Key Takeaways
1. Control your life by controlling your time
Time is what keeps one darned thing after another from becoming every darned thing at once.
Time is a series of events. By controlling the events in your life, you control your time, and thus, your life. Identify which events you have full control over, partial control over, and no control over. Focus your energy on managing the controllable events and adapting to the uncontrollable ones. This approach reduces stress and increases productivity.
Eliminate time robbers. Common time robbers include:
- Interruptions
- Procrastination
- Shifting priorities
- Poor planning
- Waiting for answers
Develop strategies to combat these time-wasters, such as setting clear boundaries, prioritizing tasks, and improving communication skills.
2. Identify and prioritize your governing values
Your governing values are the foundation of personal fulfillment.
Discover your core values. Take time to reflect on what truly matters to you. Create a personal constitution by listing and describing your governing values. These values should guide your decisions and actions in life.
Examples of governing values:
- Family
- Personal growth
- Financial security
- Spirituality
- Career satisfaction
Prioritize your values. Ranking your values helps resolve conflicts when faced with difficult decisions. This prioritization ensures that you consistently make choices aligned with what's most important to you.
3. Align daily activities with core values for inner peace
When your daily activities reflect your governing values, you experience inner peace.
Build your Productivity Pyramid. This tool connects your governing values to your daily activities:
- Governing values (base)
- Long-range goals
- Intermediate goals
- Daily tasks (top)
Ensure consistency throughout the pyramid. When your daily actions stem from your core values, you'll experience greater satisfaction and fulfillment.
Regular self-reflection. Periodically review your activities to ensure they align with your values. This practice helps maintain focus on what truly matters and prevents you from getting caught up in less important tasks.
4. Set goals that push you out of your comfort zone
To reach any significant goal, you must leave your comfort zone.
Embrace discomfort for growth. Setting challenging goals often requires stepping outside your comfort zone. This discomfort is a sign of personal growth and progress towards meaningful achievements.
Set SMART goals:
- Specific
- Measurable
- Action-oriented
- Realistic
- Timely
Use this framework to create goals that are both ambitious and achievable. Remember, the process of working towards challenging goals is often as valuable as achieving them.
5. Leverage time through focused daily planning
Daily planning leverages time through increased focus.
Implement daily planning sessions. Spend 10-15 minutes each morning planning your day. This small investment of time yields significant returns in productivity and focus throughout the day.
Key elements of effective daily planning:
- Review long-term objectives
- Create a prioritized task list
- Allocate time realistically
- Set specific daily goals
- Anticipate obstacles
Use a comprehensive planning tool, such as the Franklin Day Planner, to organize your tasks, appointments, and other important information in one place.
6. Your behavior reflects your true beliefs
Your behavior is a reflection of what you truly believe.
Understand the Reality Model. This model illustrates how your beliefs drive your behavior:
- Needs
- Belief Window
- Rules
- Behavior Patterns
- Results and Feedback
Your actions are a direct result of the beliefs on your "Belief Window." By examining your behavior, you can identify underlying beliefs that may be helping or hindering your progress.
Recognize hidden beliefs. Sometimes, our stated beliefs differ from our actual beliefs. Pay attention to discrepancies between what you say you believe and how you actually behave. This awareness is the first step in aligning your beliefs and actions.
7. Satisfy needs by aligning beliefs with reality
You satisfy needs when your beliefs are in line with reality.
Identify basic human needs:
- The need to live
- The need to love and be loved
- The need to feel important
- The need to experience variety
Understand how your beliefs attempt to satisfy these fundamental needs. Evaluate whether your current beliefs are effectively meeting your needs in the long term.
Test your beliefs. Regularly examine the results of your behavior to determine if your beliefs are aligned with reality. Be open to changing incorrect beliefs when evidence suggests they're not serving you well.
8. Overcome negative behaviors by changing incorrect beliefs
Negative behaviors are overcome by changing incorrect beliefs.
Recognize self-defeating patterns. Negative behaviors often stem from incorrect beliefs attempting to meet unmet needs. Identify these patterns in your life and trace them back to their underlying beliefs.
Steps to change negative behaviors:
- Identify the problematic behavior
- Uncover the driving belief
- Evaluate the long-term consequences
- Develop alternative, more accurate beliefs
- Predict and reinforce positive outcomes
Remember that changing deep-seated beliefs takes time and effort. Be patient with yourself as you work through this process.
9. Build self-esteem from within, not external validation
Your self-esteem must ultimately come from within.
Recognize your inherent worth. Understand that you are a "10" as a human being, regardless of your performance in various roles. This fundamental belief provides a stable foundation for healthy self-esteem.
Avoid external validation traps. Relying on others' opinions or material possessions for self-worth leads to instability and stress. Instead, focus on living according to your own values and principles.
Three levels of motivation:
- Fear (lowest)
- Duty (middle)
- Love (highest)
Strive to operate from a place of love and internal motivation rather than fear or external obligation.
10. Embrace an abundance mentality: Give more to have more
Give more and you'll have more.
Adopt an abundance mindset. Believe that there are enough resources and opportunities for everyone. This perspective encourages generosity and collaboration rather than competition and scarcity thinking.
Practice strategic generosity. When you accumulate more than you need, consider it a stewardship responsibility. Use excess resources to make a positive impact on others and your community.
Benefits of giving:
- Increased personal satisfaction
- Expanded network and opportunities
- Positive impact on society
- Enhanced perspective on life
Remember that giving doesn't always mean money; you can also give time, knowledge, and support to others.
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FAQ
1. What is 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management by Hyrum W. Smith about?
- Core focus: The book centers on mastering time and life management by aligning daily activities with personal values and beliefs, using ten “natural laws” as a framework.
