All UNREASONABLE ideas violate some accepted wisdom.  Some norm.  Some convention.  Some formality.  Some age-old practice.  Some way of doing things, the contravention  of which would be inconceivable.

That’s what makes them unreasonable.

To say that time management is a huge problem could be understatement of the century. Except for Tim Ferris, the author of The Four Hour Workweek, I don’t know anyone who feels they have enough time for everything they’re supposed to do. Full disclosure: neither do I - expanding Axcelus (our international business acceleration consulting company) definitely takes a ton of time. But that’s the key word — supposed. The ultimate secret to time management is this: only do things you want to do, and only do things you are pretty sure will help you accomplish whatever it is your care about.

That’s unreasonable time management because there are dozens, perhaps hundreds of things you’re supposed to do each week; things other people think you should do. Maybe even things you read in a magazine, or in a blog somewhere.

But in the unreasonable world, there are no shoulds, no supposed-tos. There is nothing you have to do because it supports some else’s world-view. There are only the things you want to do and only the things that will make a difference. If something is not at least one, or better yet — both of these things — DON’T DO IT!

Take a look at your task list, and delete everything you either don’t want to do, or don’t think will make a difference in your current cause. Only do what’s left. Of course, this doesn’t insure you have enough time for all these things and you still have to choose among the remainders, but at least you’ve pared down the list.

You have two choices for the rest of those things: delegate them to someone else if they are important enough, and if not, just dump them. (Here’s another time management secret: if you dump things, and they end up being important, someone will remind you later.)

Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, suggests that the secret to happiness is to “want what you have.” That very reasonable, stress-reducing practice damps down the unfulfilled cravings which can lead directly to dissatisfaction and unhappiness. But those cravings which, when frustrated, can make you unhappy, can also — when properly channeled — lead towards action which creates progress.

There’s another way - the unreasonable way. Being unreasonable, you simply want what you want, and figure out how to go get it. By gaining clarity over what you want, and asserting that one way or another you will be, have or do that very thing, and not giving up until you get it — you make something happen. That’s the realm of invention, the realm of creation, the realm of leadership: wanting what you want.

Some people think that they have to know everything before they go public.