Do you want to manage your time better, be more productive and focus on what matters?

Of course you do. Everyone wants time management skills, as they are a key to work-life balance. They give us the time to engage in other activities that are important to us.

The problem is that some of our time-management skills could use an upgrade. It’s not because we’re incompetent or don’t care; we’re smart, talented and care a lot.  

It’s not because we haven’t tried; we have.  It’s not because we don’t have the desire; we do.

It’s because we first need to master three skills:

Awareness

Being aware of how much time we have today to complete tasks, and how long each task will take.

Having design and organizational skills

Knowing how to design and organize our goals, plans, schedules, and tasks to make wise use of our time.

Being adaptable and flexible

Adjusting how much time we spend on an activity because of interruptions and shifting priorities.

Prioritizing what needs to be done.

Where do we start? 

While we are mastering these skills (the subject of another article), we give ourselves a win by deciding tonight what needs to be accomplished at work tomorrow. 

What's the most pressing? What's the priority that needs to be done?

It could be time consuming. We may dread tackling it. We may have procrastinated and pushed it to one side. 

Whatever the task is, that's where we'll begin first thing in the morning and work until done.

And we make a list of what needs to be done within the task, numbering those subtasks in order of importance.

We breathe, acknowledge a job well done, relax and enjoy our personal time.

And we overestimate how long it will take.  We give ourselves a generous window of time.

If it’s a project with a lengthier timeframe, we write down the tasks within the project that need to be done and choose the most pressing one to start and finish tomorrow,

Be honest.

We know in our heart-of-hearts the task that would put the biggest smile to have in our rearview mirror.

How does this help?

When we get to work, even if we work from home, we already know our priority and where to start.

This saves us time and energy and mitigates anxiety and stress.

And then there's the gift of completing our priority task: a big endorphin rush!

We are a successful person. We did what needed to be done.

We didn’t divert our energy into small tasks that can wait.

We stepped up to the plate and accomplished something noteworthy.

This sets us up for success the rest of the day.

Knowing that anything else we accomplish is icing on the cake.

Standing straighter. Holding our head up high, enjoying life a little bit more.