Time Mastery: Unlocking Productivity Through Specific Goal Setting

When I was a child and told my mother I didn’t have time to do something she was asking me to do, she would shoot daggers from her eyes at me and, with an uncompromising tone, tell me to ‘make time.’

Even as a child, this imperative seemed impossible, but the look on my mother’s face wasn’t one you could argue with, so I would somehow make time to do whatever it was she had asked.

As an adult, the phrase ‘make time’ seems even more absurd. Any adult knows that you can’t create time — you are given 24 hours in a day like everybody else, and that allotment is not negotiable, not flexible.

So, we come to terms with the fact that there is a set number of hours in a day, but many of us use that fact as an excuse to not be more productive. We've all heard and given the excuse: 'I really wish I could [do] x, but I just don’t have time.'

The truth is, you DO have time.

‘Making time’, I’ve realized, is about making the most out of the time you have. My mother knew that when I told her I didn’t have time for XYZ if I just managed my time better, I would indeed have time for chores, spending time with friends, and almost anything else conceivable.

The problem is that, as adults, we tend to measure productivity in blocks of time instead of by results. Consider a typical workday: you base your work around certain time markers, such as a 10 a.m. meeting, lunch, 2:30 p.m. mail-out time, and 5 p.m. close. You know you should have a certain amount of work done by each time marker and pace yourself around those blocks of time.

That kind of thinking is completely BACKWARDS.

It’s time to start thinking in terms of goals. Time is not a goal: it is a resource. Therefore, you can’t base your work solely on time. Instead, start asking questions like:

• Are you making the most of the time you spend working?

• As Ramit Sethi of I Will Teach You To Be Rich puts it: “Is the time you spend productivity dense?”

• When you spend time, you are making an investment — what is the return on that investment?

Goals are valuable because they give us motivation, which is one of the key components of productivity. Recall the last project you loved working on. Didn’t you find yourself unusually productive? That’s because you wanted to work for the sake of completing the task. You probably accomplished more in that single day than in an entire week of routine tasks.

Setting goals is easy.

Using goals as a productivity tool isn’t a new strategy, but just because you set a goal doesn’t guarantee you will meet it. Many people, myself included, have set goals with little or no change in behavior or productivity.

The reason is specificity. My goals weren’t specific enough to motivate me to meet them, so I fell short. Another reason is a lack of focus; being distracted while setting goals undermines their effectiveness. Lastly, one of the most common goal-killers is the time limit set on them. People often think too long- or short-term for the goals they are setting, mostly too short-term.

Write your goals down. Right now.

Goals should serve as motivation, so set a goal that genuinely inspires you to work. For example, avoid vague goals like ‘My goal is to finish work by the end of the day.’ While time-specific, such a goal lacks a fundamental reason to be productive.

Take a moment to assess your current position and ask yourself if it aligns with your true desires. Are you satisfied being a document controller, or did you once dream of owning or managing?

This reflection is crucial because looking toward the future provides a meaningful incentive to work in the present. If your goal is to become a manager, write that. But go beyond that. Answer these questions as well:

• Manager of what division?

• How long before you get there?

• How many employees do you manage?

• How many hours a week do you work?

• What’s your salary?

• Who do you work with?

• What do you need to do to get there?

Can you see how being specific in your goal-setting can make all the difference? Answering just that last question, for example, can be highly beneficial for productivity, as it contextualizes your everyday work within an upward-movement framework. If everything you are doing is geared towards helping you become a manager, your goal doesn’t need to be 'finish work by EOD' because you understand that completing all your tasks daily is essential for promotion.

What are your goals? Saving for a new house? Planning a vacation? Starting a family? Write them down, GET SPECIFIC, make sure to display the goals somewhere visible every day, and start working toward them. You’ll discover that you do have time for all those things you thought you didn’t when you are being productive and not wasting the time you do have. So, get out there and make some time