Another great time management tool is your calendar. There are a variety of them out there from electronic to paper. It doesn’t matter which one you choose. What matters is that you have only one calendar and that you use it.

Using a calendar gives an overview of all appointments, scheduled events and important dates. At a glance, a calendar will let you see the flow of an entire month. If you get in the habit of looking at your home and work life a month at a time you will be in a better position to balance your schedule.

A calendar can help you organize routine errands together, consider your schedule before saying yes to the request to plan the next school event or determine how best to accomplish a major work project.

So use a calendar consistently and fine more balance in your life.

In a previous post, I referred to using routines as a time management technique. Planning is one of the best time management tips and routines are one of my best planning techniques.

Whether you are raising your family full-time, balancing family with working from home or splitting your time at the office and home it is often a challenge to feel in balance and to feel in control of your time.

Routines for home and work can decrease chaos and create more harmony personally and professionally.

Marla Cilley- The Fly Lady- in her book Sink Reflections: Flyladys’s babystep guide to overcoming CHAOS (Flylady Press, Inc. 2002) states “Our Morning and Before Bed Routines are just a simple way of taking care of things that need to be done each day.” She goes on to say “It is all a process of thinking ahead so you won’t feel behind.”

This was an easy concept for me to adapt and one that I have used for many years. My mom had a daily routine at home as a domestic engineer. It worked for her and it does work for me. I show people attending my organizational and clutter programs my written routine for home. When I am feeling out of balance I will check to see where I am in working my home routine. Most often my routine has been compromised when I feel chaotic. Once I get back to my routine there is more flow in my life.

You can also create routines in your work life as well. Annie Muller has some great advice on How to Save Time By Using Daily Business Routines.

Which routine are you going to implement today? Personally? Professionally?

The other week I worked on a Saturday. I am not sure if my intent was to catch up or get ahead of the game for the next week. I knew that I had a few items that if completed would put me in a better position at the start of my work week.

So I created a plan, designated the items on my to do list according to priority, created time blocks on my calendar and arrived at the office. Then I found myself in a time trap. The day went by quickly. I was able to get a lot of urgent items done on my to do list and, yet, I did not tackle the two things that were given top priority for the day during my planning session.

It is easy to handle the “shoulds” and “coulds” on our lists. It is the “musts”  that help us meet our long-term goals and our business core responsibilities.

Mark Ellwood has some great advice for planning your day and avoiding a time trap on his website: Get More Done Time Study Consulting. He has a great video focusing on the best tip for planning your day.

What tip can you implement from the video?

p.s. I did finish the two priority items before I left for the day. And I realized that I would have felt better and would have gotten them done more efficiently if I had just gotten them done first as planned while I had more energy.

Time management… the elusive skill. Or is it? We all have 24 hours in a day and it is our choice on how we use them.

If you feel that you need more time than 24 hours a day. If you are overwhelmed on a daily basis it is time to take control.

Begin by setting yourself up for success. In the book Never Check E-mail in the Morning: and other unexpected strategies for making your work life work (Fireside 2004) author Julie Morgenstern’s competency of creating the time to get things done includes avoiding e-mail for the first hour of the day.

Think about it. You have your day planned for success and the first thing you do is check e-mail which leads to responding to those items. It means that you have allowed others to plan your day or priorities. Then before you know it half of the day has gone by and you haven’t even touched your to do list. Morgenstern states, “…if you postpone your most important task, it hangs over your head all day, weighing you down with dread and guilt. If you knock it off first thing in the morning, the relief buoys you up all day long, literally energizing and boosting your productivity as you tackle the rest of the items on your to-do list.”

So take a page out of Morgenstern’s book and this week don’t check e-mail for the first hour of your day and see what happens. You might be surprised that you find a few extra hours in your day, increase your productivity and feel more balanced.

I would enjoy hearing back from those that try this.

Are you waiting for enough time or the right time to organize or de-clutter? Sometimes beginning is the hardest thing to do especially when you feel you don’t have enough time or feel buried under a lot of stuff.

If you feel that you don’t have enough time to get organized you can get started by using daily practices to get your stuff under control. Creating routines as discussed in my previous post can help.

In addition, you can keep clutter from accumulating by doing a daily 15 minute circuit around the house. Carry a basket or bin to collect items that belong in other places and at the end of the circuit return them to their proper place. You can have other members of your household help you with this task as well.

But don’t wait until just before bedtime to do this routine as it can get left out… schedule a time such as right before bath time or after dinner so everyone still has the energy to do it. Get in the habit of this daily 15 minutes and you will be surprised how much better you and your home will feel.

I wanted to share another concept from the book SHED Your Stuff, Change Your Life: a four step guide to getting unstuck (Fireside 2008) by Julie Morgenstern.

