T I m e m a n a g e m e n t

S I N C E T I M E M A N A G E M E N T
is really life management,
improving your personal productivity begins with an exam-
ination of your values. One of Murphy’s Laws says that
before you do anything, you have to do something else first.
It’s not possible to manage your time properly unless you
know exactly what your values are. 
Good time management requires that you bring your
control over a sequence of events into harmony with what is
most important to you. If it is not important to you, then you
will never feel motivated and determined to get control of
your time.
Ask yourself this: “Why am I doing what I am doing?”
Why do you get up in the morning? Why do you do the job
you do? What is your reason for working where you work?
American Management Association / www.amanet.org

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Meaning and Purpose 
Each person has a deep need for meaning and purpose in
life. One of the major reasons for personal stress and unhap-
piness is the feeling that what you are doing has no meaning
and purpose as it applies to you and your innermost values
and convictions. You must always start off by asking the
question “Why?”
You can become more efficient with time management
techniques, but it won’t do you any good if you just become
more efficient at doing something that is meaningless to
you. Greater efficiency will simply increase your sense of
alienation, frustration, and anxiety.
What Do You Value Most?
The next question you need to ask is, “What do you value
most in life?” What do you really care about and stand for?
What will you not stand for? 
You will only feel really happy, valuable, and worthwhile
to the degree to which your day-to-day activities are in har-
mony with your values. Almost all stress, tension, anxiety,
and frustration, both in life and in work, comes from doing
one thing while you believe and value something com-
pletely different.
There are many reports about executives experiencing
burnout as the result of the stress of their work. But people
who love what they are doing, and put their whole heart into
their work because it is a reflection of their values, seldom
experience stress or burnout of any kind. When you are
D E T E R M I N E Y O U R V A L U E S
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American Management Association / www.amanet.org

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living consistent with your values, you seem to experience a
continuous flow of energy, enthusiasm, and creativity. Stress
comes from working at things that are not consistent with
your highest values.
Examine your values, your innermost beliefs and convic-
tions, and ask yourself what changes you could make to
bring your activities, on the outside, and your life priorities,
on the inside, more into alignment with each other.