The demands of the day
Life and work get ever busier. There’s little space for Me-time. Clients often tell me how they feel overwhelmed by the demands of the day, both work and non-work. Communications arrive by so many means: a myriad of digital platforms, texts, WhatsApp, emails and the occasional letter. So many Instagram posts, Snapchat and Reddit, and more, how do you keep up with it all without jeopardizing what’s important?
In the words of the late Zig Ziglar, American author and motivational speaker, “Don’t count the things you do, do the things that count”. True, but if you try to get rid of the daily demands first, to clear the decks and both physically and mentally, will you ever get around to the things that matter most? They key questions are: how do you action your priorities? How do you keep your eyes on deadlines for your goals?
What steals your time?
Have you ever felt your stress levels rise as you’ve become closer to a deadline… or realised that you’ve forgotten a deadline altogether? It happens!
So much can get in the way, some are external factors such as the unexpected, others keeping you waiting, and keeping ourselves waiting and delaying by not getting on with things. Getting up late, poor organisation, chaotic or no filing system, procrastination, hopping from task to task without finishing them, no reminders of deadlines, such as alerts, digital systems or physical year planners, avoiding what you don’t want to do – until suddenly the deadline is upon you or past!
Life itself needs organising too. We often juggle work deadlines such as report submission with personal requirements such as birthdays. Add the administration of life – such as bills, insurance renewals and more into the mix and the potential for missed deadlines becomes even greater.
Keep focused
- What is important is to stay focused on your priorities, not to allow yourself to be diverted by the communication noise.
- Time slips by very quickly. It needs to be carefully planned to make sure that we keep a track of deadlines.
- Careful planning and organisation don’t have to be time-consuming; in fact the opposite is the case. They both save time and minimise the stress of running out of time.
12 Easy Time Management Tips
Here are my top tips for practical time management:
- Decide on your top goals.
- Prioritize them in order of importance.
- Draw up a list of tasks to achieve each goal.
- Identify the time you realistically need to complete each task.
- Stick ideally to the time you estimate and don’t fall into the trap of Parkinson’s Law. This is the theory that we fill up all the time available and so run up against our deadline. Time limit your tasks.
- Set your own deadlines before the ones set for you, to allow time to meet your task deadlines comfortably. For example, you might set your own goal two days before a report needs to be submitted. You’ll then have time to review and fine-tune it, avoiding the stress of a last-minute crisis.
- Devise stepping stones.Working backwards from the deadline of your goal, which tasks need to be completed – and on which dates?
- Keep a visual reminder of your deadlines, digitally or on hard copy, such as a diary or a year planner.
- Review your visual reminder regularly.
- Colour-code your goals…so you can easily see the different goals
- Have a contingency plan! Have your plans allowed time for unwanted circumstances such as printer breakdown, illness or late submissions from others? Planning for these hiccups helps enormously.
- Some goals repeat each year – such as submitting evidence of your Continual Professional Development hours, car servicing or renewing your insurance. Make sure that your transfer all of these as you start your planner for next year.
In short
Stay in control of your time management! Look at your planner, review what is achievable, what isn’t and what changes you’ll make. Despite the external factors that influence our efficiency, we can avoid missing deadlines by planning and reviewing our commitments and communicating with those around us assertively.
A visual system helps enormously. It offers an ‘at a glance’ understanding of the demands upon your time and how this can be managed carefully to avoid clashes and optimise the use of time when you are under less pressure.
I hope these details are helpful. Life Coaching can help make these positive changes. If you would like more information on time management and assertive communication please visit my website. .
If you feel it would be helpful to have coaching support to create a positive programme for yourself, and to sustain it, do get in touch via my email or website. If you are new to coaching, you are welcome to book a free 20-minute call to find out how coaching can help you.
