Time Management Tips: How to Increase Productivity by Delaying Gratification

Time management tips teach you how to celebrate your potential. After all, you create your life every day through your time choices. And each constructive and disciplined choice of time strengthens you and increases your satisfaction. So building on the wisdom of the road less traveled it is an excellent basis for your time choices.

Scott Peck’s first book, The road less travelled, achieved worldwide prominence in 1983. Translated into 20 languages, with more than 7 million copies sold, it remained in the New York Times Longest bestseller list of any paperback before or since.

It remains popular because it helps readers make tough decisions to solve deep, often lifelong problems. And each of the 4 disciplines that Peck promotes can translate directly into strengths in time management.

How would you like to successfully tackle the biggest problem in your life? You can get off to a good start by using the power of the first discipline discussed in The road less travelled: delayed gratification. Which of the following attributes would move you forward?

5 Essential Strengths Delayed Gratification Helps Develop:

1. overcome procrastination When you put off what is difficult or unpleasant, neglected tasks hang over you like a cloud, day after day. Overcoming this impulsive avoidance allows you to first eliminate what is objectionable or challenging. You are then free to enjoy your remaining projects with a clear conscience. The result? Greater efficiency and much more guilt-free time!
2. Confidence Following through requires you to stay the course in the face of challenges and distractions. As congruence between your plans and actions develops, others trust you more, and you trust yourself more. This integrity attracts success in all aspects of your life.
3. Troubleshooting capabilities Scott Peck contends, “You can solve any problem if you take the time.” As you delay gratification, you exercise the patience to see problems steadily through to resolution. You will discover firsthand that the less you potentiate discomfort, the less ability it has to throw you off course. Now you can go from priorities to plans to productivity!
4. broadening horizons This increased ability builds confidence. Step by step, you can increase the scope of your thinking as you build a strong foundation of problem-solving skills. This, in turn, improves your alertness, creating a rewarding spiral of success.
5. Long-Term Goal Achievement Your firmness of purpose also enhances your ability to take on projects of larger scope and greater complexity. Now you can launch projects that fulfill your life’s dreams, confident in your ability to stay focused and productive. Just think how much more excitement this will bring into your life!

“Failure cannot cope with persistence”

This Napoleon Hill maxim can serve as a supporting mantra. Or you may want to create your own. In either case, affirm his unlimited power to accomplish your goals through the constancy of your time choices.

Treat delayed gratification like a muscle you build. Start small, build up successes and move forward. The more consistently you exercise this muscle, the more strength and flexibility you will manifest. Clearly visualize achieving your long-term goal. The satisfaction you experience will help make your chosen course more compelling than the current distraction. Expect to learn as you go, and extend both patience and compassion to yourself as you make this discipline your own.

Step by step, you will experience yourself as powerful, because constructive action will grow out of your plan as surely as an oak grows out of an acorn.

Now, how will you represent the time choices that build your life?