In this article we'll explore 19 ways you can gain leverage on your time. This is actually a real-time case study in using our time well - since this article is too long and has too many ideas to action all at once. How will you act to get leverage from these ideas?

Time is such a strange, strange thing. We talk about "managing time". But we cannot manage time. It just goes on tick-tock, tick-tock, regardless of what we do, or say, or think.

Time's wrong subject of sentence. It is you, and others, and activities and events, you and I really manage - in relation to time. Not time itself.

And time is not something you can save or lose. It is not a thing you have, or ever had. Time is what you live in. And breathe in. Like air.

So to "leverage" time we really manage yourself, and your tasks, and your behavior, and your situations differently - better, smarter, easier, more playfully yes - but differently.

Here, then, are 19 Ways Your Can Leverage Your Time

1. Start at end, not beginning. For maximum time leverage, set yourself big goals. Big goals commit you, and give you clear choices. With these Big Ends in mind, you will know what's important to you, and your job, and your customers. And you can start to define clear decision-making rules: "This is very important. This is less important. This is trivial and unimportant..."

2. With your Big Goals as your base, decide what's really important and what's trivial. And, you can start to say "No!" whenever possible, to meaningless, trivial, mundane, unimportant time-wasting, time-absorbing tasks, activities, projects, jobs, careers, relationships, clients, hobbies, e-mails, voice-mails, paper...

3. Assign pieces of tasks you're not especially good at to anyone you legitimately can.

For example, we may choose to drive car, listen to music or an audio book, or talk on our hands-free cell phone.

Our brain is certainly equipped to assist us achieve this efficiency. How many times have you been driving in your car and found yourself thinking about something other than your driving -- you have no recollection of last 5 miles of road, yet you weren't in an accident?

Confused? Don't be. The playful use of time changes from situation to situation. This is just one more example of PLORK being a continuing life theme!

Multitasking Examples:

1. Work another file on your PC while downloading a large file or document from Internet or local network.

2. Sign letters while conversing on phone.

3. Listen to language tapes or music or audio books while getting ready in morning or driving car.

4. Use a hand-held digital recorder to dictate notes, thoughts, memos, sales calls, business plans while driving. [Later you can use software to download your notes directly into computer without retyping].