Do

Loving what you do so much that everything else in life drops causes numerous problems including:

1. Getting very much out of shape, physically and mentally, from sitting at a desk or on a phone way too much.

This causes physical harm, including poor air supply, bad posture, and not to mention, a big butt! 

2. Working longer actually decreases efficiency and quality by working harder, longer or more. 

Success does not mean working more, pushing through and slamming harder.  Ingenuity and creativity arise from a well nourished spirit.

3. Setting no work boundaries creates a habit of devaluing time–  both one’s own and others’.

By not setting time limits and boundaries on work, tasks expand to fill the day very quickly. This may seem productive, but looking at results, it is clear that spending more time does not mean better results.

Value Your Time and Get More Done Using Time Management Tools

Given no boundaries, tasks will expand to fill all available time.

Allow a fully focused hour to complete a task (such as writing an article or finishing a product) and it will get done in that amount of time.

Give no limits, and that article or that product may remain unfinished for weeks, months, or even years.

3 Simple (and free) time management tools:

1. Set SMART Goals: That means specific, measurable actions that are realistic and time-bound

2. Focus: Don’t multi-task. Turn off all messaging (phone, Skype, chat, email) for focused periods of time and watch results soar!

3. Value time. Get a life! Respect time – both yours and other people’s – because there is no way to get more hours in a day.

The surprising truth is that there are actually simple, effective ways to do LESS and yet accomplish more. It is the closely guarded secret of the super-successful.

Starting the day in a particular way sets up a pattern of success.

Avoiding three deadly time mistakes that are all simple to implement make all the difference.

You can start right away!

Claim The Time of Your Life now at www.ProfitableStorytelling.com/toyl.

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