In the current climate of 24-hour virtual offices, social media and an always-on-call attitude, it’s no wonder that a lot of us are busy. But, being busy is ok and can be managed by learning to prioritise your precious time, knowing it’s ok to say no and making sure the important stuff is taken care of first without worrying about the mundane bits that often take up the most time.
We all know that person who is always running around frantically proclaiming how busy they are, don’t we. But, have you ever stopped to ask them to clarify their busy – what exactly are they busy doing? Often they can’t really answer and sadly, it’s often hiding other issues such at lack of confidence and people pleasing; if they’re present in every meeting on every day then they must be very important right? No. If they’re in meetings all day every day and working until midnight every night to catch up on the other work, they are burning themselves out and showing a huge lack of self care. And are their efforts getting noticed and thanked for? Probably not. Time management is something that we can all be better at and even the smallest tweaks in our daily lives can make a big difference.
Here are a few coaching tips to introduce to the daily grind:
Prioritise the big stuff
What are the most important sectors of your life that need your time: family, friends, exercise, doing something you love, self care, learning? The smaller things are secondary. At work ask yourself, do I need to be in all of those meetings? Why not state your intent and go for 15 minutes where people can ask what they need of you in that time slot and be sent the notes afterwards? I bet you won’t miss that much and guess what, you can leave on time that day as you’ve had time to do everything!
Delegate
Why sit and stress over that accountancy spreadsheet or try and write that newsletter? If it’s not your area of expertise, farm it out and spend the time doing something of value to you.
Evaluate your social calendar
Do you have to be out three nights in a row? What can you combine / say no to? Self care remember
Diarise
Plan time for checking emails and social media. Does Facebook really need checking 25 times an hour shifting your focus from the things you really should be doing? Block in a slot at the beginning and end of the day for emails and social media and you will be so much more productive. Be honest with your time: ask, do I really need to do / go to this right now?
Plan your time don’t let it plan you
Time management can be the key to a healthier and happier life both at home and work giving you more time for you. It would be great to hear your thoughts and feedback on your time management.
