The pace and intensity of our lives, both at work and at home, leave several of us feeling like a person riding a frantically galloping horse. Our day-to-day incessant busyness — too much to do and not enough time;the pressure to produce and check off items on our to-do list by each day’s end — seems to decide the direction and quality of our existence for us. We keep on asking the same question our whole lives: "I don't have time to develop myself, what should I do?".
However, if we approach our days in another way, we can consciouslychange this out-of-control pattern. It only requires the courage to do less. This may sound simple, but doing less can actually be very difficult. Too often, we mistakenly believe that doing less makes us lazy and results in a lack of productivity. Rather than, doing less helps us enjoy what we do achieve. We learn to do less of what is extraneous, and engage in fewer self-defeating behaviors, so we create a rich life that we truly feel great about.
Every life has awesome meaning, but the fog of constant activity and plain bad habits can often obscure the meaning of our own. Acknowledge and change these, and we can again enjoy the ways we contribute to the workplace, enjoy the sweetness of our lives, and share openly and generously with the ones we love. Less busyness leads to appreciating the sacredness of life. Doing less leads to more love, more effectiveness and internal calmness, and a greater ability to accomplish more of what matters most to us. Today we'll learn a new approach, the approach is equally useful for our personal life and our work life.
Table of Contents
PRIORITIZING
Setting priorities is a matter of deciding what is very important. In this case, "important" means significant to you. What activities and roles give your life meaning? These are the components of your life where you would like to succeed the most. Not everything in life can be a priority. Many important things will compete for attention over your lifetime, but there are not enough hours in anybody's lifetime to give attention to everything that could potentially be a priority
Determining your basic priorities is a key exercise in moving toward more efficient use of your time. Your basic priorities provide a means for making time choices, helping you decide where it is important to invest yourself and where you are able to let go.
On a daily basis, you also have to learn to set task priorities. Prioritizing tasks includes two steps:
- Recognizing what needs to be done
- Deciding on the order in which to do the tasks
TIPS TO HELP YOU PRIORITIZE
Here are some tips to help you prioritize. It is important to use these tips on a regular basis to help remain focused. Each of these techniques can help you in getting closer to your goal of becoming more effective with your time.
Each of these techniques can help you in getting closer to your goal of becoming more effective with your time:
- Assume ownership of your time: Most individuals would be surprised if somebody reached in their wallet without asking and helped themselves to the money found there. But how different is that from letting other people help themselves to your time? Take possession of your own time and do not allow other people to make commitments of your time without your permission. It is not selfish to keep other people from consuming your time. Give your time freely when you want but do not make the mistake of undervaluing this resource, or feeling guilty when you do not allow other people to waste it. Think of a time lately when somebody wasted your time. How could you have dealt with the situation better.
- Prioritize: Continually check yourself to see that you're working on the most signifigant things. Helping your child talk through a problem, he/she is having or discussing the day's events with a spouse or friend may be more significant than getting the dishes done or a load of laundry completed. Do not think of priorities only as tasks that need doing. As you remind yourself to direct yourself to the most important tasks first, you will find yourself letting go of tasks that really did not need to be done in the first place.
- Learn to say "no": It is not that saying the word is so difficult. It's more the feeling of guilt that many women experience as soon as they use the word. Try centering on the significant things that will be done because you used that two-letter word to decline something which was not a part of your priorities. Considering your past week, what are some things you should have said "no" to?
- Protect your blocks: Think of your day as numerous large blocks of time with the blocks divided by natural interruptions. Where you have control, keep your blocks whole, scheduling appointments and meetings, running errands at the beginning or end of a block instead of in the middle. Having an appointment in the middle of a block leaves little time at either end to tackle a major piece of work. Keeping your blocks of time as big as possible gives you a feeling of having more time that is available.
- Delegate: There is that "D" word. Delegating means assigning the responsibility for a task to somebody else. That signifies you no longer have to do the task, nor do you have to remind somebody else to do it. Being able to delegate some tasks is a way of freeing up some of your time for the jobs that only you are able to do. As somebody else learns to do a job, do not be tempted to take over if they are not doing it quite right. You have to learn that "done" may be "good enough."
