Time – you can’t see or touch it, yet it plays a major role in our lives. There are many facets to time management, but I want to focus here on viewing time as something tangible, something you organize as you would any physical space. In her book, Time Management from the Inside Out, Julie Morgenstern gives a great example of comparing a cluttered schedule to a cluttered closet – your day is jam-packed with more things to do than your schedule can hold and tasks are randomly assigned to any available pocket of time, making it hard to see what you have to do in an orderly fashion.
To make your day easier to manage, consider having regularly-scheduled times to handle various categories of tasks. For example, have regular times to exercise, do housework, prepare meals, run errands, etc. Then you can get into a routine that helps you fit all of your required tasks into your week. This schedule (which I call a Time Map) is not intended to lay out the specifics of which exercises you’ll do, which household tasks you’ll do, or which errands you’ll run. Its purpose is to carve out the time for you to do whatever specific things are appropriate on that particular day. It allows you to group similar activities together and easily see what you have to do you (similarly to an organized closet). Here’s an example of a time map:
You’ll see that there’s lots of white space – you don’t want your day so rigidly planned that it feels confining or unrealistic. However, you do want to specify when you’ll do the things you’ve identified as important so you can be sure to get them done. (You’ll find blank Time Maps and other forms and checklists to help you organize your time and life in my APPLES Resource Guide.)
If you find such a schedule seems too restrictive, or fear that scheduling your day will take away your creativity, simply use the time map as a guide to remind you of what you have to make time for each week. Each day you can determine which category of item you’re in the mood to do (e.g., should I make phone calls today or do housework?) and then work on the things that fit your mood. Just be sure that by the end of the week you’ve made time for everything you’ve said was important. Some days you may have to do things whether or not you’re in the mood because they just have to be done. You don’t have to like doing them, but know that it will feel good when they’re done (that’s how I view exercise). Try scheduling those difficult, unpleasant things when you have the most mental energy – for me that would be first thing in the morning.
Here’s to a productive day!
The past couple of weeks have put my time management skills to the ultimate test. I’ve had a load of work- and volunteer-related activities, with some personal and social life sprinkled in. As easy as it might be to feel overwhelmed during this very busy time, I’ve done a good job of keeping things under control and so far, nothing has fallen through the cracks (at least nothing that I know of!). The key factor in my ability to staying on top of things is daily planning.
