Time Management

I recently attended yet another time-management seminar (I have attended several). I am happy to say that I am already doing practically everything the advisor presented including: keeping my work area organized, use a planner to keep prioritized weekly and daily tasks, and surrounding myself with reminders of my priorities. I can definitely say that I lead a much more productive, and less stressful life because of it.

The best time management seminar that I have ever attended and fully bought into enough to implement in my life is the Steven Covey’s “7 Habit’s for Highly Effective People.” When I first heard this seminar I thought: what marketing genius! They are making money by selling common sense. Of course I knew it was important to prioritize and write things down, but I never did. One thing that caught my attention was that if I mark off an appointment or reminder in a planner, I don’t have to remember it. So each morning, I spend 10 minutes with my planner. I write down the things that I need to do that day and any for the future days that I can think of, and check off the things that I accomplished yesterday, fowarding any left over tasks to today or future days if today is too busy. Then I prioritize the list. I really do have it down to 10 minutes a day, 15 minutes on Mondays (for my weekly list) and 10 extra minutes on the 1st of every month when I write down all of my meetings.

As things come up, I add them to my planner on the appropriate days that I need to remember them then I promptly forget about it. No worries, when I need to think about it, it will be in my planner on the right day. I put everything in there. Shopping lists, phone calls, kids games, project due dates. When someone asks me if I can do something this weekend or next, I just open my planner and can actually give them an answer. Needless to say, every weekend is booked through October and by the time October gets here, I will be booked through the end of the year.

Out of the “7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, the one that I have the hardest time with is “sharpening the saw.” “Sharpening the saw” means that I will take time to take care of myself so that I don’t end up burnt out. Unfortunately, if there are 300 things to do this week and I only have time for 250, the 50 things that get crossed off the list are always the ones that only benefit me (like exercise). I have taken the time to play volleyball every week and that has been great, it went in the planner so I don’t schedule anything else for that time slot. It is not enough though. An hour and a half a week is not enough time to sharpen a saw that is sawing 100-150 hours a week. It’s just not proportional.

After 4 years of college where I worked two jobs while taking 21 credit hours each semester and 12 credit hours in the summer, I though I would have plenty of time to relax and do everything I put off for 4 years. A year later, I find I don’t seem to have any more time than I did when I was in college. I have something going on every weekend. The oldest step-son is out on his own now, my step-daughter and the younger step-son are both off to college tomorrow. So I wonder if I will finally have some free time. By free time I mean the time and energy to do things that solely benefit me. I have found that when I do have some “free” time, I am too tired to go and do anything for myself.

Another great thing about having a planner: you can review it and see where you are spending all of your time. I think that the kids going off to college will free up at least 12 hours a week. No more taking kids to school, work, practice or friends houses. Hopefully the cat won’t mess up the house as much, and there will be a lot less laundry. I hope I can get into the habit of using those extra 12 hours to be my “free” time to “sharpen the saw.”

Despite my time-management skills, and the subsequent productive lifestyle, I always find myself wishing I had more time to… well to do more. There are so many things that I want to do, so many people I’d like to spend more time with, so may more books I’d like to read, more blogs I’d like to write, things I want to draw and paint. There are states and countries I’d like to see and oh so many mountains I want to ski.

So how about it… anyone else find their life is in hyperdrive despite the collected fascade they present to the world?

Technorati tags: Steven Covey, 7Habits of Highly Effective People, Time Management, Sharpen the Saw

2 comments August 26th, 2006