They’re all around you: the former teammate from another division shows up to a 3 p.m. meeting fit, looking great and energized; the colleague who attended that 401K investment talk who rejiggered their portfolio to great results; the boss who, despite seeming to have a heavier workload than anybody on the floor, reads a book or two about team performance strategies per week. You want to look and feel better. You want an investment portfolio worth bragging about. Heck, you just want some time to read a book! Maybe it’s time you learned how to control your time so it doesn’t become your enemy.
How do these highly successful people – who you know have the same responsibilities including spouses, dirty dishes and children’s college to pay for – manage their time so well? How do they do it while maintaining their sanity? And can “normal” folks like us learn the time management skills to thrive despite our imperfections?
You have more time than you let yourself believe.
Gay Hendricks, author of Take the Big Leap has been coaching people towards achieving extraordinary levels of abundance for more than 40 years, and in the process, he’s encountered plenty of time-perceived excuses:
–“It’s not the right time.”
–“I’d love to do _________ but… there is no time.”
–“If only there were more hours in the day, I would…________.”
Earlier this year, Georgia-based Piedmont Healthcare released its suggestions to help people dealing with stress in the workplace, particularly in the area of time management. Their top three suggestions were:
Examine Your Attitude: Successful time management will only occur when you understand that it is in your control. Once you establish this, you’ve crossed the biggest hurdle to making improvements.
Analyze How You’re Spending Your Time: One of the reasons it feels like we lose track of time is because, well, we lose track of time. Try keeping a log that lists what you do in every 5 or 10 minute block. You may find instead of an hour of TV per night, you’re watching three, or that you check-in on your social media account 30 times per day instead of 10. You’ll recover a lot of that missing time by simply keeping track.
Use a Time Management Quadrant: Everything you do falls into one of four categories. If you’re having trouble trying to prioritize your responsibilities and figuring out what to do next, ask yourself what’s really important and/or urgent. Here are the four categories:
–Quadrant one: important, urgent (e.g., paying your bills or getting to work on time.)
–Quadrant two: important, non-urgent (e.g., spending time with family and friends.)
–Quadrant three: not important, urgent (e.g., answering the phone when it rings.)
–Quadrant four: not important, non-urgent (e.g., watching TV or checking Facebook.)
As your attention begins to shift from your time constraints and limitations to the opportunity you have to become your best self, you’re likely to encounter a rush of energy and purpose-centered determination you hadn’t previously tapped, but suspected was in there somewhere.
Go ahead and take some time for yourself. Give yourself permission to check out and rediscover how you can best use the time you have to become who you want to be–calm, cool, collected and in control of your time and your life.
Do you have blocks that are interfering with your own success? If you are ready, contact me to schedule a conversation that could change your the way you manage your time and professional life http://maricarmenpizarro.com/contact-mari-carmen/
