Organize
Your World.com
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| TIME MANAGEMENT |
Contrary to popular belief, time is not money. It is much more valuable than
money. You can't ever earn, create or steal more time than you've got, so you should use
it intelligently. This is why it is important to develop a time management method that
works for you.
What will good time management do for you?
What won't good time management do for you?
What materials will you need to set up the system?
There are lots of good products on the market that allow you to create a personal
organizer that will work for you. Some good organizers are made by Daytimers, Filofax and
Franklin Planner (see below.) Other people prefer to set up their systems on their
personal computers, their electronic organizers, in a card file or in a simple three-ring
binder. You should use the method that works best for you, taking into account size, cost,
portability and accessibility. You will need the following materials:
How do you put the system together?
This is a scary step, because it amounts to writing down the "to-do" list for
your entire life. When you write down all of the stuff you're actually trying to get done,
it will probably look overwhelming! This might be a good time make a cup of tea, sit in a
comfortable chair and take a deep breath before proceeding.
Regular work
First, take out a sheet of paper and write down every single thing on your mental
"to-do" list. That's right, every single thing. This is a temporary list, so
don't worry about making it look neat. You may find it helpful to walk through your home
and your office as you do this, and to go through any papers lying around. This way you'll
remind yourself about the lamp that needs to be fixed, the e-mail you have to send and the
photo album you've been meaning to start. No matter how big or small, write it all down.
Don't forget to add the things that you've been meaning to do for fun, or that contribute
to your personal growth or the development of your goals. This is the important stuff that
you've been putting off, but no more!
The first time you do this you may be alarmed at the backlog of things to do. Try not
to worry about it at this stage as you empty the mess out of your head and onto paper. If
you keep little scraps of paper with notes on them, this is the time to start transferring
them to the list (and throwing the scraps away). At this stage, there's no need to
separate work and home tasks. This list, combined with the list of maintenance tasks, is
the blueprint for your to-do list.
Maintenance work
Next, start a fresh sheet of paper and write down all of the repetitive chores and
tasks that you intend to do regularly, even if you don't always get around to them now.
You probably won't think of everything in one sitting, and that's OK, because you can add
to this list as you need to. Everybody's list will be different, but here are some ideas
to get you started:
When you've written down everything you can think of, go back through your list and
write how often each task should occur. Some things you'll do weekly, others biweekly or
monthly, and others only once or twice a year.
Address book
If your current address book is not up to date, take the time now to transfer it to a
new book. If you do this in pencil it will be easier to make changes later. You should be
able to add pages to your new book so that you won't need to transfer it again in the
future.
Reference lists
Reference lists are made for any information you find useful to have on hand. They are
for jotting down good ideas as they come to you and for saving you time and trouble by
having necessary information at your fingertips. Again, everyone's lists will be
different. Here are some lists that I keep in my organizer:
Many people also like to put checklists here for major goals and projects in their
lives. This is up to you. The next time you're out of the house and think "boy, I
wish I had that information with me", consider adding it to your reference lists.
Making the System Work
By now you're probably hyperventilating as you look at these enormous lists! There are
two reasons for this. One is that you haven't been working with a realistic time
management system until now, and you're probably overbooked. This problem will cure itself
after you work with your system for awhile, and can see how much time you realistically
have available and you get a better sense of how much you can accomplish in a day, a week
or a month. The second reason is that these tasks are not yet prioritized in any sort of
chronological order. When you look closely at them and realize that they don't all have to
be done immediately, some of the anxiety should wear off.
Prioritize
Label three sheets of paper with the names of the next three months, and label a fourth
sheet of paper "Future". If you are working with large paper, say 8 ½ by 11,
you can simply divide one page into four boxes. These will comprise your quarterly
"to-do" lists. Now look at your "Regular work" list, and begin to
assign each task to one of the next three months, or to "Future". Sometimes this
will be easy and a task will have a natural deadline. Other times it will be arbitrary and
you will simply divide these tasks as evenly as possible. If you're really overbooked, you
may initially need to schedule a lot of things to the "Future" list. If you want
to separate your work and home tasks, do separate quarterly lists for each.
