Time Management And All That Jazz

For some reason, right now in my life, I have perfected some time management skills that work for me. I think because I am driven to a cause with a family and social life, I have managed to put together a personal time management system that is getting results. So let me share what I have learned.

As a side note, I am all about balancing work, family and play. Believe it or not, things and people will wait. Everything that everyone needs is not urgent. If urgency is the name of your game right now, you have overcommitted yourself. You need to back pedal and back down rechecking your life and career priorities.

#1. There is a time to multi-task and there is a time not to.
In other words, not every hour of every day should you be doing more than one thing at a time to "get more done". You will burn yourself out and split your focus. Nothing is ever done correctly. Mistakes will be high. You cannot overload your brain with too much multi information sources at the same time. We as humans are not wired that way.

I know of a women who owns an business, employs staff, see clients and manages her family all from inside of her home. Multi everything is the name of the game. Whatever fire is brewing at the time no matter who is present (client, family, ?) gets the attention. Her focus is split in many directions making accomplishment a hard commodity to come by. It distracts and detracts from the other people who rely on her for information and her expertise. She gains an unfavorable reputation the longer this type of lifestyle goes on.

A time to multi-task for me is when I am cooking dinner or getting breakfast. I can do a load of laundry or open mail. But when it comes to the more important people and issues in my life, I concentrate and place my focus and attention solely on that task and person. Others feel heard and validated plus I retain more information making accomplishment quick and easy.

#2. Organize your task time so that 4 hours turns into 8 productive hours.
We have all heard of making a list and checking it twice to see what needs done during today or tomorrow. Really planning out what you need to get done provides a sense of security and direction. Sure we are all going to get side tracked but having some type of direction places us in a control mode instead of letting outside influences control our time and attention.

I personally keep a list of what I need done. When I am working, if another idea or thought comes where I need to put some time or action behind it, I immediately write it down and work it into my week or month (yes month).

#3. Set boundaries
Don't let email, IM, phones calls and life distract you. There is a time and place for all of these influences. The bad news is your in control of them and how they effect your time.

I do not turn on IM if I cannot spend the time "chatting" with one of my buddies. If I don't want to be interrupted, I leave IM down.

On the same note, not all emails have to be answered or opened the first few seconds they hit your mailbox. Learn to pull yourself away from the attraction of opening them when you schedule is more free to devote the time to answering each one with more concentration. You may be missing something important in its content by glazing over instead of really reading it.

With caller id, it makes screening calls under your jurisdiction. When your working on an important task, you can choose to let it go to voicemail or answer the call suggesting a better time to call back. Please, under no circumstance, take calls when a client or customer is present. This is just rude. A business person I know constantly takes calls when customers are present or when important meetings are being held. The message is that the caller is more important than you and what you are meeting about. Plus, a stop in the action impedes progress for everyone. A meeting is a debt of time owed to each of the attendees. Please be respectful of that.

In summary, I can honestly say I get more work out of one hour that I use to. By learning to organize my task better, multi-tasking when appropriate and setting boundaries so my priorities are my focus allows me to be in control of what gets done....and I just plain feel better about it.

Sandra Larkin, CPC
Certified Professional Coach
www.lostandfoundlifecoach.com