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There are only 20 days until Christmas!!
How am I going to get everything done?
If you are a woman, you immediately believe that there is a definite sense of needing to do it ALL! If you are a man, you may not have realized that there are 20 Days until Christmas.
Do you have a strategy to maximize your 168 hours per week?
168 hours in a week!
That’s plenty of time to exercise, work on that blog, walk Buddy, have a real date night, and get your work done.
Ever say to yourself, “I don’t have time.” What you’re really saying is “it’s not a priority.”
If you know me, you know I love to exercise. It’s my therapy and my non-negotiable. I MAKE time for it! When my friends ask how I can squeeze it in, I schedule it. I can tell you when my fitness training sucks, then my life is a mess. Recently, I took a sabbatical to allow my body to recover from nagging lifetime injuries. There was to be no running or biking for 9 months. Drove me crazy. After two months, I started walking and using a Fitbit to track and engage with others. The results, both Buddy and I lost a few pounds and my recovery was much quicker. My life? Immediate improvement!
These are my 5 Tips To Managing Your Time in an Over-Connected World
1. Learn To Say No
“No” is a complete sentence.
“The difference between successful people and very successful people is that very successful people say ‘no’ to almost everything”. –Warren Buffett
This will change your life. When you decline to do something that you don’t have time to do, this reinforces your commitment to staying focused on your most important tasks. Set those personal boundaries and learn to decline non-essential commitments.
My colleague, Janet Bernstein wrote a post on LinkedIn about “Why Women Don’t Show Up and Feel Bad About It” Her number one item – they say “yes” all the time.
2. Keep A Time Log
While this is a labor-intensive exercise, it helps you understand how you spend your time. If you can measure it you can change how you do it and achieve more. How we spend our time is a choice. Make smart choices not mindless stupid ones.
3. Set Yourself Free from the Social Media Black Hole
Real life is not an Instagram or a Pinterest board. Sometimes we make life harder than we need to by putting pressure on ourselves to do it all. What is a priority for you? Are you living life at choice?
Take it a step further. Find the Apps that support your actions here to limit the time you spend on distracting websites.
4. Ask for and Get Help (No not the Therapy kind unless you might need that)
I am really good at several things, and then there are those where I truly suck. I avoid them, ignore them, and basically will wait until I am almost walking the plank into oblivion until I get them accomplished.
If you NEVER ask your co-workers, boss, spouse, significant other, or children to support you, then change that attitude today. If you don’t ask, no one can ever say yes or no. This is not a new idea however it is a proof to the value of delegating, hiring help when you can afford to, and letting others who are better at something than you are do their jobs.
5. Reward Yourself
Do you think top performers do it all themselves? The Nike Ad “Just Do It” is wrong and right. You cannot go 100% all of the time without eventually crashing into your personal wall of failure.
These are vital components to helping you run more productively and efficiently is time for yourself. That includes getting at least 8 hours of sleep a night. Schedule at least four hours a week for exercise. Take an hour for a manicure, massage, whatever makes you feel better. Look, including sleeping, exercise and an hour for yourself is only 73 hours. If you devote 50% of your life to you, just imagine how different you might be. Do you have time for being you?
There is only one you and you cannot take care of others if you don’t care for yourself.
Tell me how you are taking care of yourself. I would enjoy learning how others are treating themselves well.
Michael
PS – Take a look at our new website. I would appreciate your comments and feedback.
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