What you need to know about Time & Self Management

The best time to plant a seed and grow a tree was 20 years ago.

The second best time is now.

Ever feel that wfh has become wtf!

Is it possible to find time for yourself? To do the things that you want? Besides just working all the time?

Have you ever tried to balance a saucer on top of a stick?  Have you felt that you are walking on a tightrope trying to balance, work , finances, labour, clients, bosses, relationships, career all at once?

Or feel that other people are enjoying while you are working? What does time management have to do with business management?

These are questions that most professionals ask themselves while they struggle to meet the demands of job and family in this tough 24×7 work environment.

If you ever felt that life is running away from you, like sand slipping between your fingers, then you need to focus on managing time better. But where is the time?

In a 24 x 7 environment, where the boundaries between work and life have blurred, it is definitely possible to find that 25^th hour! How? By Effective Time management.

Time Management is the art of managing time effectively so that the right time is allocated to the right activity.  It enables you to provide specific time to activities as per their importance. It refers to multi-task effectively without compromising on the quality and integrity of your work, making the best use of time, as time is short and scarce!

The Time Management-Self Management co-relation

Managing time is very simple. It is nothing but self-management.

We usually run after `saving’ time. However, saving time is a mirage, an illusion. Because the reality is that you cannot save time. When people say they are “saving” time, it simply implies that they’re spending less time on task. They’re not saving it for the future because all time must be spent immediately.  

• Time management is not a clock management.
• It is self-management

Managing time means leading a life you want with resources in hand and achieving your goals. Time management consists of managing, self-planning & goal setting for getting the desired results.

If we are able to make small, simple changes in our lifestyle , we will be able to do whatever your heart desires.

The reality is that you can’t manage time, you can only manage self induced activities. Managing activities involves applying common sense and self-discipline to produce the desired results and saying `NO’ to those activities that either waste time or produce negative results.

The thrill that you get by doing things beyond work result in a sense of achievement and dopamine released in the brain. Dopamine ccontributes to the feeling of accomplishment and elation from completing a task, achieving a goal, or winning in a game. This is why checking a completed task off a list feels good. Doing something for yourself feels great!

Finding extra time is easy if we just know where to focus. If we are able to decide on what to act upon and what to ignore.

However, keep in mind that this is not easy to follow. It involves a deep level of self awareness, self-discipline and commitment, which when practiced, give lifelong success. All that can be obtained by organized training and personal coaching.

I show it here in this series of coaching session tips, to help you take control of your time, your business management, your job, your career, your relationships, your life!

So Where will the Time come from?

Self management or making changes in one’s life for finding the time for yourself involves Saying No for tasks that don’t add value to your life. Saying no is a skill that can be developed through my coaching frameworks.

Along with this seeking help: from family, from your kids and Involving them in our everyday life Makes them part of the family’s development. This blog highlights all these above points through real life case studies and coaching sessions. And more!

Removing and eliminating what does not add value to your life helps in finding those extra moments where you can pursue your passions. Your hobbies. Things that give you food for your soul.

Three Steps for Finding Time for Yourself:

1. Learning to Say No
2. Seeking help from stakeholders
3. Eliminate time stealers

Lets discuss each of these in some detail:

1. Saying No: don’t say yes when you want to say no. Be polite and assertive when saying no. give valid reasons and create an environment of mutual understanding. Pushing back to demands from your boss, your loved ones, social media etc. involves developing an ability to prioritize. And removing procrastination from our lives.

A. Prioritizing

Prioritizing means deciding what is important and what’s not. Which tasks to take on and which to leave. Sachin Tendulkar’s ability to decide which balls to play and which one to leave arise a proof of his greatness. A true professional does not jump to take on every assignment. Good relationships involve choosing between tasks and then convincing stakeholders like parents, wives, partners, colleagues and bosses that why you chose to do a particular task first.

Prioritization enables you:

• To Say No. It prevents you from saying Yes when actually you want to say NO!
• It prevents from your life to become overloaded and ensures peace of mind.
• To help you prioritize you will need to differentiate between:
• Effectiveness:  doing the right things
• Efficiency: doing the right things correctly

Difference between the efficient and effective use of Time

• Effectiveness refers to doing the right things. When you are efficient, you do the job facing you in the best possible manner.
• Efficiency refers to doing things right. When you’re effective, you may or may not do the job in front of you. You do what most needs to be done at that particular point in time.

And when you’re a good time manager, you use both approaches. You look at all the possible tasks in front of you; select the most important task, and do it in the best possible way.

The truth is that saying no is a skill that can be cultivated based on certain coaching frameworks. But needless to add, the sense of relief that one experiences by being assertive immensely helps in finding extra time and managing time better.

B. Procrastination

Procrastination is the action of delaying or postponing something. It is a voluntary activity where intentionally the task at hand is given another time or another date for completion. You tell yourself: I’ll do it tomorrow, then tomorrow: I’ll do it day after…and so on.

And then again and again till it goes into a hopeless loop of delaying and self-justification. And one day a simple task becomes a gigantic problem.

