There was a very interesting and funny book that I read once called The Fermata. In this book a 35 year old office temp had the ability to stop time whenever he felt like it. Of course you can imagine just how much he could get done in short periods of time, yet, as far as I know this ability to stop time, does not exist. At least I can honestly say, I have never met anyone that has reported to have this skill.

So here we all are, all on the same time line, all subjected to having only 24 hours a day to work with. Factor in sleep, grooming, cooking, eating, traveling and working, and what do we have left? Well for most it's about 2-3 hours a day. That's about 8-12% of the day during an average work week. Not much is it?!

We all want our share of the cake though, don't we? We all want to be able to enjoy the time we have and make more time for the things we enjoy, right? So what price are we willing to pay? How about taking less time to sleep, less time to prepare healthy meals, or how about less time to work? What ever it is, there is going to be a trade off. 

So the question may now be, "What to do, and what not to do?"

Let's try to find this balance together…

First we need to know what is really competing for our time and we need to start be making a list. Create a master list of everything you need to do. 

When you have your list complete, you will need to break it down into order of priority. Factor in its value and its deadlines when considering just how important these things are to complete. Ask yourself, what is the worst thing that will happen if this doesn't get done?

Label and rank your items and make a too do list for each day. Give yourself some high priority, medium and low priority items to do each day. 

Break down complicated tasks into smaller bite sized pieces. Giving your self a large and daunting task to do all at once that you know you can't get done can tend to prevent you from ever starting it in the first place.

Add some fun to the mix. Work with a partner, turn on some favorite tunes and take breaks to step away for a moment or two so you can come back fresh each time. You can even try to play "beat the clock" and make tasks a bit of a game. (Try my 15 Minutes Elephant on for size) 

Enlist the help of others. Giving them clear instructions on what needs to be done and how. When doing this, be prepared for the fact that sometimes others may not do things as perfectly as you would have done. Remember, when there is room for slack, give up on perfection.

Put limits on what you say yes to. I talked about this in "Don't let Others Should on You." 

Have your cake, eat it too, yet save a bit for later.

 
 


Comments

Janet Barclay link
08/03/2011 04:57

I try to have my cake and eat it too by cooking more than we need for a meal. Cooking a large pot of soup or stew doesn't take much longer than a small one, but it means that there will be two nights that I don't have to cook and can spend that time on something else.

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