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4 Time Management Tips Guaranteed to Give You Peace of Mind

Ahhhh TIME, the greatest and sometimes most elusive commodity in our lives. We all want more of it.  When was the last time you caught yourself saying, “I just wish I had another 5 hours in the day?”  Or, “I need a clone of myself in order to get this all done?

Be honest with me-  Do you blame time for your lack of success in life? Are you struggling with weight and blaming time because you just can’t seem to get to the gym?  Do you feel like you are not a good enough parent because you are too busy at work and don’t have enough time to connect?  That list could go on and on, but let’s just leave it there. The point is, you probably do blame time for your life not being as amazing as it could be.

And that has got to stop! Time is on your side (Que the Rolling Stones.) We are all given 24 hours in a day. On our last family vacation, I watched a young man sit in front of a garbage can hoping someone would give him their left over lunch for an hour while I ate lunch with my family. I gave him some food and when we came back 3 hours later to get on the metro, he was still there and thanked me again for the food we’d given him earlier.

I have a client that has 3 little kids, runs a farm, and two businesses.  Before most of the world has gotten out of bed, she’s nursed her baby, milked her cow, fed the chickens, fixed breakfast, spent quality time with her kids, and probably blogged about it. She gets more done in a day than anyone I know.

I’m not trying to judge the young man by the garbage can or cause you all to compare yourselves with my client. Neither of those activities will bring you more productivity. I do want to paint the picture that every single day is a gift. Time is available for you. How will you rock your time management?

Time management is not about time controlling you. Time management is simply how you choose to engage with the time given to you.  Will you spend it doing things that bring you joy, health and wealth?  Or will you spend it on things of little value that you won’t even remember next week?

Here are 4 time management tips guaranteed to give you peace of mind.

1. Find a schedule that works for you. Most people create a schedule that is impossible to live by. A robot might be able to keep it up, but no human could. And after a few weeks of constant effort to manage the schedule, you give up and go back to your old ways of mismanaging your time.  Let’s build a different kind of schedule. One that you actually enjoy following. Check out my post“It’s time to rekindle your love affair with schedules”  to learn how to create a schedule you love to follow!
2. Give your agenda a higher priority than other people’s agendas. It sounds simple enough, but it is actually requires high levels of discipline. Think about how often you check your email, and then spend the rest of the day responding to what everyone else needs.  It happens all the time! Instead, choose what is most important to you to accomplish today and do those things first. What you will find is that your high priority items will get done, and you will still have time to do the high priority items of others. (And as a bonus, you will also get better at saying “no”. It feels amazing.)
3. Shift from busy into productive. Busy people fill their time with lots of low value activities. Productive people fill their time with a few high value activities. Today, I am writing blog posts, writing content for a new website I’m launching, and writing a book proposal, and I have one client appointment. That is pretty much it. I will spend about 6 hours today working on 4 things. And I’ll spend 1 hour answering the needs and questions of my clients, team, and other people. Want more examples of how to be productive not just busy? Check out my post “Are You Busy or Productive?”
4. Shift how you think about time management. Instead of looking at the clock and thinking, I don’t have time to clean the bathroom. Ask yourself, what can I get done in the 10 minutes I have?  Maybe you do have time to take out the trash.  Or if you find yourself thinking, “I need an hour of phone time”, but you only have 15 minutes. Consider asking yourself, “Who can I call in the next 15 minutes?”  You will find that you have MANY pockets of mismanaged time.

I truly love managing my time. In the last few years I’ve been able to move from feeling like time management was some horrible force of control and into loving taking care of my time.  Has this changed the way you think about your time?  For more Details:  business development strategies