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Good time management enables you to achieve a healthy work-life balance. It helps us to create more fun with your kids, more quality time with your partner, and even the coveted and nearly forgotten alone time, which I call ‘me’ time.
I believe that good time management is one of the essential ingredients in coping with the juggle of career and family with the pressure to get all your tasks finished on time.
By being organised, we’re giving ourselves more time in our day to move towards our dream life. Therefore it’s important that we start making decisions and setting priorities that support us to work efficiently and effectively towards our goals.
So what are some of the benefits of time management?
The benefits are:
- To prioritise getting those important things done.
- To have more family time and more quality of life.
- It can help you leave the office at 5pm.
- Solve the problems of interruptions.
- And increase productivity.
Research says that individuals who accomplish tasks find that it boosts morale in their confidence and they’re less likely to suffer from stress and anxiety, because they do not have the constant worry of needing to finish things, be on time or not having enough time to get the task completed in.
Ultimately what time management does is that it helps you adopt a more planned approach to your life. The many clients that I’ve spoken to are stuck in the rut because of drifting along, going with the flow, and falling into jobs. They don’t know what they want and they’re just not in control of their lives; their lives are in control of them.
So here are my top five time management tips to feel focused and in control of your life.
Love the to-do list
Researchers say that individuals who accomplish their tasks experience boosted levels of morale and confidence and are less likely to suffer stress and anxiety. So if you want to be good at time management, you have to love creating lists. Lists are so important.
You have to start making a weekly to-do list that includes your list times for everything from exercise to boardroom presentations. I’ve colour coded mine for work and family which saves me time from having to cross reference. You can create a table or Excel spreadsheet and divide your day into thirty-minute blocks or try a smartphone app like Wunderlist, Google Keep, Any.do or Todoist that can sync with your computer and other apps.
Get your kids to do chores
Improving your health and positivity is getting support around the home. Sometimes mums don’t like to ask their children to do chores due to illness, emotional problems or it distracts them from their homework. I believe we have a responsibility to teach them valuable life skills.
Let your child voice his or her opinion and then negotiate age appropriate tasks like emptying the dishwasher or bins, packing their own school bag, setting and clearing the dinner table is teaching them life skills and that they are a necessary part of the family team. Don’t forget to reward them afterwards with either cuddles, stickers, an outing or pocket money.
Saying no will declutter your life
Part of having good time management skills sometimes mean saying no to family, friends or work. Boundaries are like imaginary lines drawn between yourself and others. Boundaries communicate who you are and aren’t to the other person. You want to create clear boundaries so others can understand and respect you, and to prevent them from taking advantage of your skills or generosity. We fear saying no because we don’t want to disappoint or displease others. However when you say something like, “I really appreciate you thinking of me, but I’ve just got too much on my plate right now” helps you to reclaim your energy, confidence, and control over your day.
Flexible women never get bent out of shape
Don’t cram your schedule. Stay flexible for life’s little hiccups, accidents and illnesses. Whilst routines are really the backbone of time management strategies because they save you the mental energy of worrying about what to do, we don’t live in a predictable world.
Life can throw us a few curve balls and that sometimes get in the way of our goals, plans, to-do lists and priorities. I often recommend that working mums avoid early-morning meetings because kids can get sick and you’ll need time to find a carer or alternative plan, and inform colleagues that you won’t be able to make the prearranged time.
Multitasking is utter madness
A busy life can mean cooking dinner whilst sending an email from our smart phone and talking to our partner all at the same time. We believe multitasking can boost our productivity, but research from Stanford University found that multitasking is less productive than doing a single thing at a time. The researchers also found that people who are regularly bombarded with several streams of electronic information cannot pay attention, recall information or switch from one job to another as well as those who complete one task at a time. This is because our brains waste time picking up from where we left off which in the end slows us down, and decreases the quality of our work, fuelling any existing difficulties with our concentration and attention to detail.
I hope you’ve found a few time management tips here to start incorporating into your daily life. Whilst creating these tips and strategies can take time (as you are setting up new systems), by adopting the tips mentioned above, you will find more “free time” to enjoy the things that really matter to you.
Fiona Craig is a work-life balance coach, psychotherapist and published author of “Stuck in a Rut – How to rescue yourself & live your truth” helping men and women get unstuck from their career rut and onto finding their dream career.
You can learn more time management strategies and helpful tips through Fiona’s transformational life coaching package, Kick Start Your Life. Contact Fiona on 0405 433 217 or visit her website www.lifebalancecoach.com.au and book in for one of my free 20 minute discovery calls.