In the book she discusses how the habits of mindless escapes, procrastination, perfectionism, chronic lateness and workaholism add to your schedule. These “habit attachments” can drain you of energy and time that could otherwise be used in pursuing your dream (or from her book theme).

She suggests that you need to understand the original value of why the habit was first acquired. Or what purpose is the habit serving in your current life. For example, are you chronically late because you are anxious when confronted with downtime and/or did you have one parent that was chronically late and does the habit provide a connection with them?

Connecting the dots can help you understand your attachment to the habit and opens the door for change. Julie Morgenstern states in her book “If going backwards doesn’t lead you to a brilliant insight, what is more important is to honestly and fairly identify what you get out of the habit now.”

So think about a the habit that you would like to change and ask yourself when you acquired the habit, who else shares the habit with you, how long the habit has felt like a burden, what value the habit currently has and is your reason for keeping the habit still valid. Asking those questions can help you get to the bottom of your habit and be used as a starting point to move you forward.

I am currently reading a fascinating book by John C. Maxwell entitled Thinking for a Change: 11 Ways Highly Successful People Approach Life and Work (Center Street 2003). This book really does make you want to change the way you think.

One chapter discusses using the potential of focused thinking, but in order to do so you need to clear away mental clutter and distractions. Today we are proud of our ability to multitask…doing many things good enough, but how many of them are accomplished at an excellent level. In the chaos of the day, focusing on your priorities and goals can take a backstage to the busyness of the day. So if you have been wondering why the things you say are important aren’t getting done this may be the answer.

The author suggests that focused thinking helps harness energy, helps develop ideas, brings clarity and takes you to the next level, but only if you get rid of distractions. He writes ”Don’t do easy things first or hard things first or urgent things first. Do first things first-the activities that give you the highest return.”

Making time to think and focus on your priorities without distractions makes sense. How can you achieve your desires without spending time on them? You get what you think about.

So what goal are you working on now and how can focused thinking help you achieve the goal? Think about it.

This quote in the book sums this up very well:

“Keep your mind off the things you don’t want by keeping it on the things you do want. “ ~ W. Clement Stone

Most of us who have experienced the snow and cold of this winter are definitely ready for the change to spring.

But are you ready to make a long-term change in your habits?

Studies have shown change happens in stages: thinking about change, planning change, making change and maintaining change.

Acknowledging where you are in the process can help you move on to the next phase through goal setting and action planning. Making a life-long change takes time and some effort. It also takes consistent daily practice besides commitment, challenge and control.

So determine what stage of change you are in, determine the actions you need to take and do it. You will be amazed at your progress.

If you are serious about making long-lasting change in your life, working with a coach can make a difference. For a free 30-minute sample session contact me.

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In your pursuit of finding more time, have you considered your mental clutter and how it may be stopping you from achieving your dreams?

Mental clutter is all the stuff you have swirling around in your head including personal and professional obligations, beliefs, goals, to-do lists, should-do lists and worry. Is your mind filled with too much stuff?

One way to remove some of the mental clutter is to get everything down on paper in a master list. But this really more about all the things you currently “do” in your life. Is everything on your list something you must do, should do or could do? There is a difference between a busy life and a cluttered life. You can be busy and still enjoy your life. If you feel tired, overwhelmed and frustrated it is time to assess things to see if you have cluttered up your life.

Start by looking at your master list and cross off all the things that you could do or adjust them. For example do you have to volunteer at your children’s school every week or can you do it twice a month? Just like reorganizing your physical stuff, you can reorganize your life to look completely different so you can meet your goals. Oh, and don’t forget to put time for you on the must do portion of the list. If you spend time on yourself you will have more time for others and enjoy it more. Know that you are in control of your life…you can make changes. What change are you going to make to de-clutter your life today?

In my previous post I talked about eliminating wasted time. The intent of finding more time is to spend that time on yourself so that you can decompress, focus on your priorities and achieve your dreams.

Here are a few more ways to gain some me time by zipping through your to do list:

Streamline your kitchen by
o Buying pre-cooked rotisserie chickens.
o Pre-prepping vegetables.
o Cooking double portions and saving for a second meal later in the week or freezing.

Cutting time in the grocery store by
o Creating a master grocery list, making multiple copies and checking off what you need.
o Developing a weekly menu, corresponding grocery list and sticking to it in the store.
o Shopping early on weekday mornings when shelves are fully stocked and crowds are smaller.

Even spending the smallest amount of time on you each day can improve your mood and your productivity. So even if you have just 10 minutes:
• Cuddle with your pet.
• Chill in the Zen spot you have created in your home.
• Listen to some relaxing music.
• Read a book.
• Focus on a craft that engages your artistic side.
• Lay a washcloth that you have run under warm water over your eyes to release tension in your head and facial muscle.

Just rethinking how you do things and creating opportunities for “me time” will help you relax and feel more balanced.