It’s a common thing to hear from mums: “I’m time poor,” or “I don’t have time!” It seems that finding more time is one of our biggest challenges. There are too many things to do and not enough time in the day to do them! Mimi Fong explains how you can score some extra time and stress less as well.
When we feel like we’re running out of time, or we start to hurry through things, we get stressed, it clouds our thinking, and we become even more stressed as we become less productive! It’s a horrible vicious cycle!
Time is all in your mind
Time is a concept that exists in your mind – you create it, and therefore you can control and manage it. Time flies when you’re doing something you love, yet it drags when you are doing something you dislike. You can be at the same event as a friend, and they say to you that the last hour has flown by- and yet for you, it’s seemed like the equivalent of 10 years!
Time can pass at a different pace for different people. The KEY is how we manage ourselves to …
- effectively deal with what needs to be done, and
- achieve the best possible outcome by not wasting unnecessary time and energy.
Learn to prioritise
Here’s a simple exercise to help you reclaim time, prioritise, reduce stress and work smart!
You’re going to divide your tasks into two categories – IMPORTANT and URGENT.
- Important tasks are HIGH VALUE ACTIVITIES and help fulfill your purpose and achieve dreams
- Urgent is everything else -because there’s always something that needs to be done right now!
STEP 1
Write out a list of the things you would like to accomplish over the next 7 days.
Draw up two columns, one with a heading IMPORTANT and the other headed URGENT.
Then ask yourself honestly for each activity.
- Why it is important to you?
- Does it fulfill your purpose, and why?
- Is it a step towards achieving your goals/targets/desired Outcomes?
- Are you doing it to please someone else, win approval or gratitude and if so, why?
If you answered YES to Questions 2 and 3, then write it down in the IMPORTANT column.
If you answered NO to Questions 2 and 3, then write it down in the URGENT column.
If you answered YES to Question 4, then write it down in the URGENT column.
Did you have MORE activities in the URGENT column than in the IMPORTANT column?
STEP 2
For each activity you have identified as IMPORTANT, write an action step next to it:
- JUST DO IT or
- SCHEDULE IT
For each activity which you have identified as URGENT, write an action step next to it …
- DELEGATE/ OUTSOURCE IT or
- PUSH BACK/DON’T DO IT!
Then review your choices and ACTION THEM! Because only through action do things happen!
You can kick start the new year with a special NSM offer on Mimi Fong’s newly launched online Time Management Program ‘TIME MATTERS’ here. Valid until 31 January 2017.
