Some people feel that they have no control over their time - that their lives are completely controlled by external events. Those people will likely gain little, if anything, from attending time management seminars or reading books on the subject. Not because their lives are controlled by others, but because they think they are. Attitude is an important consideration when attempting to improve a person's time management skills.

The most important part of any time management program is not the list of ideas or techniques imparted to the participants. It is the portion that convinces the individuals that they do, in fact, have choices. That they can control certain aspects of their job and life, and that they are the ones responsible for initiating that control.

If people are convinced that time management training won't help them, it won't. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. Great ideas can be within their grasp, but they won't even reach for them because they're convinced that they won't do a bit of good. There was an experiment conducted long ago that involved a large pike swimming around in a tank surrounded by minnows which he gobbled up as he became hungry. Then a glass partition was introduced, separating the pike from his food. Every time he'd grab for a minnow, he'd only succeed in banging his snout against a glass wall. Soon he came to realize that going after the fish was futile, and he stopped trying. Then the glass partition was removed, and the minnows were allowed to swim about in the tank as before. The pike knew better than to try to eat them, however, and slowly starved to death in the midst of all that food.

The pike's reality was in his mind, but it prevented him from taking advantage of all that food. Similarly many people have an incorrect view of reality and it results in failure to take advantage of opportunities that may be obvious to others. If they believe they have no control over their lives, they're right.

Feeding time management techniques to someone who won't use them is futile. You must first show by example how they do have a degree of control over their lives. The ideas, techniques and systems are secondary.