It’s easy for things to get in the way of your best efforts to manage your time. Most commonly these barriers will include issues like inefficiency, overwhelm, interruptions, lack of prioritising, and not setting limits. By taking some simple steps to manage these challenges you can become much calmer and more effective. Many of my clients come to me because they want to take control of their time and stress. Through coaching you can deal with each of your challenges to managing your time and learn how to get on top of things and lower your stress. Here are some pointers to unravelling what’s getting in the way of you making the best use of your time and how to begin to overcome them.
Efficiency
Many of us feel busy, yet just being busy does not mean we are achieving what we want or need to achieve. Coaching will help you understand what factors contribute to any inefficiency and how to work smarter rather than harder – so you achieve more in less time. You will learn how to set systems and routines for dealing with things in the smartest way possible and how to help you focus better and feel energised so you find it easier to cope with all your demands.
Think about your current efficiency and where it could be improved. When and how do you work your best? What systems or routines would help you get through the tasks you have to do in a more time-efficient way?
Overwhelm
When we have many responsibilities and demands it’s easy to feel overwhelmed. Coaching will help you look at your workload and how you are dealing with it. You’ll discover ways to reduce your feelings of overload, how to work more efficiently and how you might reduce the amount of things you deal with. You’ll also find out how to prevent tasks becoming too onerous and how to deal with any backlogs you already have. You can even discover how to use your ‘to do’ list so it works for you rather than simply providing another reminder of all the things you haven’t achieved.
When do you currently feel overwhelmed with things to do? What ways can you find to reduce the amount of work, tame your ‘to do’ list, or get started on tasks and successfully complete them?
Interruptions
Even perfectly formed plans can be disrupted by unexpected events. If this affects you, coaching can help you minimise the impact of those interruptions and take better control of your time so you can maintain your focus and achieve the things you want to achieve. It will also help you recognise how you contribute to your interruptions and give you strategies for dealing with this.
Think about when you currently find yourself interrupted from your work. Why and how is it happening? What is within your control? What changes could you make? How can you minimise both the interruptions and their impact?
Prioritising
Coaching will help you identify what you need to deal with first. Once you’re in control of your time, you’ll be able to stop rushing around chasing ‘urgent’ deadlines and instead find time to deal with the things that are important to you. This is easy to establish if you’ve started from your goals – the things that are really important for you to achieve. You can also learn how to change your goals from aspirations to reality through setting in place a simple but effective action plan.
To what extent do you currently deal with what’s urgent rather than what’s important? What can you do to change this? When will you change it?
Setting limits
This is about knowing when to stop and when to say ‘no’. Coaching will help you take control of your time through recognising your limits, learning how to respond to your needs, and how to say ‘no’ whilst still holding onto your self-respect and the respect of the people around you.
Ask yourself what boundaries you currently set for your work or things you need to do. Are they sufficient or appropriate? Are you giving time for the important things or are you just ‘keeping busy’? What changes do you need to make? Then set yourself some realistic actions to achieve this.
Overcoming the things that get in the way of you managing your time can lower your stress, increase your well-being, and improve your relationships. You will get more things done and feel in control your time and your life again. So what step will you take today?