Taking charge of your time is easier than you think. If you put any of these ten easy but powerful time management tips into action, you’ll see an improvement in your productivity. And in your peace of mind.
One: Revamp your self-image: see it and believe it
What’s your image of yourself? If it’s of someone who’s terminally frazzled, that image will affect what you experience throughout the day. To take control of your time, your self image needs to be able to encompass a vision of you as being relaxed and calm and getting everything done.
Close your eyes for a moment. Picture yourself at your best. You’re calm and you effortlessly handle whatever challenges come up for you during the day.
You may feel some resistance to this image of yourself. If you do, you need to turn off your self-talk. Self-talk is the internal chatter we all carry on within ourselves. Silently say “Let go” to yourself, or “Relax”.
Keep repeating the words silently to yourself, and as you do, create an image in your mind of yourself as relaxed and calm, and doing all the tasks you need to do during the day. As you visualise, keeping saying your “Relax” mantra, and try to feel the emotions in your body.
The above visualisation technique is simple, but very effective. Use it as often as you like during the day.
Two: Make lists
The most effective time managers are the people who use lists the most. When something is on a list, we no longer need to keep it in our mind. The best way to develop the list-making habit is to carry a notebook and pen, or an electronic organiser. (See below).
You have a choice of how to make your lists. You can have one enormous list, into which you dump all your tasks, or you can make several lists. Try out both methods, and see how they feel to you.
If you keep an all-in-one list, use a legal pad rather than a small pad, and leave a couple of lines between each task, so that you can add notes. The benefits of using a large pad are that you can make additional notes and sketches. (And doodles.)
Three: Carry a notebook and pen, or an electronic organizer
Carry pen and paper, or an electronic organiser, whichever is easier for you. Some people prefer to use a microcassette recorder and if this is you, be sure than you transcribe your notes at the end of the day, or at the end of each week.
Using a PDA like a Palm Pilot is effective, because you can make notes wherever you happen to be. This means that you can get a head start on some of your work. You can nut out the basics of a proposal to a new client over lunch; you can even do it while the meeting is still going on.
Four: Take time out for yourself every day
The time you take for yourself should be spent on doing something
solely for yourself. You can listen to music, play a sport, go for a walk, or lie down and take a nap.
This is your time to indulge yourself. Many women interpret the instruction to take time for themselves as a hint that they should spend that time exercising at the gym, or doing something else “worthwhile”.
Nonsense. Spend it eating chocolate if you want. Life’s short, so enjoy.
Five: Give the day a mental run-through before you get out of bed in the morning
When you wake up in the morning, think about the day ahead.
Imagine everything going smoothly and well. Know that if anything
unforeseen comes up, you will handle it. A mental rehearsal sets your attitude for the day. See yourself getting compliments and kudos, so you can start the day with a smile.
Six: Before you start your day, get excited
Enthusiasm is infectious, and so is gloom. Tell yourself you’re excited about the day ahead. This might be the day you get a major new client. Anything could happen. Be determined that something good will happen to you today and nine times out of ten, it will.
Seven: At the end of the day, review and plan for the next day
Take five minutes to go over what you’ve accomplished. Take another five minutes to rough out a plan for tomorrow.
Eight: Learn to say No
Most of us hate rejecting others. However, you’re not doing anyone a favour if you agree to do something, and then do it resentfully. Sometimes we even get in the habit of agreeing to tasks, and then make excuses. If you know you won’t have the time to do a task, don’t take the task on.
Nine: Get a routine
Discipline has gone out of fashion. However, the secret to productivity is to have a routine, and to keep to it. If you know that Thursday morning is given over to doing an update on your Web site, you can block out that time each week.
Ten: Don’t aim for perfection: just show up
80% of any job is just showing up. In other words, just do the job, whatever it is. Unless you’re doing surgery, close enough is good enough.
Copyright 2002 by Angela Booth
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