Here are a few strategies to help you manage your time more efficiently and effectively, and reduce your time-related stress. The first step in this process is to become aware of your current use of time.
Have you noticed how quickly your days fill up? You often find yourself hurried, harried, and rushing to do all that you feel has to be done. Putting out fires, dealing with last-minute crises, and taking care of unending details leave little spare time for anything else.
Add to that a busy job, a family, and at least a few other obligations, and you notice that your stress level is escalating. And something else is happening: You have less and less time to spend on the things that you really enjoy and that bring you satisfaction. Fortunately, managing your time more effectively is something you can master.
Effective time management is really all about managing your priorities. The trick is figuring out what those priorities are and making time for them to happen. Remember those wise words of English logician and philosopher Bertrand Russell: "The time you enjoy wasting is not wasted time."
Reduce stress with a time log
For a short period of time, perhaps a day or two, keep a simple time log. A sheet of paper will do or, if you're more comfortable with your electronic device, use that. At convenient times during your day, enter what you did, or are doing, in the appropriate time slots. Don't become compulsive about this; you don't have to make it exact to the minute.
However, be sure to record your electronic time usage — those times when you checked your e-mail, made or received a phone call, texted or IM-ed, visited social-networking sites, or surfed the Net. A sampling of a day or two should supply enough data to give you a rough picture of how you use — or misuse — your time. Use this simple rating code:
1 = Great use of my time
2 = Okay use of my time
3 = So-so use of my time
W = Waste of my time
Also add some comments that reflect how you feel about the way you used that time.
Use time wisely and relieve stress
As an exercise, grab a sheet of paper and jot down activities that you would like to spend more time doing. This exercise helps you get in touch with those activities that you value and derive satisfaction from.
The following is a sample of general items you may want to consider. (You can, of course, add others.)
Spending time with your family and friends
Advancing your job or career
Pursuing a hobby or interest
Reading
Exercising
Nurturing your soul
Volunteering for community activities
Traveling
Sleeping
What you want to spend less time doing
Knowing what you want to spend more time doing is only half the battle. Knowing what you don't want to spend time doing is just as important. Here are some things you might wish you spent less time doing. Make a list of your own.
Working late at night and on weekends
Doing office paperwork
Attending events I don't enjoy
Cleaning the house
Doing laundry
Spending time with people I don't enjoy
Surfing the Web
Watching so much television
Your goal is to fill your life with more of the things you want to do — things that bring more meaning and joy to your life. This means knowing how to minimize time spent doing the things you have to do.
