Good Time Management Means Less Stress
By Alex DeWoskin
Developing better time management skills is a topic many of our Chicago area clients bring up during counseling sessions. If you are like most folks, you likely experience a certain amount of stress trying to meet deadlines while also attending to other responsibility areas – like being a mom, dad, spouse, employee and so forth.
And because we live in the information age, a good deal of your time is probably spent wading through endless emails, “snail-mail” and voicemails. When you add it all up, is it any wonder you feel stretched to the limit?
Given the importance of having strong time management skills, the Chicago therapists at 2nd Story Counseling have come together to create a list of seven time management tips that we think might be useful in helping to reduce your level of stress while promoting healthier living.
We want to say here that many of the suggestions here may strike you as common sense. Still. It is important to read them all so that you gain a universal perspective on bettering your own organizational skills around the precious commodity of time.
Are you ready? Let’s jump right in!
1. Watch less television
There’s no doubt about it – television can be a major time robber. While we acknowledge that it is important to “escape” from the responsibilities of life here and there, T.V. can become addictive if left unchecked.
Instead of watching hour after hour of sitcoms and reality shows at night, consider making a list of 2 or 3 programs for the week that you really want to see and record them. Think of all of the extra free time you will have at the end of the day for attending to other things; like school work if you are in college or finally wrapping up that project you had started long ago but never got around to completing.
2. Change your Internet Home page to Google
We live in an electronic world with almost everything we do in some way interfacing with technology. All of this can add to up big time distractions. To the extent possible, it can help if you create change around those things that you can control. One of those things is your Internet browser page.
If you currently have this set to a news website as the default “Home” page, consider switching this to something that opens to a blank page – like Google. Many people find that by making this slight change, they are less likely to be pulled into the time snatching rabbit hole of Internet browsing. We recommend this particularly for our clients who have certain forms of ADHD or are otherwise easily derailed.
3. Clean your workspace, office and desk once a week
Over the course of time, things can start to pile up and become untidy. Here, we are talking about mail, books, memos and general paperwork. The more these items accumulate, the more that stress tends to build. They also compete for your attention in an anxiety producing way.
If possible, go through these piles at least once every seven days and toss out what is not important. By making a habit of clearing your desk off and organizing your workspace, you will not only spend less time searching for things but will also gain the additional psychological benefit of “purging” sources of anxiety.
4. Get enough meaningful sleep each night
The average recommended time for sleep is somewhere between 6-8 hours a night, depending upon which study you read. When you are pressed for time, sleep is often the first thing “cut” While this may be a short term solution to an immediate problem, over the course of time you end up doing harm to yourself. Specifically, we are talking about driving up your level of anxiety and stress and opening yourself up to potential depression.
Other health problems can come up as well because of a lack of sleep, including a lowered immune system. By making the conscious choice to get enough sleep, you will feel less stressed throughout your day. You might even have enough time to attend to a morning ritual, designed to help jump start your day into the positive!
5. Use the power of no!
Boundaries are those invisible lines we draw around ourselves to keep our identity and give structure to our lives. Just as it is important to be flexible and go with the flow – it is equally important to honor those personal boundaries that you have committed to. It is for this reason you need to get comfortable saying “No” to other people and by extension, their requests.
FYI: This tip may be hard if you are a natural caregiver. To help you in this area, we recommend visiting our counseling worksheets page and reviewing “The Power of No!” When you are able to successfully master saying no to others, you will reduce your stress level by leaps and bounds while also creating more useable time – for yourself!
6. Focus on one activity at a time
In this day and age, it is easy to get caught up doing many things at once, like sending an email while talking on the phone – or – writing a term paper while watching a basketball game. Dividing your attention between two or more activities results in less quality in the work done.
We already know from research that humans really are not that good at multi-tasking anyway. Give yourself permission to focus on one task at a time and break up what you are doing into chunks. By doing this, you might notice that you feel less stressed because you don’t feel pulled into so many directions at once. Why not try it for a day and see how it works for you?
7. Learn and practice healthy decision making
We are constantly faced with choices in both our personal and professional lives – where to eat, what new movie to see, what topic to present and what job we should take. Decision making requires a good sense of judgment, coupled with a healthy dose of compassion.
Some decisions can be made rather quickly, whereas those with long-term implications need more time to survey and process. And so we are suggesting that to the extent possible, limit the number of decisions you are involved with. Too many choices can equate to being overwhelmed. One way to determine what you truly need to be involved with is by practicing mindful living.
Final Thoughts
If you are looking for more practical and realistic ways to create positive change in your life related to time management, we would like to recommend the book, Successful Time Management for Dummies by Zeller. He offers a no-nonsense approach to the entire topic of time management with concrete solutions for everyday life.
Be sure to take our time management poll below and share with other visitors to the blog what you feel is your biggest time robber. It helps sometimes when we can see that we are not alone in various life challenges, such as what we are talking about here. Come back from time to time and see how your pick compares and please do discuss in the area below what you have found to be helpful in your own life with time management.
We hope you found the information shared in this post useful. Please Like 2nd Story Counseling on Facebook, Circle Us on Google + and share on Twitter!
