It's About Time

Ever find yourself wishing you had just a few more hours in the day to get it all done? Between work and family responsibilities alone, it can be challenging to juggle time for everything. Surely we were created for more than a life on a continuous treadmill where we never seem to catch up.

Futurists predicted that, in the 21st century, work would be done in virtual organizations and paperless offices. Some even said that the work week would drop to 35, or even 30 hours, and that too much leisure time could become a problem.

Has that been your experience? It's not what I see happening with the busy professionals I work with everyday. Over the past quarter-century, the number of hours spent working has continued to rise. The constant pressure to reduce costs and to do more with less often leaves employees in an unending cycle of overwork and overwhelm which ultimately leads to decreased productivity and efficiency in the organization. With the extra work and increased pace we strive to keep up with, we are quickly catapulted into a world of stress, exhaustion and even health problems if we don't make our self- care a top priority.

What is the solution? Time management can help. Or rather, more effective use of time can help. When you think about it, you don't really manage time, you manage yourself and how you choose to spend each 24 hour day you are given. By having tools and support available, you can better manage yourself and the choices you make.

Top 5 Tips for Managing Time

1. Stop using time as an excuse. We all have the same 24 hours in a day You choose how you use your 1,440 precious minutes each day. If someone - or something - else is determining how you use your minutes and hours, now may be an excellent time to look at changes you need to make.

2. Find out where you spend your time. It may sound odd to suggest taking time in an already busy schedule to assess how you are using time, but do know where you are spending your time? Try tracking your time for the next week and see just what you are doing with your 24 hours. This exercise will help you identify opportunities for changes to alleviate time pressures.

3. Simplify your life. Clear your schedule of time-consuming activities that are not essential. Over-volunteering, doing other people's work, relationships that are not working... these are a great place to start simplifying and reclaiming valuable time.

4. Be intentional about scheduling. If you want to accomplish a task, you must be intentional about scheduling it. For example, if you want to go to the gym to workout, you must put it on your calendar and plan for time to get there and back as well as for your workout. Insert it into your schedule, and then guard the time carefully to make sure nothing gets in the way of you getting it done.

5. Zap Time Wasters. Time wasted can never be regained. A few examples... browsing the Internet, email, chatting with co-workers, looking for things, and talking on the phone. Zap these time bandits by: scheduling a time to return phone calls and email, getting organized so that time is not wasted looking for tools and papers or using an Internet reminder service to keep track of important dates or events.

"Don't say you don't have enough time. You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresa, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein." ~ H. Jackson Brown