Assign
First look at your reference list of frequent maintenance tasks - the ones that happen
monthly or more often. For the biweekly and monthly tasks, assign a regular date. For
instance, you might always pay the rent on the 27th, and you might always pay
bills on the first and third Tuesday of the month. Assign a regular day for weekly tasks:
Laundry on Mondays, grocery shopping on Fridays or whatever works for you. Be aware,
however, that if you schedule all of your household chores for Saturday or Sunday, you'll
wake up that morning feeling like you have to go to work. I find it easier to spread them
throughout the week.
Next, take out that small calendar I mentioned in the beginning - the one that has just
one page for each month. Look at your "Maintenance" list, and circle all of the
tasks that should occur less often than monthly. For instance, you probably go to the
dentist only once or twice a year. Assign each of these tasks to a given month. Again,
this will sometimes be arbitrary. What you want to do is to sprinkle the tasks as evenly
throughout the year as possible. When you've finished this calendar, you should add the
maintenance tasks for the next three months to your quarterly "to-do" list.
Your quarterly "to-do" list is now your master list. It tells you at a glance
what your priorities are, and it incorporates all of the aspects of your life - work,
home, maintenance tasks and personal projects and goals. As new chores, priorities and
opportunities pop up in your life, they can be smoothly incorporated into this list.
Schedule
Recently I heard a professional organizer say a very smart thing. She said that we
don't find time in our lives, we make time. This is the real key to managing your
time well: Making regular appointments with yourself to do the things that really count.
And what counts most in managing your time is planning.
So the first thing you're going to do is to take out your daily calendar and for the
next few weeks schedule fifteen minutes of time with yourself every day for planning and
regrouping. Eventually this will become a habit, but for now you should put it on the
calendar. It doesn't matter if you do this first thing in the morning or right before you
leave the office, but this personal appointment is essential to managing your time
wisely. You will use this time to plan the upcoming day, to review the previous day, and
to take care of any loose ends or unfinished business. You should also use this time to do
a quick pick up - take care of the filing you've created during the day, clear off your
desk. At home you should also do a quick pick up, so that you're not starting the next day
already behind. This time is necessary to review your progress, tie up loose ends and plan
your new day
When you've finished that, go ahead and schedule all of your frequent maintenance tasks
for the next quarter in your daily calendar. Write in pencil if you must, but schedule in
all of the bill-paying, laundry, bathroom cleaning and everything else. Even though you
hate them, you still have to do them. Then look at the to-do list for the current month,
and pick out the tasks you're going to take care of tomorrow. Write them on your daily
calendar. Add a final appointment near the end of this quarter to plan your calendar for
the next quarter.
Using the System
Now you have a concrete example of just what it takes to make your life run smoothly. It's all in one place, in black and white. As you work with this system, you'll develop a good sense of your time, and how much you can realistically do. When the president of the PTA wants you to make brownies, or your boss asks you to head the focus group, or you're thinking of taking up scuba diving, you can refer to your time management system to decide
These decisions won't come easily at first. Also, if you're like most people, you'll be starting off with a big backlog of commitments. Because of this, you'll need to work with your time management system for two or three months before you overcome the backlog and become truly comfortable prioritizing your activities.
After a few months, you will really begin to see results. You will have a better
perspective on the way you spend your time. Instead of being overbooked and harassed,
you'll be working productively. You'll find yourself less stressed, since you'll longer be
moving from crisis to crisis. Most importantly, you will be in control of your time.
About the Author
Allison Van Norman is President of Organized Solutions, a Professional Organizing Company. |
Organizing Solutions is owned and operated by Allison Van Norman.
Allison has an MBA from Case Western Reserve University and is a member of the National
Association of Professional Organizers, as well as a member of the local chapter of NAPO.
Allison is delighted to be putting her love of organizing to work in San Francisco after
several years of cubicles in Cleveland. To find out more, visit Allison's web
site at http://www.wco.com/~dpmiller/os2.htm
Copyright © 1999 Allison Van Norman. All Rights Reserved. Re-Printed with
permission.
