Take Charge Of Your Time

Time is the great equalizer we all have 60 minutes an hour, 24 hours each day, 168 hours each week, 8,736 hours each year. Do you ever wonder how some people seem so efficient with the use of their time while you are always running late, and chasing your time?

Prioritize

Here’s their secret: busy people make time, for the activities they decide are important. They also know where they spend their time. So ask yourself, “Where do I lose time?” When you find the answers to that question you will be on the path to saving precious time. It happens to me almost every night. I tell my husband, I am going upstairs to the office for an hour to pay some bills and do a few things. Three hours later from beneath the staircase a voice calls up, “Are you coming down anytime tonight?” Somehow time has a way of running away from me.  

Schedule

Enter my new best friend, the stopwatch. The stopwatch was invented by Samuel Watson in 1659. It was originally used for horse races. I was feeling a bit like a race horse shot out of the gate at full speed only to endlessly circle the track for hours with no real sense of accomplishment always missing the winners circle time and again. The modern day stopwatch, which can be found on all smart phones, has become my Robin Hood. Stealing precious intervals of time back for me to use more efficiently or put in my bank providing a well-defined starting and finishing line. One of my goals this year was to find more time to write, blog and use my creative juices. The stopwatch can help recapture time. It speaks directly to you, a private reminder that your time is up. Allowing you to track and block time more efficiently.

Execute

Time management takes discipline but poor time management can take a toll and result in fatigue, moodiness and illness. Part of execution means you chart your time and track your progress by setting deadlines and keeping them. Be sure take time to recognize that you have accomplished a major task or challenge before moving on to the next activity. Ask yourself a few questions: Do you have a healthy work, life balance? Are you accomplishing the priorities that are most important in your life? Are you investing enough time in your own personal wellbeing? If the answer is “no” to any of these questions, then reconsider your time management strategies and set your stopwatch for one hour and determine how you can make better use of your time and what would result in deeper more meaning fulfillment.