One of the most common challenges among my clients is Time Management. I like to ask clients what they would want most if I could wave my magic wand and grant them one wish. Many times, the answer back is that they need more hours in the day – they just don’t have enough time in a day to get everything done.
Who can’t identify with that? Who couldn’t use a few more hours in the day to finish more on their to-do list, to spend more time with family and friends, or to sleep so they can feel well-rested for everything they have to do tomorrow and the next day? It’s a common challenge, and studies have shown that since the pandemic started, people who are working remotely are spending more time working. On top of that, people working remotely have more to do at home – food to prepare, messes to clean up, organizing one space to live in and work in. I have one client who jokes that he starts every day asking himself who he’s going to disappoint. From my perspective, he is definitely not alone.
I want to share some tips that have worked for me and my clients that may work for you or inspire you to find inventive ways to apply the concepts in ways that work for you. Some of the tips are practical and some involve shifting your mindset.
Let’s start there. The first tip I have is about the concept of choice. Often, when we feel overwhelmed by everything we have to do, that can be all that we see. It can start to feel like tasks are being thrown on us from all directions, we may start to resent new ideas because of what they will add to our already daunting task list, and we can feel stuck and out of control. We’ve all been there at one point or another. Think about how that mindset causes us to react. We might be snappish, we might dismiss another person’s potentially great idea because it seems like a lot of work, and we lose out on opportunities and push others away as a result.
But, even when we feel that we don’t have any control over the task list, the truth is that we always have a choice. Yes, we always are making choices. Whether we are conscious of it or not, we make decisions all day. Just take a look back at what you spent time on yesterday. That’s where your choices are! Where you spend your time represents the things that you prioritized, the things that were most important to be done. Think back about the last few days and ask yourself, did you make good use of your time? Or were there other choices that could have served you better?
Think about it this way:
Did the most important things get done?
Did those things need to be done specifically by you?
Did you spend the appropriate right of time on the task? Too much? Not enough?
Was the quality at the right level – high quality for the things that merited it and good enough for the things that didn’t?
Did you lose any opportunities to train or empower people through delegating to them?
Did you miss out on hearing other voices and perspectives that may have enhanced the end product or team morale by involving them instead of doing it yourself?
Reflect on that and I’ll be back tomorrow with my next tip.
Comments