15 Secrets Successful People Know About Time Management pdfdrive com

INTRODUCTION
“Overworked and Overwhelmed” on a
New Jersey Highway
“License and registration!”
5:20 a.m. Dark and cold, pulled over on the shoulder of Route 1 in New
Jersey. I had been heading to work.
“Do you know why I pulled you over?”
Why did he have to shout?
“I assume I was speeding,” my voice cracked.
“Speeding!” He leaned down until the brim of his hat touched the top of my
window. Eye to eye, he said, “You flew up behind me, rode my bumper, swung
around and passed me, and kept on going. I was doing 65 in the slow lane.”
I wish I could say the officer had been driving an unmarked car, but he
wasn’t. Big white Crown Vic with the light bar on top. Giant blue and yellow
“State Police” decals on the doors.
I can’t really explain it. I have no memory of coming up on any car, let alone
a well-marked cop car.
Apparently, half asleep and thinking of work, I was driving over 80 miles per
hour when I came upon a state trooper who was going a measly 65, so I just
switched lanes and drove right past him.
“I’m sorry, officer. I just, uh, zoned out I guess…”
“Zoned out?!”
“I didn’t get much sleep, and…”
I was lucky he didn’t arrest me.
I was really lucky I didn’t crash and kill somebody.
This was 20 years ago, when I was young and dumb. I was so “crazy busy”
that I just kept adding more hours to my workday and more tasks to each hour.
I’d leave the house at five in the morning and work until midnight. No time for
proper meals. Coffee and a buttered roll eaten in my car for breakfast. Skipped

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lunch. Wolfed down dinner standing up.
I drank so many diet Red Bulls that I started looking at those silver and blue
cans the way an alcoholic looks at a bottle of wine. Those cans called to me.
Passing a trooper on the highway without even realizing it was definitely the
worst thing I did, but there were other signs of being out of control before that.
Like when I filled up my car with gas, drove away, and KLAANK! I had
forgotten to take the gas nozzle out of my car. It’s a miracle I didn’t blow the
place up.
And the times my wife kept telling me, “I just don’t feel connected to you
anymore.” She’s now my ex-wife.
It wasn’t like I was completely clueless about time management. I had read
all the bestsellers. I was the master of the to-do list and prioritized it every night
for the next day. At one point I had such a long list that I used a standard piece
of ruled notebook paper and filled in two columns—35 ruled lines, 2 tasks per
line, 70 total to-do items.
I look back at that time in my life with horror and embarrassment.
Thankfully, today I’m a different person.
I’m a single dad with three kids. I help them with their homework every night
and am home for dinner at the kitchen table more than half the time. I attend
most of their games, plays, and music recitals. I’m no athlete, but I exercise
routinely and am maintaining a healthy weight. I manage at least one or two
“date nights” with my girlfriend each week.
For work, I run a small consulting practice, write two books a year, give
speeches around the world, and oversee my investments in various startups and
commercial real estate.
I take a lot of vacation time, too. Last year alone I went to Puerto Rico,
Cancun, and the Jersey shore; spent several weekends in New York City; and for
my daughter’s 16
th
birthday, I took her on an epic trip to Barcelona, Madrid, and
to see the running of the bulls in Pamplona.
I do all this—and this is the key point—while rarely feeling stressed out,
rushed, overwhelmed, or guilty. I definitely don’t feel “crazy busy” and don’t
feel the need to brag about being “crazy busy” to those around me.
Don’t you just hate me?
My personal time and stress transformation started as I began to ask my
successful friends how they managed time.
I immediately noticed that none of them mentioned the things that are taught
in traditional time management books.

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My curiosity soon turned into a quest, and I did original survey research of
working professionals, looking for correlations between specific time
management practices and productivity, stress, and happiness. I funded a study
of thousands of working professionals and we found no correlation between time
management training and higher levels of productivity or reduced stress. Zero!
I then interviewed hundreds of highly successful people including Mark
Cuban and other billionaires, famous entrepreneurs, gold medal Olympians like
Shannon Miller, and straight-A students.
What I discovered is that highly successful people don’t prioritize tasks on a
to-do list, or follow some complex five-step system, or refer to logic tree
diagrams to make decisions.
Actually, highly successful people don’t think about time much at all.
Instead, they think about values, priorities, and consistent habits.
While no two people manage time exactly the same way, there are common
themes. And if you really try them, you might find that just one of their “secrets”
has the power to transform your career and your life.
Kevin Kruse
Bucks County, PA

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