How To Get A Handle on Time
Don’t Let Time Ruin Your Work-Life Balance
Is your job or your business eating away at your Other Time? That Other Time is every bit as important as work time. It’s true. It’s just tough keeping this idea from slipping into the background noise of work and more work.
You know I’m going to say it, “Which work tasks are most important?” No fair saying, “They’re all important.” The most important use of your time right now is to answer this question on a piece of paper that you can refer to whenever you’re overwhelmed.
Accept that you cannot do EVERYTHING. If time has been getting away from you, here’s what I want you to do. If time has only been a little out of control, decide you’re going to take on 95% of what you usually tackle. If it’s been really bad, scale it back to 80%.
Here’s where you refer to your priority list of work tasks. How many hours do you have to devote to work today? Don’t work through lunch or extend your day. That’s part of your important Other Time. How can you fit the selected jobs into the day? Write up a schedule. Decide what you’ll do when the inevitable Unexpected Thing shows up. Will you knock something out of the schedule? Will you tell others that you can’t handle that today? Will you suggest another person who can take it on?
The people who are truly successful in business don’t take on everything that comes their way. Instead, they perform well on selected tasks. Be in control, select the tasks you will perform well. Refer to your priority list at least a couple of times a day.
Tip: Starting this week, I want you to build yourself a Time Cushion. If you think a job will take you one hour, I want you to say to others that it will take an hour and a half. Theoretically, you should have 30 minutes to devote to something extra. You and I know that you probably won’t have more than 15 minutes because—we all do this—we’re too optimistic with our time. Now here’s the fun part of the Time Cushion: Decide how you’re going to reward yourself during that extra time. Twenty minutes is long enough for a meditation session listening to a tape of the ocean. Doesn’t that sound rewarding? OK, if not, think of something that resonates with you. Me, I’m opting for the ocean.
Further Reading:
Website, WomensMedia, by Sally Allen, Get Organized! Organizing Time Management
Website, WomensMedia, by Sally Allen, Get Organized! Organizing The Time Bandit
Book, by Pamela Dodd and Doug Sundheim, The 25 Best Time Management Tools & Techniques
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