Sunshine in April

Many of us have a hard time squeezing in the things we want to accomplish in a day. We feel exhausted running from one thing to the next, trying to fit in time with loved ones, struggling to accomplish tasks at work, making it to pick up kids and get them to practice on time, and then there’s dinner. Who has time to fit in anything other than the drive thru?

Or maybe you’re a professional procrastinator, especially with those tasks that would be great to get done but can be put off until tomorrow. Or the next day. The next month. Or the oh yeah, I meant to do that three years ago and the garage is still overflowing with stuff I don’t use. Another type of professional procrastination is spending lots of time on tasks with little return on investment, like playing phone games (totally guilty here), watching tv (so many good shows to binge), online gaming (qualifies as social time), and ____ (fill in your own stuff here). I can be a professional procrastinator at times on the big things all the way down to some of the simple things. The lack of an outside deadline helps me put those things off until, well, whenever I get to them. Like the garage continuing to pile up and I find the homemade apple sauce jarred eight years ago. Can this still be safely eaten, I wonder? When is the last time you cleaned your garage or the back room where the I’ll get to this soon piles keep adding up? Now it’s an overwhelming task so just close the door.  

If you want more literal time in a day, sorry, but you’re out of luck. Wrap your head around that 24-hour clock fact. That is one of those things you have no control over. However, you can focus on things you can change, like how you’re using that 24-hour clock. In comes time management to the rescue. I know, you hate that term and it’s going to take time to figure out that process. You already have things to do with that time, so why bother?

• Productivity. Well, maybe that’s why.
• Goals. That’s why.
• STRESS! That’s a HUGE why.

The concept of time management is to help you navigate those 24 hours more effectively. It may not be a lifesaver, but it can definitely be a massive stress and time saver once implemented.

How to get started

1. WHY. What is your motivation for wanting ‘more time in the day’? You’re overwhelmed, so you need to work on managing stress. You’re not meeting deadlines, so you need to work smarter. Your relationship is suffering so you need to spend more quality time together. You’re not in sync with your values and goals, so you need to focus more on habits that are fulfilling.

Write down why you WANT / NEED more time (or more focused time). Keep asking yourself why that is important until you’re in tears or your body goes YEP that’s why! Focus on what you want and not what you don’t want. This is your motivation, so keep coming back to your why when you regress into old habits.

2. Time audit. For at least 3 days, keep track of how you are currently spending your time. If you don’t do this important step, you’ll be relying on ASSumptions, which are often erroneous because most of us have little insight into how much time we spend on activities. Do this with curiosity and without judgment. Consider setting a timer for the top of each hour and write down what you did in that hour. However you proceed, write down how you spend each hour of the day and how much time you spend in each activity.

3. To do list: Write out your to do list. Start with a day, then you can work on a weekly or monthly plan of action. Holy cow that one day to do list got long fast! Maybe that’s just me when I get behind and need to regroup.

On a piece of paper, draw mid page lines horizontally and vertically to make 4 boxes. In the top left box, write Do now. Top right box, Do later. Bottom left – Delegate. Bottom right – Delete. The next step is to organize your to do list into each quadrant. Focusing on one day lists can help you get started and not overwhelmed, then you can build from there. You may consider doing two matrixes to separate home and work time.  It can be hard to figure out what to put in each box, so here are some examples.

• Do now: These are the tasks that only you can do or need to be involved with and they need to be done ASAP. These include tasks with very soon deadlines and/or have clear consequences if not done right away. Ex: Respond to emails (especially urgent ones), finalize project for presentation tomorrow, pick up child from practice.
• Do later: These are important tasks you need to do / be involved in but can wait. Clean the garage, sign up for training course / professional development, relationship building, self-care.
• Delegate: These are tasks that need to be done as soon as possible, but you don’t need to do or be part of. Clean the house (chores for kids – YAY, hire a cleaner who comes bi-weekly / once a month), let the kids practice building a dinner menu and figuring out the shopping list, coworker can attend the not required meeting and fill you in on details (or you can wait for the email overview), mow the grass (the neighborhood kid may be raising money to buy a car).
• Delete: These mental and actual time suckers are often distractions that take you away from your goals and are not important. Check your time audit for possible items here that have been taking more time than intended and don’t add value to your why. No, you really don’t need to spend time on phone games (WHAT?!), watching tv (but, but, but…), scrolling social media (unless it is part of your job), or going down the rabbit hole (guilty as charged). The book you’ve been meaning to write for years. The scraps you’ve been collecting for the art project that you’ll never get to.

4.Time blocking: Here is actively scheduling the DO NOW list. You can also add in the delegate tasks because maybe you’re the one who needs to give away these tasks to the best person for the job. To-do lists often get shuffled again and again, but giving those items a specific time to work on can be a game changer. Break your day into time blocks – start with hours or half hours, even though some tasks may only take 5-10 minutes. Write down the hours in the day you’re awake, or if you’re breaking this into two tasks (such as work and home), focus on one at a time and write down the hours you’re at work. Place each do now item in a time block to focus on at that time. You may need to close the door to distractions (chatty coworker) especially during those blocks where you need to focus most. When it’s 11am – focus on the item scheduled for that hour. Stay flexible as some things may need to be shuffled around or you find some unexpected do now items come up (pick up sick kid from school). Not every day has to look the same, i.e., soccer practice is on Tuesday, Thursday with games on Saturday.

5.Task batching. Your new mantra: multi-tasking is bad, task batching is good! Multi-tasking takes more time than each individual task because it takes more mental (and possibly physical) time to switch back and forth between tasks. Back to that 11am hour at work, if you’re switching back and forth between checking emails and working to finish the project you’re expending unnecessary energy as each time we switch it takes mental refocus and increase physical time to do each task switch. Task batching is a way to focus on one thing or group of similar items at a time. For example, that project requires both a written format and a PowerPoint (Ppt) with bulleted points. While you are focusing on the writing process you may be taking notes of which parts go in the Ppt. Or maybe your focused email work hour has you answering different questions from different classes, so there is a slight back and forth, but your focus is getting through the emails. Or at home, priorities include making dinner, cleaning the kitchen, and quality time with kids. You may be surprised at the great conversations that come from doing these tasks together. BUT don’t ask how their day went (fine) or what they learned in school (nothing). Ask about how a specific friend is doing or if they could choose anyone famous to have dinner with who would it be and why.

Now you have a process that when implemented can actively gain time. You can even do this process together with friends or family. Spend one day after dinner working together on why’s and building time audits or planning how to build them over the next few days. In 3-4 days, you can come back together and start working on steps 3-5. This can be focused time actively working on time management AND spending quality time with loved ones.

Here are two articles I share with students that I find helpful in explaining these concepts more.

• What is time management: 6 strategies to better manage your time (click to open site)

This is a GREAT place to start because it first walks you through a time audit, an Eisenhower Matrix, and the idea of focusing on one task at a time because multitasking is mostly an inefficient use of your time.

• Time blocking (click to open site) 

Once you have your time audit completed and organized your to-do list, you can work on time blocking and task batching.

Now YOU have to take the time to do the work and incorporate the tools!