Procrastination is often a result of two main causes:

1. The task in hand is overwhelming
2. The task in hand is unpleasant

5 Steps to Beat Procrastination

When you faced a task – decide to deal with it according to one of the following 5D principles :

• Do it: Answer that mail or message only if it cannot wait till later.
• Delegate it: Get someone else to do the task and supervise them.
• Dump it: Reject the task or delete it from your inbox if is a waste of time.
• Deadline it: If not urgent, schedule a later time when you will tackle the task
• Dissect it: Save time by thinking creatively for routine tasks

• Seek help: from family, from your kids.

Involve them in household chores. Make them part of the family’s development.

In this hectic world, work-life balance has taken a backseat. Students find themselves bombarded with information. Friends, family, social media, studies, academic performance, competitive exams and interviews, and job hunting all put pressure on them.

Professionals and entrepreneurs have performance and business pressures. All these pressures take a toll on personal relationships and cuts family time. Even in pre-Covid times, on vacations and holidays, people are glued to their cellphones doing business and work.

However, many professionals find that they are working alone, in isolation without help from their family and near and dear ones. Why? Why? Must you work 24 x 7 when other family members and stakeholders can take a break now and then!

Its important to recognize that work must be distributed equally, even at home. In the same way as one would have done in the office. In such an environment, the family unit bonds over common tasks, shares accomplishments and revels in the fact that they had a common experience together. So similar to company websites right?

By setting SMART goals for self and the team: both at home and at work, work gets done faster.

We all have some goals in our lives. We achieve some and are not able to realize others. But how exciting it would be if we could realize the goals we set out to achieve for ourselves. Whether professional goals or personal, goals setting need to be simple an academic exercise. Achieving goals is a time consuming exercise, one that can end in fulfillment and joy. Joy at having saved time that can be used for personal gain.

Goal: The purpose toward which an activity is directed; an end; an objective.

Goal setting is the process of deciding what you want to accomplish and making a plan of action to achieve the desired results.

Benefits of personal goal setting

• You manage time efficiently and effectively.
• You get a feeling of achievement which fills your minds with positive thoughts.
• Positive thoughts help you to take control of your life.
• People take you more seriously because you `walk the talk’.
• You are able to focus on more meaningful things in life.
• You are successful in your own eyes, regardless of what that means to other people.
• Your job becomes more meaningful and fun.
• You are able to form better relationships with people.

In such a high-pressure and dynamic environment, how does one find time to do what one desires? Achieve goals? Spend quality time? The answer lies in striking a perfect work-life balance by setting SMART goals and involving family members and professional stakeholders in this process..

Rising costs have created a larger pool of working couples. With more women entering the workforce, gender roles are being redefined. An optimal work-life balance ensures the needs and wants of all partners in a family or work unit are met.

3. Cut out what does not add value: stop doing things that don’t take things forward. She made a list of Time stealers.

Have you ever watched a Circus where a lion trainer carries a stool into a cage of lions? And wondered what was he trying to do? Get himself killed!!? Even though the lion tamer has a whip in his hand, he knows the stool is his most important tool. He holds the stool by its legs and shoves it towards the animal’s face, attracting his attention. The audience waits for the lion to jump on the tamer and eat him. But nothing of that sort happens.

Instead, the poor lion tries to focus on all four stool legs at once, and in so doing gets paralyzed and this paralysis overwhelms him. His attention gets diverted to the stool and he gets confused. He loses focus. He becomes weak and thus the tamer gets control over him.

In a similar fashion, disorganized people who can’t’ manage time are those who lose focus. They cannot concentrate on their efforts when they face lots of tasks. So they end up focusing on all the wrong things. They put their time on time-wasters and lose sight of their goals.

This is what happens when we have distractions that make us lose focus from the main tasks. It could be a friend who needs help, unnecessary meetings, social media, OTT binge watching, whatever. If something needs to be done, but its not because of distractions, we need to treat these as time-stealers.

Your time is your own.  Only you have the ability to spend your own time.

What kind of a person, or a student or a professional you are is revealed by your usage of time.

For example, for an unhealthy person, a fitness plan is the most important thing in life. But that person does not spend any time or wastes time on other things instead of fitness, then it reveals their true character. Similarly at work, to-do lists, calendars, reminders, and plans are irrelevant if the professional lets time stealers distract them. It shows lack of seriousness and careless attitude about their life and careers. Many of these issues can be identified by doing a Time Audit.

Time Audit

The objective of a Time Audit is to identify time stealers and make a list of things that waste one’s time.

1. Note down over a period of one week, every daily activity.
2. You can do this in excel or app or wherever convenient to you.
3. Note the time, the activity and time spent on that activity.
4. Do this for each day, for every day of that week without a break.

At the end of the week, you will have valuable data on where exactly is your time going? And this will help you identify and eliminate time-stealers from your life. This is your Time audit.

Final thoughts

Find time for yourself or your business and work is a function of effective time management.  It is easy if we just know where to focus. If we are able to decide on what to act upon and what to ignore. And that comes with self-management.

However, keep in mind that time management is not a theoretical concept. It involves self-discipline and commitment, which give lifelong success.

To know more:
Find the coaching videos here on #coachprashant. And my youtube channel here : https://bit.ly/2XdKDse

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