Managing Time Before It Manages You

Oh Time, our elusive friend or staunch enemy, that we all seem to chase every day, week, month, year. It is so hard to believe something can be so giving and yet so cruel at the same time. I figured out a long time ago that how I manage this benevolent beast is key to determining the success I will have in any given day. I work hard to keep it in line and working for me instead of against me, and while I do sometimes throw in the towel, the next day I start all over until I conquer what needs to be done.

I am often asked how I manage all the things I do or how I am involved in so many extra activities, so I thought I would share a few of my time management tips and tricks to hopefully help some others who may be struggling to manage it all.

1. Be very purposeful in what you spend your time on!

   • If you take nothing else away from this I hope you listen to this one. I place a lot of value on my time. Money can be made, time cannot. I am lucky to have a career I enjoy so it does help that my time goes there, but even if I didn’t, obviously I must make a living, so that is a given portion of my time. Outside of work though, I am very careful about what I agree to do and not do with my time.
   • When I was younger, I felt obligated to say yes to every request to volunteer with every charity organization, attend acquaintances’ Tupperware parties, and help at every event at my kid’s school. I learned as I grew wiser that I could say no. I do a lot for charity organizations I care a lot about. I chose those I feel need my time and I can give money to those I still feel strongly about but have plenty of other volunteers.
   • I realized acquaintances nor true friends would really get their feelings hurt because I was busy, most would understand if I had to say no. I make sure to make the time for important events or the time to be with good friends, because this is what life is really all about. I started making hand-made gifts for holidays and birthdays because most people that know me know how much value I put on my time, and I want to show those that I love, that they are always worth my time. I also realized there were plenty of parents at the schools, unfortunately, many who do not pull their weight, but it is not my duty nor can I make up for them, I then chose to volunteer only for those committees or events that were most important to my kids or could make the biggest impact to my children’s education. After I made these changes the world didn’t stop and I had more time left at the end of the week. Be purposeful as you will never get that time back.

2. Establish a routine that works for you for that day.

   • Most people have routines for their everyday life so this is an easy one. We all get up around the same time, go through the same steps to get ready and head out for our day that usually follows the same cadence and we start it all over the next. If you have a lot on your plate this routine usually takes some juggling, but there is one thing I learned that really helps in managing my time appropriately, you will notice I said a routine that works for YOU that day. Not the kids, not your husband, not the 5-other people you feel obligated to do something for or with. You that day. It is ok to change the routine up to get what you need done.
   • I learned to be more flexible when it came to my routine. When I did I was able to fit in more things I didn’t think I had time to do. For example, I always worked out at night. This was my preferred gym time and what I thought I did best at and I had to work out for my sanity, but it was killing my schedule. I ended up having to skip a lot which then impacted my mood and health. I changed my routine and made myself a morning workout person and that was the best thing I could have ever done. Now, though with my busy schedule there are some days I get a good 1 ½ hours at the gym and others I get 30 minutes because of conference calls, but I adjust for the day.
   • A good timesaver in your routine could be during the kid’s events and practices. Establish a routine for the stuff you need to do around or during these practices – there is no law that says you must sit and watch them in every single practice. To buy yourself even more time set up a car pool with some of the other parents where you all taking turns taking them back and forth to practice freeing you for a week or two each month.
   • I establish a routine that generally outlines my gym time, work hours, volunteer hours, and of course family time and I remain flexible for the situation and day. I even have “me time” built in – after all I spend every Saturday morning writing, usually starting before anyone else in the house is up. Be careful not to be in-flexible in your routine as you will miss opportunities to use your time more wisely on certain days and allow for your routine to be switched up as needed for yourself to be more efficient.

3. Get organized.

   • Organization is the key to keeping many balls in the air at the same time. I do know this does not come naturally to every one so I am not going to give a long lecture on matrixes, charts, labels, and spreadsheets. This one can become very simple. Use your calendar in your smart phone and to-do lists. With all the technology in the world, organization is easier today than ever. Though funny enough my favorite organizational tool is simply pen and paper.
   • I have a problem when it comes to my never-ending list of tasks…they do not stop circling my brain until I write them down. I can’t type them, for some reason my brain must see them written down on a piece of paper for it to relax and let me move on. So, I simply have to-do lists. I write it down and once it’s done it gets crossed off. I have separate lists for the different activities in my life – work, charity, school, household – and I always have them with me. I also make sure any meetings or due dates go in the calendar on my smart phone – this I am not sure how we ever managed without. If didn’t have that lovely little reminder pop-up I am not sure I would ever remember where I would need to be at a given time.
   • The better I am with my organization the more I can accomplish in-a-given-day. If it is something I must do, I write it on my to-do list. I make it a competition with myself sometimes – to see how many I can cross off in a certain amount of time. I even celebrate a little when a page is completed and I can move on to the next (yes most of the time I have multiple pages going). Find the form of organization that works for you, but the better you are at it the more you will be able to accomplish in less time.

