“The Future starts today, not tomorrow”
Pope John Paul II
Last week I woke up in a cold sweat. It was the middle of the night, and I should have been exhausted: but I was too excited, and I had to write down what I had just dreamt.
In my dream, I was talking to a friend about how far we had come in our live – and the approaches to life that had gotten us there.
This model of time is so simple, and once you use it in your life you’ll see why you’ve failed or succeeded in managing your own time.
The Personal Time Horizons
Each of us plans our life and actions in different ways.
How we plan and do things, and the time horizon (how far ahead we’re planning) shows how well we manage our time.
Your personal time horizons determine how much control you have over your time and the direction of your life.
I look at managing my time as a skill, and I call it a game.
With no training, any game you play you’ll start out at the lowest level.
Some folks (very few) are naturals and quickly progress to higher levels. Others get better through dedicated practice and training.
People who are not naturals, and who also have never received any type of training, will find it difficult to progress beyond a very basic level in any competitive game.
If you feel like you never have control of your time, and like you are always playing catch up – you’re probably spending a lot of time in the lowest level of time horizons, the first horizon.
As you gain more control of your time, through my training programs or coaching, you’ll start to play at the higher levels.
As you read on, I know you’ll recognize yourself in at least one of the time horizons below.
The First Horizon: Yesterday
Planning with yesterday in mind is playing catch up.
This is where you constantly go over past mistakes in your mind, and perhaps even try to make up for them or past regrets.
In addition, if you procrastinate and are not motivated to do things in a timely manner, this is the level where you are constantly doing things you really should have done yesterday and now are trying to finish – behind schedule.
That’s what this time horizon is really about: not owning your time, not being responsible for it – and responding to external crises when you’re backed into a corner and have to now do something about it.
When you’re dealing with things that should be done “yesterday” you find yourself constantly stressed out because you feel like you can never get ahead.
The first horizon is a place that practically guarantees you will never accomplish your long term goals.
There will be times when you forget something, or you end up behind schedule and need to play in this area – but this cannot be where the bulk of your planning efforts and energy go.
The Second Horizon: Today
I call this the “short game” – you’re playing, but you don’t really see many moves ahead.
You’re aware of what you have to do right now, to stay just a little bit ahead and not fall behind.
Some negative things about always living in this horizon are being stuck in the rat race, lacking vision, not having a long term direction.
On the other hand, you need this horizon – because this is how you get focused, how you get into flow, and really where all the action happens.
You cannot accomplish great things without managing your self in this horizon.
You can only make progress if you control this horizon and bring the higher levels back down to today
The Effortless Productivity System (a bonus course included for free with The Action Solution), is geared precisely to this horizon. The system makes it easy to know exactly what you need to do, and focus on it so you make quick, effortless progress today.
The Third Horizon: Months and Years
I call this the “mid game” – this is where many moderately successful people are.
Thinking ahead a few months to a year or two, the next milestone is always on their mind.
In school these are the people who plan ahead to study for their tests, think about the classes they need to take in the upcoming spring or fall.
In professional life, these folks are the ones looking towards the next promotion, and thinking about the timelines of the projects they are working on.
They think through their plans, and then focus in the second horizon (“today”) to make things happens.
The Fourth Horizon: Decade or More
I call this the “long game.”
This is where I see visionaries and CEOs of good companies leading their organization.
They have a very long time horizon, and are concerned about long term trends.
In your own life, this is the types of things to consider when looking at your career, family planning, financial planning for major purchases like a home and retirement accounts.
The Fifth, Ultimate Horizon: Your Whole Life
I call this thinking of the “end game.”
It doesn’t mean that you are thinking of your last few years on earth – but rather, thinking about the type of person you want to be, the life you want to live, and what your legacy will be.
This is where people like Warren Buffet and Bill Gates play. This is where Steve Jobs played.
Folks that have accomplished everything they really wanted in the first four horizons, and now with nothing left to prove are considering what they want the world to look like after they are gone.
Using These Horizons
So how do these apply to your life?
First, if you are constantly playing catch up with yesterday, you need to first get out of the first horizon.
If you spend your whole living there, you’ll never make progress.
You have to at least get to the second horizon (working on what needs to be done today).
But you cannot be satisfied with the second horizon. That will get you out of crisis mode, but you cannot achieve your potential without the higher levels.
That’s where you having a vision, direction, a long term plan comes in. First to get control of the second horizon – and then over time the third, fourth and fifth horizons – planning out years and decades ahead.
Once you have a plan for your life and you are executing on it, you’ll be looking out over very long time horizons, and you may be surprised to learn you are in the minority. Most people not only don’t plan this way, but are not aware that it is even possible.
You’ll be different however: you will always be aware of the long term direction you’re heading in, and also be able to determine precisely the next steps to take today, right now, that will get you there.
You won’t get there all at once – but if you know you are stuck in the first (yesterday) and second (today) time horizons, you know you have to make a change right now or you’ll never make progress on your long term goals.
Remember what Benjamin Franklin said: “You may delay, but time will not.”