“Learn to Manage Your Time or Time Will Manage You”
For those that follow me on social media, I have been discussing the importance of time and then broke down five (5) of the most time management skills that can help you with your personal and business life. If you missed them, here they are:
Planning
Decision making and prioritization
Setting boundaries and saying no
Delegating and outsourcing tasks
Building a system and diligently following it
I wanted to dig a little deeper as I wind up this month’s discussion on time management to leave you with a few more skills to consider when developing an effective time management system for yourself:
Asking for help – Sometimes when you get stuck, overwhelmed or there’s no way to outsource, your only option might be to ask for help. I had to learn to do this and appreciate all of those around me that offers to help! Actually, it’s more of a sign of strength than weakness.
Automating tasks –There are many options for task automation, especially when it comes to email and social media management. I have had a challenge in this area as I am truly the “ol school social worker with paper and pen”, so moving out of my comfort zone, especially since the pandemic, has required me to pivot. I am still a work in progress, but I am moving forward and learning to embrace technology.
Batching – There are many things you can batch together to become more productive. Types of tasks, meeting locations, telephone calls, etc. Batching can be a good antidote to multitasking and a great way to improve your productivity. This is helping me with all the things on my plate. To be able to do group coaching or meeting a client in the same area of my daughters’ school because it’ll be close time for pickup when we finish.
Coping skills / Stress management – In a complex and stressful world with everything going on around us, you need to stay focused, sharp and immune to many outside distractions. To avoid feeling overwhelmed, you need to develop good coping skills and clock out. Yes, social media, the news, and the negative talks around you that disrupts your peace. I love the quote, “if it costs you your peace, it’s too expensive!”
Creating routines – Our brains love routines and patterns. We see patterns even where there are none. But the good news is that when you get used to a routine, it takes almost no effort to follow it. Consequently, routines are a very important part of the time management. Your time management system should consist of a set of routines. For example, every morning you can write down the three most important tasks for the day. It’s a simple routine that can skyrocket your productivity. I am creature of habit and spontaneous every now and then.
Discipline / Beating procrastination – Discipline means that you do something whether you like it or not. It takes discipline to start a task, it takes discipline to follow through with the task, and it takes discipline to finish it. It also takes discipline to beat procrastination and to get things done.
Staying flexible – In reality, things never go according to plan. That means you have to stay flexible to maximize your output in any given situation. As we said, planning is really important, but then you have to stay flexible about how your goals will be achieved. Extend yourself some grace as needed because I understand that life happens and if you’re not flexible, it will cause some other issues that may reflect in your health, relationships, or work.
Focusing / Avoiding multitasking – Multitasking is a big enemy of good time management. Of course, there are times when you have to juggle several things at once, but in general, good time management skills require the mental capabilities to focus on one thing and get it done. This has been a challenge for me, as a single parent with a support system, because of other people not always being available in the event of an emergency or I didn’t finish that email so I’m doing it while in the pickup line or on a conference call while dropping one of the girls off at practice or even doing laundry, washing dishes, and muted out on a conference call at the same time. No, it’s not always the best thing to do or as effective if I was able to give my undivided attention, but sometimes you have to do what you have to do!
Getting in the flow – “Flow” is one of the most productive states you can be in. You forget about everything and just create and deliver. If you want to get into the flow, you have to work in peace on a challenging task, while being empowered by intrinsic motivation. I love listening to meditation music when I am in creative mode and dancing music when I have to get the job done on little energy.
Rest (recovery time) – You can only be super productive if you take enough time off. That includes getting enough sleep, taking at least one day a week completely off, regularly going on vacations and not overwhelming yourself with too much work. Otherwise, your productivity starts to sharply decline. Finding balance between work, play, and rest is an important part of time management.
Setting up deadlines / Avoiding perfectionism – If you don’t have clear deadlines and estimations of how long you will spend on a specific task, it can take forever to complete it. An important part of time management is to not overdo things. If you are a perfectionist, you might often spend more time than needed on tasks, overdoing things. Setting clear deadlines and limits is the right solution for such self-torture. Also, be careful about overcommitting as well! This is another area I’ve improved in.
