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Marking time or making time?

Written by: Kool Results

Article Overview: Do you want to have 25 hours in the day? Could you use an extra day in the week? Today we are all time poor. We are so busy that we could not contemplate taking an hour “off” to organise our thoughts. But creating head space is an essential tool to a more productive day or week.

Marking time or making time?

Do you want to have 25 hours in the day? Could you use an extra day in the week?

Today we are all time poor. We are so busy that we could not contemplate taking an hour “off” to organise our thoughts. But creating head space is an essential tool to a more productive day or week.

Robyn felt as if her work was spinning out of control. We talked about ways to address this. For three mornings a week she arrives at her desk one hour earlier than necessary. She sorts out her email inbox and clears her desk. Tasks for the day are prioritised. She checks telephone messages. By the time the rest of the staff arrives, she is focused on which direction she will travel in that day.

Most of my clients struggle with time management. We sit down and develop strategies to create a space for thinking time. By “catching up” with their lives they set a clear course and are less likely to deviate from this path.

Look at your desk right now. Do you have files stacked up on it? Is your in-tray overflowing? Do you feel as if you are going around in circles? To stay in control you should tidy up right now.

Develop effective habits and processes and you will become a lot more productive. Get all your hard copy files arranged alphabetically in a filing cabinet. Make sure the electronic files on your computer have the same names as the hard copies for ease of cross referral. Go through your inbox of emails regularly, and either delete them, or file them appropriately. By organising yourself you will feel less stressed, and you will be able to find things faster!

As you de-clutter, your motivation will improve and so will your performance. You will be able to identify those projects which are a high priority, and you will evaluate the consequence of delaying other jobs. Often, there will be three or four tasks which you judge will take less than five minutes to complete. Do them straight away. You will learn to complete these smaller ones routinely, leaving more time for the bigger assignments.

You can transfer these lessons to your personal life. I have a friend who admits she is a poor time manager. Consequently, her house is chaotic, the children are always late for school, and everyone ends up being stressed. You can change your habits. Setting some quality time to come together and discuss what is important to you as a family is a good start.

By allowing yourself one precious hour for planning you will multiply your available time ten-fold!

By Julianne Kuhlmann
Personal & Leadership Coach
Kool Results
"Putting You First"
Personal & Business Coaching, Leadership Development, Individual Training Programs,Work/life balance, Mentoring & Induction, Organisational performance

Email: info@koolresults.com.au Web: www.koolresults.com.au

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Article Tags: time management



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Re: What Do you Prefer More - Time or Money - [quote="Alan Mater":20qamrc0] Hi Tanny, In my opinion time is more valuable than money. Can you have one without the other?[/quote:20qamrc0] Alan, I thought about it, and I came to the conclusion there are people who have money, but don't have time. They are workaholics, they love working, they love making tons of money, they may have time, but they are using it for more work and money making. If you ask them, they will say, they don't have time. They don't have time for family, they don't have time for friends, and parties (unless it is work related), they don't take time for themselves. I have a good friend she is working only to have a good time. She is usually finding a job, working 6 months, going on a trip, coming back, working 6 months and traveling again, etc. But as good as it sounds, she is 34 years old, and still living with her parents, she doesn't own a car, and the only thing she need her money for is her mobile phone. Traveling every 6 months looks good, but I rather pay my mortgage.
Re: Time-Management Success Story! - Good job! I REALLY need to get some time management in my life. There's no doubt I could get 10 times the amount of work done each day that I currently do, but I am horrible at making use of my time.
Re: What Do you Prefer More - Time or Money - [quote="TannyL":l9yb1lqm][quote="Alan Mater":l9yb1lqm] Hi Tanny, In my opinion time is more valuable than money. Can you have one without the other?[/quote:l9yb1lqm] Alan, I thought about it, and I came to the conclusion there are people who have money, but don't have time. They are workaholics, they love working, they love making tons of money, they may have time, but they are using it for more work and money making. If you ask them, they will say, they don't have time. They don't have time for family, they don't have time for friends, and parties (unless it is work related), they don't take time for themselves. I have a good friend she is working only to have a good time. She is usually finding a job, working 6 months, going on a trip, coming back, working 6 months and traveling again, etc. But as good as it sounds, she is 34 years old, and still living with her parents, she doesn't own a car, and the only thing she need her money for is her mobile phone. Traveling every 6 months looks good, but I rather pay my mortgage.[/quote:l9yb1lqm] I wouldn't want to be either of those scenarios. As much as we need money and depend on it, I could never work so much that I never have time for anything else, especially family. That's just sad if you ask me. Of course, the other scenario is sad as well. Traveling 6 months out of the year sounds quite enjoyable but not when you're still living at home with no car. In that case I'd rather work all year long and have a month's vacation time to spend for traveling.
Re: Recently quit my job, new business owner - I agree with you that you can't waste your time sitting around trying to figure out where to start, however it is really important to choose the right niche, however I think that some people never get past this step. One problem people have with running their own business is the constant decision making process. You are always forced to make decisions when you really don't have enough info to know you are making the right call.
Recently quit my job, new business owner - Hello everyone- I went to college for the last 4 years down at Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo. I got a job working for a developer right out the door starting at $65k/year + benefits, etc. I thought it was great. While in college, I started an online business. It took a few years, but eventually started producing a decent amount of cash-flow. I wanted to run my online business full-time instead of working, but it wasn't making enough money. I started my job on Sep 2. My goal was to continue growing my online business at nights and weekends until I was making more through my business than I was at work. After a few weeks, I realized that it just wasn't going to happen. I was so burnt out from work all day, I could barely get any work done on my own business. During the weekends, I would want to do something fun because I was so bored all week at work. After a few weeks, I realized that it was one or the other. I noticed that there was a ton more potential (more than some silly 5% raise and occasional promotion) in my own business than there was in my job. I decided to quit my job and go full time on my business. I knew this was risky, but I also knew I should be accepting the risk while I am still young. It has been about 6.5 weeks and I am really happy I made the decision. My business has been growing very rapidly and I am much happier in general now. Still not making that 65k/year yet, but I have a feeling I will be in no time!


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