Time management

The Disintegration of the Persistence of Memory (S. Dali, 1952/54)

You can’t manage time. You have to manage yourself.

I’m looking at a daunting week this week with personal, professional and school work. There have been some interesting articles that I’ve noticed lately on the topic of learning to manage yourself and how you live in time. I thought I would share one in case you feel like you’re drowning too.

3 Beliefs That Transformed My Work-Life Balance by Erin Greenawald for The Daily Muse via Mashable. All three of these I live by to a great extent. Unfortunately, when you are living like your head is on fire and your tail is catching it’s easy to forget.

1. Free time doesn’t have to be available time. Oh lord, this one kills me. Free time is so critical to your mental state (if for no other reason than to do your laundry), that you’d better schedule it with yourself or you will schedule it with someone else.
2. If it’s not on the calendar, it won’t happen. I live by this. If I am in a meeting and another meeting is scheduled, I put it in the calendar ASAP. If not, I won’t be there. It’s almost guaranteed that 10 minutes after I swore to heaven and earth that I wouldn’t forget to put it on my calendar, someone will walk up and want a meeting on the exact date/time I swore I’d remember but isn’t on my calendar. Guess what? I schedule the second meeting having completely forgotten the first one.
3. Sometimes my time is more valuable that my money. That sounds N-U-T-S but it’s true. You don’t have time to wash/dry/fold laundry? Drop it off for a couple of quarters a pound, pick it up when you are between meetings. Don’t have time to mow your grass? Pay someone to do it when you are at work/school. TRUST ME, it may be just the relief valve you need!!

There are so many resources you can use to help you manage your schedule. The Internet is chock full of them. The article above is a good start.

There are systems and gurus you can refer to. I’ve found a lot of success with Getting Things Done by David Allen, 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey, and – as weird as it sounds – FLYLady by Marla Cilley. I’ve come back to these again and again to tweak how I use the systems, and re-discover tips. Self-management is lifelong effort that changes and evolves as your life changes and evolves.

What are your favorite self-management systems you’ve used? What works for you and what just didn’t click in your life?

I’d love to hear from you.

-Tina