3 Ways to Make Time Your Friend, Not Your Enemy
Posted on July 30, 2017 by Sami Toussi, One of Thousands of Career Coaches on Noomii.
Focus on meeting your goals with prioritizing your Most Important Tasks (MITs) on your to-do list. Invest your time to align with what matters.
I attended my first Strategic Coach workshop in 2015 and fell in love with Dan Sullivan’s time management method for small businesses. At that time, I was working 12-hour days, waking up in the middle of the night to reply to emails and sleeping in my office to meet short deadlines. I was holding time by a leash, scheduling even my bathroom breaks and wouldn’t leave the office because the elevator commute felt ‘too long.’ I barely saw daylight in the week, and not only was I exhausted, but my relationship was suffering, I was comfort eating feeling as though life was spiraling out of control. As hard as I worked, I always had a massive to-do list and I never felt like there was enough time.
That’s why I felt a huge rush of relief when I started applying the time management method, TheWeeklyPlanner to my work day.
If you’re anything like me and have struggled with taking on too much, this method will help you feel accomplished by focusing on the priorities.
I use The Weekly Planner as an important reminder that a successful work day should not only be about productivity, but also preparation and downtime. So if you are struggling with maintaining a work-life balance and managing your time, try breaking up your day into three-time stages: focus, free and buffer. This includes the following:
FOCUS time (70%) is used to grow the business or build your career. These are small action items aligned with your top three goals for the week. Dedicate this period to tackling the most important tasks (MITs) such as following up with existing clients, enhancing new relationships, business strategies, and marketing.
BUFFER time (10%) is used to strategize and brainstorm daily or weekly priorities. Do not forget this one, if you do you’ll be running around like a chicken with its head cut off. You want to be efficient, not productive. Think, what outcomes do I want this week? I like to write this at the end of each day so I know exactly what needs to get done when I get out of bed the next morning.
FREE time (20%) is just as it sounds, and it’s needed at least 10 minutes of every hour, stop working. You are no longer being effective. Ever noticed that when you are working on something for hours at a time, you’ve lost all focus? Use this time to connect with colleagues, get out of your workspace, and recharge.
5 helpful tips to work SMART:
Lean on a partner or coach to keep you accountable to reach your goals
Get your most important task done before 11 am and then deal with the miscellaneous tasks
Do not multitask, studies show that people who multitask are 40% less effective and multitasking leads to short-term memory loss
Remember to treat yourself when you achieve your goal
Stop, pause and reflect throughout the day. Are you on track to achieving your MITs?
How do you break up your day? Has the weekly planner helped? Love hearing from you! #success #strategiccoach #timemanagement
