Take Back Your Time
by Kathy Paauw
Published on this site: August 11th, 2005 - See
more articles from this month
"You will never find time for anything. You must make
it." -Charles Buxton
According to the organizers of Take Back Your Time Day, which
was held on October 15, if Americans quit working on that
date and didn't work for the rest of the year, we would be
working the same number of hours as the average European.
Even with high unemployment, America has experienced near-record
mandatory overtime.
The October 11, 2004 issue of Time magazine reports that
on a typical day office workers are interrupted about seven
times an hour - 56 interruptions a day - 80% of which are
considered trivial. "We pride ourselves on being multi-taskers,
but the truth is, we're functioning at a state of partial
attention," says John White, international program director
with Priority Management, a training company based in Vancouver,
Canada. "Because of constant interruptions, our memory,
follow-up ability, flexibility and quality of work start to
erode."
So how do we learn to slow down and enjoy our lives?
Managing our time is about clarifying priorities and being
masterful at taking action on our intentions, rather than
becoming a slave to the constant flow of events and demands
on our time. When we operate in auto-pilot, we take action
without thinking, which almost never yields the results we
want.
Time management is not just a tool like a calendar or a Palm
Pilot. It is a foundational skill upon which everything else
in life depends.
Seven tips to help you manage your time:
- Prioritize your week. Organizing your time without
first clarifying your priorities is like rearranging deck
chairs on the Titanic. Ask yourself this question: If nothing
else happens this week, what are the most important activities
or relationships I choose to pay attention to? Without making
plans to focus on these priorities, you will most likely
not get to them especially if they are not urgent. Planning
goes far beyond just making lists. A plan is when you have
carved out specific time in your calendar (an appointment
with yourself) to do something. Need help getting started
with weekly planning? Visit our planning tip sheet at: http://www.orgcoach.net/sixsteps.html
or participate in one of our teleclasses: http://www.orgcoach.net/teleclasses.html
- Learn when to say NO. As Stephen Covey says, "It's
easy to say 'No!' when there's a deeper 'Yes!' burning inside."
When we operate from a big-picture view of our priorities,
it becomes much easier to decide what to say YES to and
what to say NO to. Remember this truth: Every time you say
yes to someone or something, you are saying no to someone
or something else.
A good way to learn what to say NO to is to check your self-talk.
Are you saying "I should." "I gotta."
"I have to." or are you saying "I choose
to."? Be at choice! Then write your not to do list
and stick to it!
- Limit your time for activities that consume you.
For example, if you find that you are overwhelmed by e-mail,
limit how many times a day you check it and how much time
you'll spend to read and respond. When I came back from
vacation to more than 1000 emails, I was amazed at how unimportant
some messages became! Limiting your time can help you to
prioritize.
- De-clutter your life. My definition of clutter:
Anything you own, possess, or do that does not enhance your
life on a regular basis. By this definition, clutter can
be things in your physical environment. Clutter can also
be activities, thoughts, and even relationships that don't
enhance your life. Once you clean up the non-physical clutter
in your life, you'll be able to make better decisions about
what to keep and what to remove from your space.
As you de-clutter your environment, you can save a lot of
money on your tax returns by donating items to charity.
Its Deductible is a tool that I have used for years to help
me value what I donate. Although it guarantees that you
will save at least $300 on your taxes, it has actually saved
me thousands of dollars on my taxes each year. Visit http://www.orgcoach.net/products/taxtools.html
for more information.
Take our free Professional/Business Organizational Assessment
or our Personal Organizational Assessment to help you sort
out what areas need the most attention.
- Schedule protected time. In your calendar, block
out time to work on projects that require concentration
without interruptions. Then identify what boundaries you
need to have in place so you can keep this time sacred.
Here are some ideas:
- Put a "do not disturb" sign on your door
or cubicle. At Quarasan (an educational-product developer
in Chicago), workers take "focus blocks" of
up to three hours when they absolutely cannot be interrupted.
In any given week, about 25% of the staff use this technique.
Signs hang on cubicles, chairs or doors, that say something
like this: I AM FEELING TOTALLY FOCUSED RIGHT NOW. PLEASE
RESPECT THIS PROCESS.
- Have a conversation with co-workers about needing
uninterrupted time to work on your project. At Pitt
Ohio Express (a trucking company based in Pittsburgh,
PA), claims auditors take turns wearing a special black
baseball cap to signal that they are absorbed in a project.
Employees at Basex (an information-technology research
firm in New York City), use instant messaging. A simple
switch to DO NOT DISTURB status signals that coworkers
should not call, email or stop by to chat.
- Turn off the ringer on your phone and let voice mail
pick up your calls for a while.
- Avoid checking e-mail until you're done with your
project time for the day.
- Have a pen and pad of paper handy to write down the
things that pop into your head that you "gotta
do" so you don't forget and can get back to them
later. Schedule a little time after your protected time
for following up with your "gotta do" list.
- Reduce stress. Incorporate these into your daily
habit: exercise, play, meditation, relaxation or quiet time
to still the mind, healthy diet, enough sleep.
- Separate work from your personal life. If you
are regularly taking work home or working overtime, develop
skills to negotiate with your boss (even if that's you!)
about when, where, and how results are produced. Manage
by results, not by how many hours you are working. Take
our free Work/Life Balance Assessment at http://www.orgcoach.net/_assessment/worklifebalance.html
to determine how you are doing with this.
Visit our resource page (http://www.orgcoach.net/onlineshopping.html#prod
) for more ideas about increasing productivity.
Kathy Paauw, Wouldn't you love to stumble upon a secret
library of ideas to help you de-clutter your life so you can
focus on what's most important? Kathy Paauw offers simple,
yet powerful ideas, on how to manage your time, space, and
thoughts for a more productive and fulfilling life. Visit
http://www.orgcoach.net
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