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Reclaim Your Workweek Sanity

Guest post by: Ellen Goldman

Article Overview: Ever felt like you simply do not have enough time in your day/week/month/year to get everything done? Are you forgetting appointments, running late, or just plain tired all the time? Here's what you can do to reclaim your schedule and sanity!

Reclaim Your Workweek Sanity

When I woke this morning, I realized I had forgotten to take care of an important business project I promised to complete last week. I was flabbergasted! This is not like me. My tasks are well planned out, scheduled, and usually done on time.

My second thought was this monthly article is also a few days behind schedule. How ironic to be writing tips to reclaim your workweek sanity, when clearly, mine has been a bit upside down lately.

I began to analyze how easily my calm and organized weeks had slipped away from me the past month. True, my travel schedule was quite busy, I did get sick which left me low in energy for several days, and multiple snowstorms forced me to rearrange and reschedule appointments.

But I’ve gotten through hectic times before. So, what was different about the last few weeks as compared to others when life had thrown me a curve ball? I sat down and looked at my list of the tips below, which were already written and ready to go. And there it was. Tip #1-Planning. I hadn’t done my weekly planning the way I usually do. As a matter of fact, days into the new month, I hadn’t even completed my monthly planning calendar.

Now you know even I, the Wellness Coach, have to work at reclaiming my workweek sanity from time to time. The minute I’ve finished writing and posting this article, I will be spending time planning my month and weekly tasks. And when that’s done, I’m taking an exercise break. I’m calmer and happier just thinking about it!

Tips to Reclaim Your Workweek Sanity

1. Failure to plan is planning to fail. Set aside a specific time over the weekend or on Monday mornings to plan for the upcoming week. List all of the professional and personal goals you want to accomplish by the end of the week.
2. Prioritize the tasks and eliminate any that are not essential. Scrutinize the items on your list to make sure they are aligned with your core values - health, family, financial security, meaning and purpose. Make sure you are doing the things you really want to do and are important to you, not those you think you should be doing.
3. Put self-care tasks on your calendar first. Schedule in the time for exercise, meals, and “me time”. If you are not taking exceptional care of yourself, how can you possibly give your best to your loved ones or your business? If you fall apart, what happens then?
4. Work on the most challenging, complicated and highest payback tasks first. We often waste time working on the small, easy tasks that we can quickly cross off our “to do” list first, which makes us feel like we’ve accomplished something. Figure out what’s causing your procrastination. If the project is so large it feels overwhelming, break it down into smaller tasks. If you’re not really sure how to do something, ask for help. Putting off important things saps our energy as we worry about when we will finally get it done.
5. Stop multi-tasking. Stay fully engaged with whatever you are doing, when you’ve set the time aside to do it. Shut down distractions such as email alert buzzers. Let the machine take your calls. Draw strict boundaries around work time and personal time, and don’t allow those to be crossed.
6. Aim for 7-8 hours of sleep every night. You may think you are accomplishing more by staying up late and squeezing in a few more tasks. Lack of sleep leads to a decrease in focus and efficiency, more mistakes, a decline in your immune system, weight gain, and an increase in irritability. Lack of sleep will end up costing you time and happiness, rather than gaining anything.
7. Schedule in break time and have some fun. No matter how busy your week is, taking a break from the work and doing something fun will re-energize you and be well worth it. When you return to your work and responsibilities, you will be more focused and efficient, and a lot happier.

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Article Tags: break time, organizing, personal time, planning, work time, workweek sanity



Related Forum Posts
Re: What I'm reading this weekend - Oct 8, 2010 - these are great! In particular, I liked "you’re already perfect" and "Smashing through the Black Wall of Fear." That's exciting that there is a new 4-hour book out. I really enjoyed "The 4 hour Workweek."
Re: Half of 2011 is gone - [quote="ideasuniversity":rw2cz9qd]We can outsource whatever we cannot do our selves or what we procrastinate about to other people to do for us so we can reach our goals. We can even surpass our goals if we do this[/quote:rw2cz9qd] Hi Yinka, You are right! Outsourcing is the BIG message of Tim Ferriss in his book, The 4 Hour Workweek that some of the moderators have been reading and discussing. So far, I have outsourced two jobs and am very happy to have done so. I like your idea about outsourcing the jobs we procrastinate over. That would be a great way to get our so-called "when-I-get-around-to-it" projects up and running. Cheers. David
Re: Startup blogs - Hi Jason, This is a good thread to revive. In his book,The 4-Hour Workweek, Tim Ferris divides the meat into four key sections that spell DEAL! 1. D = Definition 2. E = Elimination 3. A = Automation 4. L = Liberation I think the point about an "exceptional blog" is certainly valid. My guess is that Tim Ferris is referring to bland, boring blogs that managers are paying junior employees to "maintain". Complete waste of resources. But, for us work-at-home-onliners getting started with a blog is one of the best things we can do, and if it fails to make us any money, it's only because it is not exceptional enough, or because the products it promotes are not what people are looking for. DH


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