4. Have a plan.

   • Now wait, don’t tune me out. I am not talking full project plans and tasks. Though the 20+ years of project manager in me, much to my husband’s dismay, does have a habit of taking my planning of household projects over that planning cliff. For time managements sake, I am simply talking about planning your day. I usually take a few minutes while I am getting ready in the morning to think through everything I want or need to accomplish for the day. I work through in my mind what is the most efficient approach for my routine of the day.
   • Once I see my to-do list and see how things go I can adjust as necessary, but I set out with some type of game plan. I often take what I call the “Dave Ramsey” approach. You know the financial genius who teaches you how to get out of debt – well his method simply starts with stopping the money from flowing out and saving, and then get your lowest owed debt paid first no matter the interest, so your list dwindles faster and the impact is bigger to your psyche. When it comes to my plan for the day I take the same approach – In my world the “stop the follow out/save”, are the priorities of the day – escalations, HR issues, due dates…ect., and then I focus on the remaining to-do list, starting with those that are easiest/quickest to do no matter how much interest I have in them and then moving on to those that take longer to do.
   • I have learned through the years taking this approach to my plan for the day allows me to get more done off my to-do list than any other method I have ever tried. It works for me and maybe it will work for you, but I do know having some type of plan of attack for your day will help you get more done and make your day feel less hectic even on the craziest of days.

5. Learn the trick to multitasking or overlapping

   • So, there is a lot of debate over whether we can really multitask or not, and I while I agree there are many things we cannot do at the exact same time, there are many time saving overlaps that can happen to help you knock out your list. If I couldn’t do things at the same time there would be a lot more items left on my to-do list at the end of the day. I try and fit in as many things as I can when I feel like it so when I don’t I can just relax and not worry about it.
   • Some of my favorite time overlapping tips involve my workouts. When I work from home I work on my treadmill. I walk the entire day I work logging lots of steps while lowering my stress and helping me focus. I use the time running to work through problems or think through presentations I need to do, or often outline a new blog. During my commute, I use the time, taking advantage of my hands-free accessories of course, to make phone calls I don’t have time for during work. These can be to the bank or other household duties, follow ups on my charity fundraising, reminders to volunteers, finish up some work calls I didn’t have time for, or to catch up with family or friends. I line up the phone numbers in a note before getting in the car if they are not already in my programming so that I just select them while driving and taking the hands-free from there. I can also dictate emails this way in a note pad. I do not send them, but I can get the meat written out using speech to text and when I get home proof and send. This is part of my planning for the day.
   • With my job, I have many conference calls and meetings a day. Many I must pay attention to, some I need to just be aware of some information being discussed or there in case they need me. I use the time on the latter to catch up email, work on documents, or other to-do list items while listening for my name or my piece in the agenda. I will often set the expectation with the call facilitator that I am waiting for my piece so to call my name when ready.
   • I have attended calls while at the gym or kid’s soccer games, set at practices and worked on presentations, worked on documents while getting a pedicure, and answered emails while waiting on doctor appointments. Whether you call it multitasking or overlapping don’t forget to take advantage of the opportunities to accomplish multiple things on your list at one time.

6. A little adds up to a lot – use the small interludes in the day.

   • This one really helped me with my time management through the years. At one point, I believed I had to finish everything I started that day or I didn’t start it. This would cause my to-do list to keep growing due to the many things that interrupt the list on a daily basis. This made it very difficult for me to get to the harder or more time consuming tasks on my list. Or would leave me working every single weekend to make up for what I didn’t get done during the week.
   • I then realized if I started these things, for example emails or documents, that I could find small interludes through-out the day to add to them as I could, but still allow me to move forward with my overall plan. As an example, if a conference call or meeting ended 10 minutes early or in the last 20 minutes of a call the subject turned to something I didn’t need to listen to, and I was done with the easier items on my list, I could start the longer time intensive item. I start them and leave them up all day. Any time I find I work on it I do. If I don’t get it done, I simply make it part of my plan to open it and leave it ready for the next day. Work a little at a time until it is done.
   • I also use these little interludes to reach out and connect. I text my husband and children to let them know I am thinking about them. I may take a minute to make plans with a friend or a date night with my husband. I check in on my employees to ensure I am not missing something in my hasty busy schedule – this may be a quick instant message or call but I try and make it happen. Sometimes I use this time to take a brief walk.
   • Using these small interludes at work effectively freed up more of my nights and weekends for quality family time, volunteer time, or simply for whatever I wanted to do.I learned not to take these little interludes for granted and to use them to my advantage in managing all that I needed or wanted to get done in the day. If age and experience has taught me nothing else, it has taught me the value of a minute and what can be accomplished in that minute if you put your mind to it.

