Are you managing your time, or is it managing you?

Susan Letterman White, BridgeTower Media Newswires

For many, fall is the season of too many demands for their time. Parents find their time commandeered by their children's school, social and sporting events. Office and work demands ramp up exponentially after the summer, as do the opportunities for social and professional networking.

Just when it seems as if you're managing a Herculean balancing act, the holiday preparation begins.

It may feel as if there is no longer the time to distinguish between important and urgent items on your massive "to-do" list as all outstanding tasks jumble together. Do you avoid and procrastinate, or do you instead approach every task as urgent and avoid relaxation and sleep?

Time management is the art of knowing what you want and what is important to you, the ability to identify the key goals and specific tasks in the near- and long-term future, and the willingness to prioritize your tasks regularly. These obstacles are often invisible because we forget that time is the resource for which we must plan and with which we practice the behavior changes that lead to specific goals.

Time management is the process of repeatedly answering the question: How do I divide and use my time to attain my goals? At its core, it is about making choices and prioritizing.

It's more difficult to manage your time if you are unsure about what you want or how to plan for your future. Without that clarity, you will avoid setting goals, lack the criteria to prioritize important tasks and eliminate unnecessary ones, and be unable to monitor how you've actually spent your time.

If you have any doubt about your wants, goals or vision of success, schedule time to figure out what is most important to you, what interests you, and what you are doing when you're so focused that you forget about time.

Frequently, poor time management results from invisible obstacles. Eight common obstacles are:

1) Preferring not to plan in advance and to keep options open;

2) Adopting an overly rigid stance and feeling uncomfortable changing a time-management schedule even when change is preferable;

3) Failing to plan for time to relax and recharge;

4) Failing accurately to identify and address urgent interruptions by being over- or under-sensitive to them;

5) Not managing email by checking it too often or not dealing with it when it's read;

6) Striving for perfection when unnecessary;

7) Not scheduling time for time management; and

8) Avoiding unpleasant tasks, causing anxiety and time-consuming worry.

It's easier to manage your time if you plan for obstacles in advance. Large projects with many components are more manageable if you break them down into discrete tasks and assign yourself due dates for those tasks. Then, create a "to-do" list for each day and cross off tasks when you have completed them.

Different people are vulnerable to different obstacles. To discover your obstacles, ask yourself:

1) What are your biggest time management challenges?

2) How does this affect your ability to live the life you want to live?

3) How do these challenges affect your ability to meet deadlines, build business, or delegate tasks to and manage others effectively?

Then, spend a few days tracking how you spend your time each day. What aren't you doing that is unpleasant but necessary, and what are you doing that is a waste of your valuable time? If you find concentrating on your important tasks to be difficult, what can you do to improve your focus?

Five ways to improve your focus:

1) Create a personal work environment that's comfortable and without distractions;

2) Take short breaks, stand up, and walk around every few hours;

3) Schedule time for relaxing, dealing with worries, and checking email;

4) Figure out when you are most productive each day and schedule your most challenging and unpleasant tasks for that time block; and

5) Address hunger and thirst by drinking enough water and eating regular meals.

When you manage your tasks and time well, you'll have time to enjoy the feeling of success as you achieve goals and give yourself the time to relax and recharge.

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Susan Letterman White works with lawyers and law firms to improve leadership, organizational and team performance, and marketing and business development. She is a practice advisor at Massachusetts LCL/LOMAP, an adjunct professor at Northeastern University, and the principal consultant at Letterman White Consulting. She practiced employment law for more than 20 years.

Published: Mon, Nov 05, 2018