Spotlight on Canadian Financial Authors: Rick Atkinson

In celebration of Canada’s 150^th year, Knowledge Bureau is pleased to put the spotlight on Canadian Financial Authors. This week: Rick Atkinson discusses Time Management – A Critical Retirement Skill.

By Rick Atkinson

One of the most common complaints of retirees is wondering where the time goes. Often a retired person has the greatest intentions to accomplish goals and activities, but the days and weeks seem to disappear. This leaves the retiree frustrated and annoyed that their ambitions lay dormant and unfulfilled.

Time management is important. Without the skill to manage time efficiently, even the greatest retirement plans can fail. The best of intentions lost.

If a client complains of time management concerns, here are tips to share:

Step 1:  Clarify. Ensure your client has documented their entire retirement plan. That they have prioritized their goals and ambitions. “My main goal is to be a great grandmother; my second goal is to create a beautiful backyard garden this year.”

Step 2: Focus on priorities, not activities. Keep priorities visible. Post them on a refrigerator door, by the computer, on the mirror, or by one’s bed. Review daily.

Step 3: Set at least one objective designed to satisfy a priority each day, and accomplish it. If improving health is an important goal, “Today I’m allocating 20 minutes for exercise. I’ll walk to the store for milk.”

Step 4: Keep a time log. Captain Kirk did it, so should your client. Keeping a log helps track and understand how one spends their time. Each day, write down everything you do and the time it takes.

Step 5: Analyze everything. Every two weeks, encourage your client to analyze their time log. Item by item, asking the question, “Was this a good use of my time?”

Additional questions:

• How much time did I spend on my number-one priority?
• Was it sufficient based on what I want to accomplish?
• What could I do differently?

Step 6: Make a daily to-do list. What “musts” are to be completed before bedtime.

“Today I will call my grandson, visit my library for information on shade plants and walk two miles.”

Step 7: Make sure the first hour of the day is productive. Patterns of accomplishment are set early in the day. If a client has a habit of lounging over breakfast for an hour, their laid-back behavior may last for a good portion of the day. If, however, they get busy accomplishing items on their to-do list, their productive behavior is likely to continue throughout the day.

Step 8: Finish what is started. Jumping from one thing to another leaves a string of unfinished tasks behind. Starting and stopping tasks wastes time and energy, plus increases frustration at the lack of progress. Encourage your client to finish each task they start before moving on to another one.

Step 9: Take time to relax. Allot time for dreaming and having fun. Build some “play time” into each day.

Step 10: Teach others. The secrets of time management are relatively simple. A gift a client can give others, including family members, is helping others learn the techniques of time management and encouraging their practice.

When your clients control time, they control their life. Satisfaction lies in accomplishing the things that are important. Another strategy leading to a successful retirement!

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Rick Atkinson (http://whencaniretire.info) is an expert in holistic retirement planning and bestselling author of Strategies for Retiring Right! Are you a Canadian financial author? Please send us a copy of your book for review and an excerpt for the Knowledge Bureau Report.

Additional Educational Resources: For more information on how you can provide helpful, professional advice to your clients who are retired or approaching that phase in their life, check out Knowledge Bureau’s updated course on Tax Efficient Retirement Income Planning.

Or, click here for more information about the thought-leadership event of the year, featuring a celebration of excellence in Canadian financial services at the Distinguished Advisor Conference.

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