7. Don’t be afraid to delegate.

   • Yes, allowing someone else to do it is a hard concept for me to. Especially, when my guilt friend starts drumming that drum in my head that it is my responsibility. Well, I will say every single leadership training, how to be a success author, and highly accomplished person I have ever seen, read, or met had this one theme in common. You can’t manage your time if you insist on doing it all yourself. I still struggle with this one, but I am much better today than I was even 5 years ago, and night and day from where I was 10 years ago.
   • In order to manage it all, I have learned I must ask for and accept help. From my husband, my family, my friends, my co-workers, and other parents…wherever it needs to come from for whatever needs to happen. Some things I had to learn is, it didn’t make me a failure to ask another mom to pick up my kid from school, husbands can pay bills and talk to doctors (he was always willing I just didn’t want to let go of that task I felt I needed to own), and just because it isn’t my way doesn’t mean it isn’t right. I wasn’t a horrible mother because I didn’t have time to bake and delegated out school party snacks to the Keebler elves.
   • At work, it was even more difficult for me through the years, but I realized a while back I only begin to fail if I don’t delegate. I discussed in last week’s blog that impatient perfectionist in me wanted it all done my way right away – well I learned life’s not Burger King, and there are just not enough hours in the day to do it all yourself. Delegation becomes an important aspect in managing time successfully.

8. Always remember the definition of insanity.

   • A common time trap is found in trying to make something work that doesn’t. I have been there. Working on something – whether it is something simple like a format in a presentation or a complex problem, but getting trapped in trying over and over to make the same solution work. The time dwindling away while you go nowhere on the treadmill of insanity. Doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. Sometimes we get stuck on this merry-go-round with more complicated matters of life like something in our relationships, dealing with a child’s behavior, or while trying to further our careers.
   • Whether it is a simple task or a complex life problem, I have learned the hard way to remember that if it didn’t work the first time it will most likely not work the 10^th time. I may give it a couple of tries, but I learned to adjust and try new things, do better research, change my approach, revamp the solution overall, change my tone, or maybe just my outlook on the matter. Whatever needs to happen I try, but mostly importantly, I learned to recognize something HAD to change if it doesn’t work or I would watch minutes, days, hours, weeks…slip away while running the asylum the exact same way each go around.
   • Be sure to not get stuck in this trap. Always remember the definition of insanity. If something isn’t working, no matter how small or large, change something. There is no bigger time thief than the belief you will get different results from the same actions.

9. Smarter not harder.

   • This is one that my father drilled into our heads the whole time we were growing up. Work smarter not harder. Anytime I am performing a task of any kind, if I am finding it exceptionally difficult I ask myself is this the most efficient way to do this. If it isn’t I stop and go the different route. It is important to recognize the easiest path and how to get there. I do know sometimes that is easier said than done, but just asking yourself the question will often help lead you down the right path.

10. Let it go.

    • Finally, one of the best time management tricks I have learned through the years is the art of letting it go. Long before Elsa belted it out in her ice castle, I struggled with how to do this as I am sure many of you struggle with it. It is easy to say we will let go our failures or what we didn’t get done or things we should spend our time on, but difficult to follow through with actually releasing it from our thoughts and actions. But I again remind myself time cannot be replaced. You get one shot at it. I learned it is ok if I decide to blow off a task on my to-do list for some extra cuddle time with my husband, a movie with my kids, or a nice long run to clear my head.
    • I realized I had to let it go when a plan didn’t work out as I expected or the time I did put into something or someone didn’t turn into what I wanted or needed. While that time was gone, spending too much time ahead on the regrets, guilt, or sadness only compounded the issue. While I do not have this art-form mastered it is something I continuously get better at and something I believe has made me a much better time manager. I focus on what needs to be done, what I want to do, and what time I have left to do it all.

Managing it all is a tricky, complex, exciting life and there is never a perfect answer for any one person. I find it amusing that when talking to new people about my schedule that I am often asked if I am a stay at home mom, because a lot of people do not understand how I can do all the extra stuff I do and still work full time. Or my favorite question…do you ever sleep. It is simply because I learned how to manage it (you notice I didn’t say master it). My tips and tricks work for me for the most part and allow me to work long hours in the career I love, volunteer for charities I adore, play sports, attend events and functions as needed, and spend quality time with my family and friends.

I do not do them perfectly. I most certainly miss things, forget things, and quite honestly simply fail at some things, but for the most part all the important stuff gets done and I know I spend my time well. I am able to do it because of the things I have learned through the years and I am sure I will continue to learn and hopefully improve on as I grow wiser. My hope is that sharing my time tricks may help a few others out their calm some of your hectic lives, give you back some of that precious sweet time for the good stuff, and maybe help you manage it all a little easier moving forward.