I’ve pretty well always been good at time management. I’m very aware of how long certain tasks take and how much time I need to allot to them as to not be rushed. I’m not a procrastinator because it makes me anxious to wait.
And yet, scheduling 2 things a week that were out of my routine use to be severely overwhelming for me. I said yes to everything, leaving no room for anything extra.
Between 3 businesses, 2 kids, a household to run, food allergies and health concerns, I STILL sometimes have a hard time coping. More often than not, though, when I find myself struggling against the “not enough time-ism”, it’s because I’ve gotten so busy that I’ve forgotten time management is a mindset.
It’s not a set of things you do. Tips and tricks can help but ultimately, it’s all about how you perceive the world and your interactions with it.
They say anxiety occurs when we live in the past, present and future all at once. Our bodies can’t exist in all three times so when our mind tries to, we essentially short circuit. (Note this isn’t the only form of anxiety by any means)
Time Management Tip: Rewire the Brain for the Present
The next time you’re having an anxiety attack due to time management, take a step back and look at what you’re thinking.
More often than not, what’s causing the panic is the thought of:
- Not having enough time for everything on your to do list
- How things need to get done for future’s sake
- All of the tasks you have to do in the coming days / weeks / months
- Guilt over having “wasted” time or not been sufficient in managing it
- Things in the present moment holding you back from being productive.
The past, present and future circumstances all mixed into one pot.
Once you’ve pin pointed the precise thoughts that are causing you to panic, section them off into their appropriate boxes.
The easiest to get rid of is the past. Everything that falls into the past category: just throw it all out. It matters the least. What’s done is done and there’s no going back so resentment, guilt, all of that, it’s a complete waste of time and only going to put you further behind schedule.
Next, we set the future problems to the side. That’s something for your future self to worry about. Should we know where we’re headed? Definitely. Should we panic and obsess over things that aren’t in front of us today? Absolutely not.
Time Management Tip: Stay Present
The present moment is the only one that truly matters. It’s the only thing we’re promised. Right here, right now.
I’m an optimist but I’m also a realist (and Idealist) and the truth of the matter is, none of us know how much time we have. Those things we’re worrying about next week? May not ever come to pass.
We must know what we hope for the future and what things may need to be done when the likelihood of them coming around does. But we also should remain unattached to any outcome, situation or circumstance.
Trust that whatever happens, will be in our best interest as long as our vibrations remain in the correct state.
The noticing of your mind wondering to other time frames and the act of bringing it back to the present moment creates neural pathways in your brain. It strengthens these pathways every time you notice and every time you bring your attention back.
The stronger these neural pathways become, the more staying present will become second nature and habitual. It’ll become your normal state, reducing the amount of time management related panic attacks that come about.
A Mindfulness Practice
A mindfulness practice will help you accomplish this state of remaining in the present moment.
Note that it’s called a practice for a reason. You’ve spent your entire life up until this point strengthening those neural pathways towards dividing and panicking. You have to retrain your brain to focus on what’s in front of you instead.
Once you notice your mind has wondered to other unhelpful time frames and you bring it back to the present, engage your senses.
- Look around. What do you see?
- Notice the colors, the textures.
- What do you smell?
- What do you hear?
- Do you taste anything?
- What are you feeling? Both inside and out
- Are emotions present? Where in your body do you feel them?
Ground yourself in the solidity of the senses of your physical body. The only thing that matters is right here, right now. You can repeat a mantra / affirmation that helps you such as “right here, right now” or “Be in the now” or simply “now”. Whatever you like.
This is what’s going to make the most impact on your time management. Once you can train your mind to
Treat Your Time Like Money
Assign a dollar amount to an hour of your time. How much is an hour of your day worth? Say you chose $20 as a representation. If you spend an hour on Facebook, do you feel comfortable paying $20 an hour for being there?
Another way to think in terms of money is to assign each of the task on your todo list a dollar amount. Is this a $5 task or a $25 task?
$25 tasks help us reach goals faster and feel more productive. $5 tasks are little things that matter but don’t matter, like laundry. It absolutely matters but realistically it’s never going to be finished and it’ll just eat away at your time if you try to keep it caught up.
Mind, this is coming from a mom of 2. If it’s just your laundry, it may be a $10 task. Anyway, customize it to you and your life and don’t let the chump change steal away all of your time and energy. Focus on the bigger fish.
Time is our most valuable resource. Spend it wisely.
Know Your Goals
We waste a LOT of time sitting around trying to figure out our next move. If you’re super crystal clear on your goals and what you’re trying to build, you can reverse engineer them into a list of tasks required to get there.
Once you have your task list, look at your calendar and plan out when you’re going to implement. Actually schedule it in, give yourself a deadline. Color code it. Time block it. Utilize voice reminders on your phone.
Plan your butt off and spend at least 10 minutes a day, preferably in the evening, doing so.
When you know exactly what is on your plate, you don’t have to waste time wondering what to do next. You can just jump right into it.
Marie Kondo everything in your life that doesn’t bring you joy or get you closer to your goals. The clearer you are on the vision of your ideal life, the easier it will be to ditch that which isn’t manifesting that vision.
Spend the Time For Self Care
Time for your health will always be taken. You can either choose to give it a little every day, being proactive while feeling good, or you can neglect it and get sick.
At which point all of the time you didn’t take throughout the days will become collective, resulting in a whole week +/- spent nursing yourself back to health.
We don’t do our best work if we’re not feeling our best, which is a form of wasted time. If anything’s worth our time, we should put our all into it and we can’t do that if we’re not taking care of ourselves.
Likewise, we can’t give others our all if we’re not putting ourselves first. This is why I’m so adamant about self care. Too many of us leave our needs to the bottom of the to do list.
Make Sure You’re Living For You
I’m a “yes man” so I get it. We think “Yeah! I can do that!” because A) we’re nice, we want to help and we want others to like us. And B) because we genuinely know we CAN do that so why not!?
Saying yes to everything, though, especially that which doesn’t help us reach our goals and find joy, is a recipe for burnout.
Learning to say no to taking on tasks, projects and other things for people that siphon our time and energy is vital to not becoming overwhelmed.
By all means, help out when and where you can! But be conscious of your limits. We only have so much to give and some of us give it all away and leave nothing for ourselves to work with.
Respect your own boundaries and goals. Give them what they need to thrive. You deserve to live your best life and we only have 100+/- years to create it. Say no and delegate.
Explore Time Management Techniques
Experiment with different methods of time management and find what works best for you. Get creative. I spent about 3 years standing at the kitchen counter on my laptop because I had toddlers who were constantly needing things from the kitchen.
f I was already standing where I needed to be, there was a shorter distance between tasks before I could get back to work. If I didn’t, I was constantly being interrupted with getting up and down for things.
Other Articles You May Enjoy:
- How to Navigate The Stigma of Neurodivergences and Learning Disabilities
- How to Find Energy Patterns that Alcohol is Masking so You Can Find Purpose & Fulfillment
- How Past Life Regression Can Help You Understand, Heal & Create Your Own Reality
- How to Trust Your Intuition & Give Yourself Permission to Grow & Manifest Abundance
- How to Ease the Grief Process by Normalizing Death in Our Society & Culture
Author
S.S.Blake; Spiritual Life Coach, Yoga + Meditation Teacher and Founder of Earth and Water
LET’S BE FRIENDS!
Explore working with me to find your voice and share your message with the world.
