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“I don’t have enough time to...
…finish my work,
…get in shape,
…start a hobby,
…spend with my family.”
Everybody has only 24 hours a day, whether they are kings or paupers!! While we all have the same amount of the time in the day, why is it that some people seem to accomplish a ton more than you? From the president to the postman, people all have the same time frame but accomplish loads more than in a single day that you seem to accomplish in a week.
Why is this? Why do some struggle and drown in their obligations, while others make the impossible seem effortless? Why are some people poor at time management time-poor while others are time-rich? Which are you?
It is a case of how you choose to spend your time. Consider the following and see if your days too cannot be loaded with accomplishments!
1. You Don’t Say No
One of the biggest mistakes people make is to take on burdens that do not belong to them. If and when you don’t say no, you find yourself doing other people’s work, neglecting your own. This happens both in the workplace and in day-to-day life. Ever find yourself doing someone else’s job simply because you couldn’t say no? If you do, don’t let it happen again.
2. Know Your Obligations
If you don’t know how full your bucket is, you cannot tell if and when your bucket is going to overflow. It is very easy to over commit your time if you not aware of all your obligations; of what you already have taken on. You need to make a commitment list. List out and budget all your commitments from work, life and community. Only then can you know how your remaining time balance.
3. Life Friction
Life friction is self-inflicted time management. On other words, you create your own crises by your own actions and disorganization. Life friction means extra re-work increased stress and wasted time. Ever get back from running errands and realize you have to go back out because you forgot something? Or that you have to go to the same place to deliver another parcel which you could have done at the first time?
4. You Lolly-gag
I find it hilarious that the very same people who lament they don’t have enough time are the very same people that lolly-gag and waste it. Ever see that person who arrives late to work and then spends the next hour and 15 minutes getting ready to start working? You don’t need to spend every second of the day under a stopwatch, but be aware of when you waste time whether it is gossiping, surfing the internet or recapping the weekend for the third time.
5. Put your Priorities First
Ever finish a busy workday only to think to yourself that you didn’t get anything important done? That is because you hadn’t got your priorities right. It won’t matter how fast you work, you may never get to what is important in time. You have to be able to say, “I am not going to do this, because something else is more important”.
6. Do Everything Yourself
We all have the same number of seconds in the day. At a certain point, the only way to get the essentials done is no have someone help you. But, some people have trouble letting others do work because they feel that no one else can do the job as well as they can. It may be true but in certain situations you have to face reality and let others in on it so that the job can be completed on time.
This can be particularly troublesome if a leader will not let their team do their duties and instead tries to take on everything single handed.
7. Finish Things
When you don’t finish a task given to you, you are only creating more work for yourself. Tasks not done or completed actually create more work for you. They take more time to pick back up when you return to them. They create unnecessary complications for yourself as well for others, when you leave them for the last minute.
Leave an expense report undone for a long period of time and see what happens. It ends up taking 5X’s as long to complete compared to if you had done it right away. So always ensure you don’t keep loose ends hanging around. Finish what has been given to you…ON TIME.
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