Translate to: German | French
Spanish | Portugese | Italian
Managing the Time You Haven't
Got
C.J. Hayden, MCC
C.J. Hayden, MCC
Do the words "time management" rub you the wrong
way? For many busy professionals, the real problem seems to be that there isn?t
any time left to manage. You can sometimes get better at managing your time by
prioritizing all your tasks and scheduling carefully. But when you're already
using all the time you have efficiently and there's still not enough, there are
four strategies you can try.
Make more time. The fastest way to make time can be
to buy it. You may think you don't have enough money to pay for help, but think
about what your time is worth. If your salary is equivalent to earning $25 an
hour, and you pay someone else $12 an hour to run errands for you, that's a
bargain. And what value would you set on being able to spend an extra hour
having fun with your partner or kids?
You can buy time by paying to have your house
cleaned, your car taken for servicing, or your laundry done. Pay a professional
to prepare your taxes; have your groceries delivered; make routine purchases by
phone or Internet.
Another way to make time is to double up on
activities. Get a hands-free mike for your cell phone so you can return calls,
place orders, or give instructions to staff while driving or walking. When
traveling by public transit, bring along backlogged mail or documents to review.
Use your waiting time at the prescription counter or dentist to balance your
checkbook or plan your day. Having something to do will also make your wait more
pleasant.
Make less time do. If this were a perfect world, we
could do everything perfectly. Many of us try to do this anyway, and it eats up
an enormous amount of time. A good example is writing business or personal
letters. If it takes you two hours to write the perfect letter, you've lost an
hour you could have used to write to someone else.
Try setting a time limit on routine tasks like
this, and stick to it. You may find that you can write a very satisfactory
letter in half the time. Embrace the idea of allowing what you do to be ?good
enough? instead of insisting it must be flawless.
Give some things away. Is every responsibility
something you need to look after personally, or could someone else handle it? If
you have employees, look hard at what you're hanging on to. Is there anything
else you could delegate, maybe by providing some training first? If there is no
one you can delegate to on the job, be sure you ask your boss for help before
assuming that it?s impossible.
Examine your personal life and volunteer
responsibilities in the same way. Ask your family to take on more household
chores, or find someone else to help with the community event you're organizing.
Asking for help isn't cheating; it's what all successful people do.
Do some things later. Does all of it really have to
be done now? Maybe there's just too much on your plate for anyone to
realistically handle. Choose only a few places to focus your energies right now,
and put some of those other projects on hold. You don't have to give anything
up, just defer it to a later time.
If you find yourself often getting distracted by
new ideas, start an idea file. When an exciting new thought occurs to you, put
it in the file instead of acting on it right away. Look at your file from time
to time for inspiration. Whenever you complete a project you've been working on,
you can choose something new from the file.
The most important thing to learn about creating
more time in your life is how to say no. Just because you are asked to take
something on doesn?t mean you have to accept it. Ultimately, your time belongs
only to you; make sure you are the one who chooses how to use it.
C.J. Hayden is the author of Get Hired Now! and Get
Clients Now! Since 1992, she has helped thousands of professionals make a better
living doing what they love. C.J. is a Master Certified Coach who leads
workshops internationally ? in person, on the phone, and on the web. Find out
more about C.J. and get a free copy of "How to Find a Job in 28 Days or Less" at
http://www.gethirednow.com.
|
| ||||||||||||