Choosing to Manage Your Time
Created by Heyamberrae
When people talk about their biggest challenges or what topics they’d like more training on, the one I hear the most is time management.
The interesting thing about time management is that it’s both a personal challenge and a universal problem. On the one hand, the particular ways that you struggle with time management will be unique to you. Your exact triggers, patterns, organization systems and decision-making processes are not quite the same as anyone else’s. But on the other hand, everyone is dealing with the same limited resource - the number of hours in the day are fixed and we all have to work within those limits.
I wish I could say that there's an easy answer or one magical trick, but how you manage your time is the result of hundreds of choices and habits throughout the day. Feeling more in control of your time will mean changing your patterns and establishing new routines.
The first step is to decide that you want to take action. Just choosing to be mindful of how you spend your time will help you move in the right direction. From there, you might make a few quick changes that will help to establish the positive, foundational habits that give you more control over your day. For the most part though, it will be a long-term effort.
This means you’ll probably need to try different things and be ready to continually self-assess what’s working (and what isn’t) if you’re serious about making lasting improvements. Expect it to be a little bit frustrating. Anticipate that you'll probably fall back on the old patterns that caused you stress in the beginning. And at the same time, believe the outcome will be worth the effort.
Think of time management as a process and a practice. It’s something you commit to paying attention to again and again - it’s not a single, magic “life hack” that you stumble upon.
If you’re still with me and ready to try a few things, I've written up a 5 day plan for you to try this week.
Each step should take no more than 5 minutes and you can take it one day at a time (no need to read it all now). If you’d like to give this process a try, but would like a little outside accountability please let me or another colleague know.
Overall, I hope that being intentional with your behaviors and setting clear priorities will help you get started with your time management practice - and that taking control of your time will help you achieve your goals.
5 Days to Better Time Management Habits
Day 1: Shape Your Environment for Success
Key Concept
Your surroundings have an impact on your habits - both positive and negative. If you want to change the way you act, take steps to shape your environment in a way that makes your desired behavior as easy as possible.
Action Step
Take a brief survey of your work environment and move anything that could be a potential distraction.
Is it easy for you to focus when you sit at your desk?
Is there anything physically between you and your phone?
What do you see when you open your computer?
Are all pop-up notifications turned OFF (Gmail, Slack, SNS)?
Is your inbox organized? How about your desktop?
Caution
Don’t use this process as a means of procrastinating! Set a timer and stick to 5 minutes. Spending several hours organizing your files or scrubbing your desk is not a good outcome for this exercise.
Day 2: Create a Habits Scorecard
Key Concept
Before you can make changes, you need to step back and review what is going on. The more honest and realistic you are, the easier it will be for you to design meaningful actions.
Action Step
Follow the process outlined by James Clear in his book Atomic Habits and make a list of all your daily habits. Once you have them all written down, score them as positive, negative or neutral.
Here are the scoring guidelines recommended by James Clear: “If you’re still having trouble determining how to rate a particular habit, here is a question I like to use: ‘Does this behavior help me become the type of person I wish to be? Does this habit cast a vote for or against my desired identity?’ Habits that reinforce your desired identity are usually good. Habits that conflict with your desired identity are typically bad.”
Review your list, then set it aside for later in the week.
Caution
Try to remain as neutral as possible when reflecting on your list. The goal here is self-knowledge, not critique.
Day 3: Set a Clear Priority for the Day, Everyday
Key Concept
Before you do anything, take a moment to think about the most important thing that must be done today (and must be done by you). Do that thing.
Action Step
Take a few minutes to reflect, then write down the one thing you are going to achieve today and assign a time for getting it done.
Hold yourself accountable for getting this thing done; no excuses.
Take a look at your schedule and plan a specific time to complete that task.
Protect your own priorities just as highly as you would time spent with a client, candidate or colleague. If you wouldn’t check email or take non-urgent phone calls in the middle of a client meeting, then don’t allow those interruptions to derail the focus you’ve set for yourself either.
After completing your “must-do” item for the day, take a moment to consciously choose what to focus on next.
If you’re struggling to identify the most important activity, make your best choice and then run it by your team leader / manager for another perspective.
Caution
Don’t choose the easiest, fastest, or most urgent task as your priority if it’s not the most important.
Day 4: Choose Your Behaviors
Key Concept
Declare your intentions and be as specific as possible. The more clear you are with yourself, the easier it will be to follow through.
Action Step
Reflect on what helped or hindered your ability to get Day 3’s priority accomplished. Compare that to the habits scorecard you made on Day 2 and look for clear patterns in how you are managing your time. Decide on one or two positive habits that facilitate “good” time management and write out your plan.
For example: “I will do X, at Y time and Z place.”
It might help to come up with plans for how to overcome your most disruptive negative habits: “when A happens, instead of B, I will do C.”
Consider creating a habit that will facilitate one of your larger goals.
If you’re someone who struggles with spending too much time scrolling your inbox, writing interview notes or drafting emails then maybe your habit can be “start a timer / write down the time every time I begin (doing that thing you struggle with) and take note of the time again when I am done.”
If you’re a visual person who wants to spend more time on the phone, maybe your habit can be “make a tally mark on my call tracker every time I connect to someone on the phone” or commit to using the paper clip strategy.
Aim for habits that take 2 minutes or less, as you are more likely to stick with them if they’re easy to complete.
Caution
Your desired habit should be realistic enough that you can actually do it, but significant enough to move you toward achieving your goals. Since the focus here is on time management, emphasize actives that will make the most efficient use of your time. And don't just think about it, really write it down.
Day 5: Decide on a Habit Tracker and an End-of-the-Day Ritual
Key Concepts
What gets measured gets done and "what you do every day matters more than what you do once in a while" - Gretchen Rubin.
Action Step
Now that you’ve reflected on your environment and your habits, practiced setting a single daily priority, and made purposeful choices about the behavior you want to cultivate, the final step is to decide how you are going to hold yourself accountable.
Set up a simple habit tracker - it can be in Google Sheets, on a piece of graph paper, in an app like coach.me or download one like this.
Before going home each day ask yourself if you have followed through on the behaviors you identified Day 4.
If not, take a minute to ask yourself why. If there’s an adjustment you can make to help you be more successfully tomorrow, do it.
After updating your habit tracker, take 1 minute to set yourself up for success tomorrow.
Review your environment and clear distractions.
Set up visual reminders of the positive habits you are trying to reinforce.
Caution
It will happen that you miss a day here or there, but try not to miss 2 days in a row, since that will inadvertently become your new habit.
If you complete the 5 days, I’d love to hear about your experience!
