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Can time-manangement really be simple? |
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If you are a person who struggles with time management, you may have read books on the subject and perhaps even have taken workshops to help you set things up for yourself. Although there are a lot of great, well-thought-out systems for organizing and managing time, some of us really have a hard time sticking to a pre-determined system for longer than a of couple days. Why is that?
For one thing, many of the books on time-management are fairly sophisticated which can be a good thing, but in many cases this translates to "complicated". Some us see something that appears complicated and may easily get overwhelmed or frustrated in trying to apply the concepts.
Also pre-determined systems may not take personality and style differences into account. For example, a creative person who has a laid-back and unstructured personal style may not fit well into some of the time management systems out there. But no matter who you are or whether you like systems or you don't, anybody can become a great time manager by keeping it really simple and following a few clear steps.
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What do you notice about the flow of your time?
One of the biggest problems people face regarding time management is that they don't have a good understanding of the length of time various activities truly take. Also they don't aknowledge what their daily distractions and sidetracks are. If you can get a handle on these two factors, you may not ever again need to read a time management book!
The very first thing to do before starting out on a time-management plan is to notice how time flows for you, personally. When you take a week and pay attention to how you divide up your time, you will discover a lot of information about your pitfalls when it comes to managing your time. For example, you might discover that non-essential phone calls during the day are a huge distraction and time suck. This kind of concrete information will help you when you set out to make some changes.
Of course, you will need to take a very honest look at how your time is divided up and you'll need a very crucial tool to realistically measure your time: a timer. Most cell phone and other portable electronics now have built-in timers you can easily use for this purpose.
Here are some steps you can put into place right away to first analyze your time management and then work to improve it:
- At the beginning of your analysis week, set one or two concrete goals regarding your time management. Write them down: "eliminate my chronic lateness" or "stop wasting time on the internet" are examples.
- Keep a little notebook for a week with the real time various activities take such as getting ready for work in the morning or getting the kids ready for bed. Real time is not the amount of time something should take, but what amount of time it actually takes including distractions and sidetracks. Set your timer to physically measure the length of time specific tasks take. It may seem awkward at first to time yourself, but when you try it you might be surprised at what you discover. Be sure to write down your results as you go.
- Make a special note of what sorts of things distract you and pull you away from the task at hand. Notice if you tend to take "breaks" or give yourself little "rewards" of time doing something not work-related. These may be very important to keep, but just be conscious of how many breaks and how much time each one takes. Use the timer to track the length of time for your breaks throughout the day and again, write it all down.
- Start paying attention to the transition times from one activity to another to see what you notice. Is it hard for you to shift gears from one task to another? If so, you could try focusing on stopping an activity a little early or taking a purposeful five-minute break in between two tasks.
- After the week, review your notebook to see how your time tends to play out. Circle items you'd like to work on changing that would help you to achieve the goals you came up with.
- Once you have the knowledge as to what the flow of your daily time really is, you can decide if you want to take more or less time for certain activities. Even with this awareness, it may still feel hard to make the changes you need to make; any worthwhile change takes time and isn't smooth. you can also try out keeping the timer in use for another week or two. When you have the facts in front of you, it's remarkable how much of a difference that can make.
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