- Think in terms of buying time:
There's an intimate relationship between time and money, where one can often be substituted for the other. The more hectic your schedule, the more reasonable it is to buy time by selecting goods and services that save you from investing time. Paying somebody to mow your yard or transport your kids to baseball practice are examples of purchasing time. What are some of the additional ways you are able to or do buy some time?
- Learn to work with your biological clock: People have a peak time of day when their energy is at its highest and concentration at its best. Determine which time of day is your peak performance time and plan your work accordingly. Keep meetings and routine tasks for other parts of the day when you have the choice. What part of the day is best for you to do a task that takes real concentration?
- Break down big jobs into manageable pieces: One of the sources of procrastination is that some tasks can seem too overwhelming to even begin. Learn to break down a large task into manageable pieces and then begin with a piece you know you can handle. The most challenging step on major undertakings is often the first one. Besides, you will have a greater sense of satisfaction as you complete each individual portion of the task and this can keep you motivated to the end. Think of a major task you have ahead of you. How could you break it down into manageable pieces?
- Work on overcoming procrastination: Once you recognize that you are procrastinating, the next step is to begin overcoming this time-wasting habit. In addition, procrastination is a habit, a habitual way of dealing with tasks you find distasteful or that make you fearful of failure. When you see that you are procrastinating, make an appointment with yourself to take the first step toward completing the task. Determine exactly what that first step will be and then set a specific time in the near future to begin the work.
- Reward yourself: Celebrate when a major task is completed or a major challenge is met. One of the problems with a hectic life is that you can be so busy that you fail to notice the completion of a major piece of work. You just move on to the next job without celebrating your previous success. This failure leads to focusing on what is still left undone instead of enjoying what has already been accomplished. Set up a reward system for yourself that serves as both a motivator to get certain difficult tasks done and an acknowledgment that you are making effective use of your time. Be it a bubble bath, two chapters in your new book, or a phone call to a friend, acknowledge your accomplishment by rewarding yourself.
WORK LESS ACHIEVE MORE
If you are feeling overworked, overwhelmed or just plain over it, the following time-management tips can help you maximize your productivity so you are able to accomplish more.
- Separate Work from Home: Between responding to personal emails, instant messaging and fielding cell phone calls from your kids, it can get very hard to stay focused on the tasks. Therefore, when you're in the office try to concentrate on you work as much as possible. Then when you're at home, you can really deal with your issues there without distraction. You'll wind up having better quality time both places. Separating your work duties from home-related ones will allow you to keep your mind on work when you're there and, in turn, procrastinate less, feel less overwhelmed and accomplish more.
- Establish boundaries and stick with them: While it is always great to try to make everybody happy all the time, it is just not possible in a workplace ruled by the irrefutable laws of time and space. Learn when to say no. There are times when it's right to go beyond the call of duty on the job. For Instance, when it is a real emergency, then I do not mind staying late or going out on a limb. However, that's different from just letting people dump their lastminute work on your desk so they can make it home early. While you need to do your work, you also need to take care of yourself and know your job's boundaries.
- Get Organized: Time spent hunting for files or lost phone numbers could be used for making progress on your to-do list. Good organizational structures are essential in any time-management plan. Spend a few moments at the end of everyday answering voicemails, and emails. It always helps to be organized and not let messages pile up. It will always save you time. Sticky notes posted on your keyboard can help you remember the most important task that need to be done throughout the day. Everyone has their own system for being organized. Try these tips. They may just add a couple of minutes to your day along with you routine you already practice.
CONCLUSION
Generally, when we make progress in life it is because life presses on us to move forward. Seldom is it because of our own conscious choice and initiative. Over the long course of our lives, such forced advancement occurs in unpredictable ways, sometimes through happy, but often through unhappy experiences. Surely, this is not the most effective way to progress in life. We can have balance and success in life. In addition, we can get our priorities in line and keep them there. What is stopping you fromgrabbing those extra minutes and hours in your day? The only answer is, you! So get out of your way and start accomplishing more by doing less!