Master Time
Mastering time is a fundamental skill I help all my clients work towards. Life is full of time sucks.
We have constant demands on our time from people to our own inner monologue. A perceived lack of time is the most common reason people give for not doing things they say they want to do. I say perceived because often the problem is not that the time isn’t there. It’s that the time is being leaked through mismanagement or allocated to things that don’t align with your priorities.
There’s a reason I am talking about time like it’s a resource. It is. It’s your most important one because you don’t know how much you have and can never get what you spend back.
Here are three things to consider when working toward time mastery:
1) Schedule to bandwidth not time: It’s tempting to fill every second of your calendar with meetings, emails, calls, chores, etc. But when don’t factor in mental and physical transition times, you set yourself up for high stress, sense of failure, and eventually burnout.
Cushion your appointments with enough time to physical and mentally get from A to B to C, and so forth. Consider how draining an appointment might be before you schedule subsequent appointments. Give yourself time to recharge.
Even if you can only take a few seconds, give yourself a deep breath. It will force a reboot and go a long way toward preserving your energy and your efficiency.
2) Consider your values: Really challenge yourself to fine-tune your list of what really matters to you. What do you really want to do and achieve, how do you really want to spend your time, and who do you really want around you? Getting crystal clear on your values will make it easier to schedule your priorities. You’ve heard that before right…schedule your priorities, don’t prioritize your schedule…? It’s often said for a reason.
You may not always be able to say no to something (ahem the boss). But you might be able to control more than you think.
3) Plug the leaks: Time leakage is sneaky. It’s like the slow faucet drip that doesn’t seem like much but at the end of the year adds up to a hefty amount of wasted water and dollars.
Track how you are spending your time. How much time are you really spending watching shows/movies, scrolling through social media? These may feel like quick escapes to destress but they might not be as beneficial as you think.
What about procrastination? Hitting the snooze? Disorganization? All of these can decrease your productivity.
BIG TAKEAWAY:
Look at where you could streamline what you do and how you do it. When you feel yourself pushing back and wanting to procrastinate or escape, ask yourself why. It’s likely because you’re feeling overwhelmed…which takes us back to step one.
Take a deep breath or perform some other stress coping technique that works for you. This will get you refocused so you can get back to pursuing your values.