Archive for Time
How to Get Things Done When You Are An Emotional Wreck
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Even though I am still reeling from my son’s death, things still must get done – taxes, money stuff, work, prosecution stuff…
Here’s what’s been working for me:
- Have grief sessions every morning and/or evening. Just a time to let whatever you are feeling out – through music, journaling, art. Letting it out every day, makes it easier the rest of the day.
- Only choose 3 things that have to be done. On some days, just 1.
- Set the timer for every 15 minutes when you are in ‘get it done’ mode. When the timer goes off, check in to see if you are focusing. If you aren’t, you can choose whether to re-focus or take a break.
- Take breaks often. Whether you need to cry in the bathroom, take a short walk in the sunshine or call a friend.
- Slow down a lot. Bow out of duties. Cut down on social commitments. Overload makes things more difficult.
- Ask for help. The people that love you want to be able to comfort and support you. But they don’t know what you need unless you ask. I have a friend who is doing dishes twice a week. And food from the church 3 times a week. And lots of comfort, kind words and prayers.
- Get enough sleep. No need to add extremely tired to the mix.
- Keep checking in with yourself. When you know tears or rage are coming, you can get into a non-public place if that is what you want. But, you need to check in often to keep ahead. At least every hour. Ask yourself how you are feeling, what you need and if you need support.
- Decompress when you get home. Go for a nature walk, cry in the shower, connect with someone if you want to, ignore calls if you don’t, or do some yoga.
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Photo by: Punk Rock
Deliberately Simple
Posted by: | CommentsSimple living is deliberate living. In our current world, it is very difficult to fall into simple living.
Choosing to look at a sunset last week
We have to choose:
- How many hours we are willing to work
- How much TV, if any to watch
- How many information streams you let into your life – blogs, newsletters, twitter, facebook, etc.
- How early we wake up and when we go to bed so we can be refreshed
- How much we want to exercise and move our body
- What types of food to eat
- What to do, what to let go of
- Whether or not to make time for the people in our lives
- When to plan in your passions
We are making choices every day. But, too often we make decisions based on habit or what seems easiest at the time. We need to be deliberate. We need to see what decisions are coming up this week that we will need to decide. And decide with focus and clarity – which will bring me closer to my goals and to a simpler life?
Time Zones
Posted by: | CommentsI was talking with a client who wanted more structure in his life. He was thinking about creating a schedule with times like 8am the gym, 9am client work, 3pm clean off desk. I suggested the way that works for me – time zones. Too often if you attach times to routines, the minute you go off track you start thinking the whole day is shot (or is that only me?)
He immediately breathed easier. We both are the type of people that rebel against routine, but at the same time need the structure.
I just updated my Daily Rhythm which is in 4 zones:
- Morning (which includes exercise, quiet time, picking up the house)
- Working with Love and Attention (client calls, marketing, email, clearing desk)
- Time with Family (snack, outside, weeklies, paper, make dinner)
- Evening (after dinner chores, planning for tomorrow, journaling, reading)
No times attached. My client is doing 6 zones feeling the need for a little more structure.
We don’t need to plan every minute of the day, and we don’t need to put in things we already automatically do. I don’t have check facebook, watch TV or talk with my family in my routine because that will get done. It’s mainly for things I know will make my life run more smoothly, but I don’t always remember to do.
If something happens and I can’t get to something in my daily rhythm, I know exactly what is not getting done. That goes for distracting myself. I know if I turn on the TV for breakfast that means I most likely won’t get to quiet time and picking up the house.
What are your goals for the upcoming year? Do you have recurring activities that will help you in those goals? These are great things to put into your daily rhythm. If you want to lose weight you are going to want to find a place for exercise. If you want to learn a language, you might want to add listen to foreign language podcast to your routine. If you want to start meditating, you can add that.
What do you want in your Daily Rhythm?
Working Weekend
Posted by: | CommentsI have a client that did what I used to do. Say, "If I get my work done, then I can take a day off on the weekend." But, the mind is tricky.
Now, it knows it has an extra day. So instead of working with focus during the week, I would fiddle around some hours. I wouldn’t get my work done, so I had to work all weekend.
