Have you ever noticed how really busy, well organized people navigate through their day? Do they seem frazzled rushing from one task to another? Probably not. People who have a lot on their plate know how to manage their time.
Otherwise, they'd be running from one thing to another putting out 'fires' and by mid-afternoon, drained of energy and sharp decision-making skills.
Most of us would like to squeeze more time out of each day, although knowing how, is another matter. The good news is you can do it. First, back up and look at where you can make changes -- chances can replace current habits with new positive ways to sail through your day.
The key is to plan to free up more down time each day.
1) Embrace the Planner in You
Many people feel like they are always a "day late and a dollar short." If you are missing out on life beyond office or house work because you have too many tasks and meetings stacked up every day, you are not alone.
So many people operate in that manner that a term has been coined to describe this behavior. This all too common problem is known as "the planning fallacy." That means people forget to factor in basic things when they are planning out time to do tasks.
Researchers at Carleton University have found that people tend to overestimate how long it will take to finish a simple task like cleaning the kitchen, but they underestimate how much time it will take to complete a bigger project like painting the bathroom.
Why do people under or overestimate time? Researchers found many times people don't factor in how much time it takes to do the basics each day. If you estimate it's going to take eight hours to paint the bath, are you also factoring in time to have lunch, make or return phone calls or take care of other things like prepare the room's surfaces and then clean up afterward?
If time is not on your side, follow these tips to have more get-up-and-go, and find more time and energy to do what you really want to do each day.
2) Prioritize and Delegate
Have you ever noticed that if you are in the house all day you always find something that needs to be put away, washed, dried, dusted, repaired, or spot cleaned? Sure, you may sit down and read the paper or watch TV for a short period of time, but then you notice the stack of newspapers and magazines that should be sorted through and tossed. And so the process of endless housekeeping starts anew.
Prioritize what you need to do then focus on those tasks until they get done. Instead of letting yourself be interrupted throughout the day, concentrate on the work at hand.
Here's a tip that busy people know: Focus on getting the difficult, most important tasks done early in the day. That way you'll have fresh energy and mental dexterity you need in case you feel sluggish later.
If you have too much work for the amount of time you have to do them, delegate. Sometimes you can rid yourself of many to-dos on your daily list by finding others to do them.
3) Do Tasks in Batches
Changing habits is not easy, but when you make a change you'll start seeing the positive results of your work.
Take emailing, for example -- are you constantly writing and responding to emails throughout the day? Take a tip from busy professionals such as physicians. They aren't emailing patients or other contacts throughout the day because they simply don't have the time. But they typically 'batch' these tasks. Emailing patients, for example, is done at once or twice a day, not sporadically throughout the day.
You can do the same thing with things that interrupt the flow of your day. Instead of going to the post office in the morning and running to the grocery store and library later, try 'batching these tasks" and do them all together. You'll save time instead of going in and out of the house to run errands more than once.
4) Weekends are for Week-End Pleasures
One of the hardest things for people to change is how they use their weekends. Many, especially those who work outside the home during the week, see the weekend as the time to catch up on household chores.
If that's you, of course you have more time to do home maintenance during an off-time, but are you really getting the most out of life with that schedule?
Consider the fact that there always will be housework. Always! The Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported that women who work full-time spend 15.1 hours a week (for men who work full-time, it's 9.6 hours) doing household chores. Of course that's far less than in 1965 when women spend 30 hours a week on housework.
So where are housework hours getting used today? You guessed it -- mostly on weekends.
Consider doing some of the weekend chores during the week and delegate a short time on weekend for doing them. Whatever doesn't get done on weekends try to roll the tasks into the new week.
If you can train yourself to do that, you'll free yourself up for more down time with family and friends on weekends. Those precious few days at week's end will give you more time to enjoy just being you.