- Beyond time management: Smith argues that true fulfillment and inner peace come not just from managing time, but from ensuring your actions reflect your deepest priorities.
- Tools and models: The book introduces practical tools like the Franklin Day Planner and conceptual models such as the Productivity Pyramid and the Reality Model to help readers gain control and satisfaction in life.
2. Why should I read 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management by Hyrum W. Smith?
- Addresses modern overwhelm: The book tackles the “time famine” many people experience, offering solutions to regain control in a hectic world.
- Proven effectiveness: Smith’s methods, including the Franklin Day Planner, have been adopted by millions and shown to improve productivity and inner peace.
- Holistic approach: It goes beyond traditional time management by integrating values, beliefs, and behavior change, providing a blueprint for lasting happiness and fulfillment.
3. What are the key takeaways from 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management by Hyrum W. Smith?
- Alignment is essential: True productivity and inner peace come from aligning daily actions with your core values and beliefs.
- Natural laws matter: Ignoring the fundamental laws that govern behavior and productivity leads to predictable failure and frustration.
- Behavioral change: Changing incorrect beliefs is crucial for overcoming negative behaviors and achieving personal growth.
- Practical systems: Using structured tools and daily planning can dramatically increase focus, control, and satisfaction.
4. What are the ten natural laws in 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management by Hyrum W. Smith?
- Managing Your Time:
- You control your life by controlling your time.
- Your governing values are the foundation of personal fulfillment.
- When your daily activities reflect your governing values, you experience inner peace.
- To reach any significant goal, you must leave your comfort zone.
- Daily planning leverages time through increased focus.
- Managing Your Life:
6. Your behavior is a reflection of what you truly believe.
7. You satisfy needs when your beliefs are in line with reality.
8. Negative behaviors are overcome by changing incorrect beliefs.
9. Your self-esteem must ultimately come from within.
10. Give more and you'll have more.
5. How does Hyrum W. Smith define and use “governing values” in 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management?
- Foundation of fulfillment: Governing values are your highest life priorities and serve as the bedrock for personal success and happiness.
- Identification process: Smith encourages readers to identify and prioritize their unique set of values, similar to creating a personal constitution.
- Guiding daily actions: By clarifying and ranking these values, you can set meaningful goals and ensure your daily activities align with what matters most.
6. What is the Productivity Pyramid in 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management and how does it work?
- Hierarchical model: The Productivity Pyramid connects governing values at the base to long-range goals, intermediate goals, and daily tasks at the top.
- Alignment for inner peace: This structure ensures that daily activities reflect your core values, preventing disconnection between intentions and actions.
- Practical application: The pyramid guides you to identify values, set meaningful goals, and prioritize daily actions, creating a systematic approach to life management.
7. What is the Franklin Day Planner and how does Hyrum W. Smith recommend using it for time management?
- Unified planning tool: The Franklin Day Planner integrates daily tasks, appointments, expenses, commitments, goals, and values in one place for maximum focus.
- Daily structure: Each day is organized with prioritized tasks, appointments, and notes, making it easy to track and retrieve important information.
- Six simple rules: Smith advises always carrying your planner, using only one calendar, committing to daily planning, maintaining a reference system, using a master task list, and keeping a monthly index for efficient organization.
8. How does Hyrum W. Smith’s Reality Model explain the connection between beliefs and behavior in 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management?
- Five elements: The model includes Needs, Belief Window, Rules, Behavior Patterns, and Results with Feedback, showing how beliefs drive behavior.
- Belief Window: Your beliefs about yourself and the world shape subconscious rules that guide your actions.
- Feedback loop: The results of your behavior provide feedback, prompting you to adjust beliefs for better outcomes and satisfaction.
9. How does 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management by Hyrum W. Smith address changing negative behaviors and beliefs?
- Beliefs drive behavior: The book asserts that your actions reflect your true beliefs, not just what you say you value.
- Correcting beliefs: Negative behaviors are overcome by identifying and replacing incorrect beliefs with those aligned with reality.
- Five-step formula: Smith provides a process for changing beliefs, which leads to lasting behavioral change and improved life outcomes.
10. What does Hyrum W. Smith say about self-esteem and its source in 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management?
- Self-esteem from within: True self-esteem must come from internal beliefs, not external validation or others’ opinions.
- Belief window impact: Negative beliefs internalized from others can damage self-worth; changing these beliefs is essential for authentic confidence.
- Conforming to yourself: Smith encourages readers to embrace their uniqueness and values, fostering genuine self-esteem and reducing stress.
11. What is the “abundance mentality” in 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management and how does it relate to giving and leadership?
- Abundance mentality defined: It’s the belief that there is enough for everyone, and sharing leads to growth and fulfillment.
- Giving leads to more: Smith illustrates that generosity—whether of wealth, knowledge, or power—expands abundance rather than diminishes it.
- Servant leadership: True leaders empower others by serving them, gaining influence through trust and fostering productivity and strong relationships.
12. What practical advice does Hyrum W. Smith offer for maintaining inner peace and control in 10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management?
- Daily alignment: Regularly review whether your actions align with your governing values and goals to keep life purposeful.
- Examine beliefs: Continuously assess and update your beliefs to ensure they reflect reality and support your needs.
- Live by moral truth: Smith suggests that ultimate inner peace comes from aligning values, beliefs, behavior, and your deepest convictions, creating a holistic sense of fulfillment.
Review Summary
10 Natural Laws of Successful Time and Life Management receives mixed reviews, with an average rating of 4.19/5. Many readers appreciate Smith's focus on aligning daily tasks with personal values and goals. The book's exercises for identifying core values are praised, though some find the latter half repetitive or dated. Critics note the author's conservative worldview and heavy product promotion. Despite these concerns, many readers find the book's principles on time management and productivity helpful, with some considering it a life-changing read they revisit regularly.
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