However, when I say, "I will take a day off work whether I am done with work or not," then I do what needs to be done to get what needs to be done. And then I get to play.
But, this only works keep your commitment of not working.
Can you take a day off next weekend?
Dealing with Overwhelm
Posted by: | CommentsI had someone ask how to deal with overwhelm.
First, take 5-10 deep breaths. This relaxes you, so you aren’t thinking as stressfully.
Next, get everything you are thinking about/worried about on paper or in a to do system so you know what you need to do. Not having things written down, gives you a constant nagging feeling like you are forgetting something. And you probably are.
Take some more deep breaths because you are probably panicky again. Tell yourself you have all the time in the world for what is important.
Chose 3 things on your list that are calling to you the loudest. If you can’t narrow it down, put the top list on scraps of paper. Turn them upside down and mix them out. Pick one out. Sometimes you’ll feel a "man, I should have chosen this one instead." That’s your intuition. So do the one the intuition said.
Once you get started on something, anything, it is easier to keep it going. It’s the starting that’s the hard part.
Put on a timer so you keep working until a break – don’t open facebook, twitter, call a friend or do something else until your break. Otherwise you may waste a whole day procrastinating.
If you are still having trouble getting started, ask yourself what you are afraid of. It’s easier to counter, if you know what is wrong. Overwhelm is a feeling brought on by the thoughts you are thinking. "I have so much to do, I’ll never get it done, it’s not fair, I am always working," is usually unhelpful and puts you in an overwhelmed state. But saying, "I have time, I am enjoying this moment, look how interesting this project is," puts you in a curious, better balanced state.
Overwhelm can be sneaky too. You start to feel overwhelmed and next thing you know you are watching TV, surfing the net or eating ice cream. You are oblivious to the overwhelm for a little bit. But, when you are done you are even further behind. So keep an eye out to what you do to pretend you aren’t overwhelmed.
And watch your expectations. Many times people get overwhelmed because they are trying to be perfect at all things and driving themselves batty. You are lovable whether your to do list is done or not.
What do you do when you feel overwhelmed?
Time Management Program
Posted by: | CommentsIn my blog comments someone asked what time management system is right now. I tend to play around with them and move to a different system when I find I start getting huge backlogs. This allows me to get rid of to dos that I don’t want/need to do.
The system I am using right now is Lean Kit Kanban with a word doc.
My word document is filled with todos (also called the master list). Then on Sundays I place 5-10 to do’s under each day of the week (later in the week usually has less so I can add what comes up during the week.) I add things to the Word doc as it comes up either under a particular day or at the bottom for next week. I like word because I can add bold, different colors, etc. And I can add the whole email task if I want so I don’t have to search for it later. I add a deadline to the task if it has one. Very fast and simple.
If I’m not at the computer I put tasks in a little notebook I have and clear out in the evenings.
Then for Daily planning I use the Lean Kit Kanban. It’s a system that uses post it notes in columns like you would on a whiteboard. You can put whatever columns you want. I like To Do, Doing and Done. The To Do column has everything I want to do that day, including daily routine items. You can use different colored post its for different things.
For me:
- Dailies are blue
- Financials are green
- Different clients get different colors
- Personal is pinkish
- Blog is purple
- Projects are orange
The doing column never has more than 5 items, though I prefer 3 items. These are my highest priority for the moment. This ensures you don’t have too many works in progress at one time.
When they are done they get to go to the done column.
In the morning or the night before I move my dailies to the to do column, add anything from Google calendar, and whatever is in my word doc for the day. (Daily chores are in the chore chart which we do after dinner, so they aren’t in this system.)
Here’s part of my Kanban this morning:
You can read more about Personal Kanban 101 here.
I like this method because it is fast and is not complicated. It is easy to personalize.
Have you found a time management system that is working for you?
How to Survive a 14 Hour Workay
Posted by: | CommentsLast week was full of long hours for a project I was working on with someone. Thursday ended up being 14 hours. When I told a friend that this weekend she said I must have been exhausted. That’s when I realized, I didn’t become exhausted that day. Here are some tips to get through a 14 hour day.
