Friday Five - February 4th

So each week on Friday's I will post of five things. The five things could be anything. This week I want to follow up on the time management course I taught last week.

Five helpful tips to better manage your time:

5 - Make conscious choices. You have the power to control your schedule. It is easy to let many things fight for your time these days. Work, Home, Family are all major commitments. It is your job to balance them.

4 - Plan. You know your commitments, so make a plan to keep on top of them. Avoid waiting until the last minute to knock out of tasks. There are many tools on the internet, but even if you want to just keep it in your head - plan each day with what goals you want to accomplish and tasks to complete.

3 - Know Yourself. You know yourself better than anyone? Are you a morning person or night person (or different time of day). Everyone has many different things that need to happen everyday. You should have a sense of how long it takes to keep everything moving. Put your schedule together like a puzzle, considering everything you need to get done.

2 - Say No. One of the biggest challenges is overcommitment. It is okay to say No. You don't need to shout it at anyone, you can mention it politely. Most people would like to have someone who can commit, rather than someone who is doing a task they cannot fit into their schedule so it wouldn't get one well.

1 - Don't procrastinate. It is fine to take time for yourself, and you do not need to schedule something every minute. But try to knock out tasks that are needed to get done before sitting down to a game or fun social media reviewing.

One quick tip: I use is the timer on my phone. Especially for tasks I do not want to do (like cleaning). But it is amazing what you can accomplish in five minutes. Things that take my five minutes or less: Sort the mail, empty the dishwasher, make the bed, clean a toilet, start a load of laundry, review my email, give my husband a hug, a quick meditation, 250 steps, or to check in on my kids. The list can go on. Often I will set a timer and see what I can get done.

You can check out my time management free workshop that I did for Resurgence Novels (youtube link) here. If you have questions or comments afterwards please drop me a line.