- If these are the norms, work on figuring out how to lesson your hours. Can you manage up by asking your boss what is coming up so you can prepare ahead of time? I don’t think working 14 hours every day is healthy.
- Exercise first thing to give you energy during the day. I took a short 20 min walk around the pond in the morning.
- Center yourself. Breathe, pray, meditate. Get your head and heart on straight before diving into work.
- Take lots of breaks. I took 5 minutes every 30-90 minutes. To walk around, straighten up, read a magazine article, breathe, talk to the kids, stand outside and look at the flowers. This kept my energy up all day.
- Eat lunch away from the desk. I had a short 10 minute lunch. But, I ate it outside in the sunshine.
- Have your family pitch in for dinner. I knew there was no way I could get dinner on the table that day. So my husband and daughter got dinner ready.
- Don’t let thoughts like, "I shouldn’t be working these long hours. This is ridiculous. I don’t want to be working." drain your energy. The more you resist what is happening, the more your energy fades away. Concentrate on what you are doing, wherever you are. Then later if you want to work out a plan so you don’t have to work so long next time, go for it.
Do you have any tips for long work days?
Why I No Longer Have a Paper Calendar
Posted by: | CommentsI didn’t buy a paper calendar this year. I had been phasing it out and now it’s completely gone.
I use Google Calendar, and it has simplified my life. You can see if it might work for you.
- You would no longer have to rewrite birthdays and anniversaries from old calendars. Or recurring appointments. You can set up daily, weekly, monthly and yearly recurring events.
- You can have your calendar anywhere. I can get it through Google mobile on my phone and there is no synching I need to do with other calendars. You can see it from any computer with internet access.
- You can import other calendars like holidays, TV show schedules, moon phases and people you work with closely. All you need to do is go to Other Calendars on the left sidebar. You can choose to browse public calendars, add someone else’s calendar, add a calendar if you know the URL, or import a calendar from things like Outlook or iCal.
- You can see all the calendars at once or only the ones you want to see by clicking on the calendar (s) in the left sidebar.
- You can get reminders through email, sms or as pop up reminders so you don’t miss appointments. You can even send events to others.
- You can get a daily agenda emailed to you every morning.
- Quick Add adds to the calendar faster than you could write it on a paper calendar.
- You can see daily, weekly, monthly, or four days with the click of a button
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- Searching calendars is easy with the Google Search right at the top of the calendar.
- I have gadgets that tell me the time in other time zones since I have clients all over the world and another gadget that tells me when my next meeting is.
What calendar systems works for you?
Help, I Am Paralyzed with What to Do Next
Posted by: | CommentsHave you ever been at your desk, surrounded by papers and todo’s completely paralyzed by what to do next? Or in the living room with kids running around and the house in disarray without the energy to do anything?
When this type of overwhelm happens to me, I do four things:
1. Take 5-10 deep breaths. This calms and lessens the anxiety.
2. Straighten up a bit wherever I am. If I’m at my desk, I clean up the area in front of me. Or if it’s not work time, I tackle a part of the house I am in. The clearer space creates clearer thinking.
3. Then I write out whatever is in my head – to dos, things I’m worried about, or whatever else is using up space in my head.
4. Next I pick 5 things I need to do, usually the most important 5 if priority is clear. I write them on slips of paper. Then I choose one to do. If I get a good, "Ok this is what is next" feeling I proceed. If I get the feeling I need to be doing something else instead, I will do what intuition says. But, once the task is chosen I don’t allow myself to waffle or I won’t get anything done.
Some days I need to keep picking slips of what to do next. But usually once I get the positive flow going I get momentum to continue on my day.
Photo by Jeff Gunn
Not to Do List
Posted by: | CommentsWhen the to do list gets too long and burdensome, it might be fun to create a not to do list.
For example:
I am not going to…
- Feel guilty constantly
- Plan every minute of my day
- Work straight through without breaks
- Sweep every day
- Drive things to school that my kids forget
- Let magazines dictate how I will look and live
- Watch TV more than 2 hours in a day
What are you not going to do?
