Every day we dedicate less time and quality to the things we like, to enjoy a time in the company of friends or family, to have fun, to rest, to do something that is not scheduled; Because every day we live more stressed, with a greater workload, with the inherent concerns of the office or the house and we believe that the higher the position and the more responsibilities one has, the more busy one is and the less time one has to other things.
How many times have we not been victims of this phrase? Both as users and recipients. Either because it was the birthday of a friend and we did not speak to him that day, or because we met someone on the street and offered to speak to him that week to coordinate an appointment, or simply because to dedicate time to a call, appointment or meeting that it leaves our stressful rhythm and does not say a work agenda; It is unthinkable to us and a matter to which we should dedicate little or no time. The "Sorry, but I have not had time…" becomes the ideal phrase to publicize everything we do, the perfect pretext to give a reason why we have not spoken to the person in question or is just perfect because it gives foot to the answer: "Do not worry, I have walked the same."
It's sad but true. Every day we dedicate less time and quality to the things we like, to enjoy a time in the company of friends or family, to have fun, to rest, to do something that is not scheduled; Because every day we live more stressed, with a greater workload, with the inherent concerns of the office or the house and we believe that the higher the position and the more responsibilities one has, the more busy one is and the less time one has to other things. It would seem that they would have told us: "When you are a manager or director, remember that you must be difficult to locate, that you will not have time for your private life, that as you will have more responsibility, you will have to spend more time in the office" and, finally,a series of "warnings" that seem to be written in a manual called "What Every Successful Executive Will Face."
But the reality is that there is no such manual, nor is it impossible to combine all the activities one wants to do. Does it seem impossible? Perhaps it is lack of practice, but convinced that if it is feasible, then dear readers, I will try to expose some tips that believe me work and that I hope will be useful to identify and modify some bad habits that are acquired by custom.
Tip No. 1. Rest your mind
A few years ago, when I was working under contract, I used to have very heavy loads and working hours, and that taught me to think: "If I stay, will I finish it and take an earring?" Ask yourself the same question and if the answer is yes, then it is worth staying, finishing and taking off an earring; Ah! But if the answer is no, staying is not worth it. Why? Because if it is not going to end, you are not going to eat well, you are going to be late, you are going to get tired, you have to arrive early to finish and to top it off you will sleep badly because of the It is better to rest your mind, enjoy loved ones, dine at ease and sleep to rest and arrive early rested and clear. That pays off more than getting tired out of habit.The only thing to keep in mind is that late stays are not an everyday thing, because otherwise the problem is planning. Working more is not working better.
Tip. No. 2 Be clear on the course
Stephen Covey says that "If the ladder is not resting on the correct wall, the only thing it will do is take us to the wrong place sooner" And so, what is the use of doing many things, if they are not giving us any results ?! Thus, the first thing to do is to set goals. These must be real, measurable, and achievable. The shortest, and not necessarily the easiest, path is to ask yourself, "What do I really want in life?" The answer to this question will lay the foundations of direction and the place where you want to support the ladder and in this way the activities that you carry out day by day, should be focused on achieving what you want from life.
Tip. No. 3 One thing at a time
My grandmother used to say: "There is a place for everything and everything in its place" and time management is no exception. It is not about doing a single activity, but having your mind in one place. That is, if you are in the office, the mind must be at work; if you are in the house, the mind must be in it and in the family; if the mind is resting it should not be at work or anything else; if you are in the cinema, the mind must be in the film, not at work, in the family or on the earrings. In short, you can do as many activities as you have interests or abilities, the secret is not to mix slopes or activities, that is, one thing at a time.
Tip. No. 4 Use of agenda
The secret is not to schedule activities, but to fulfill the scheduled ones. An agenda is not just for work, it is a personal schedule and having clear where you want to support the ladder, it becomes so important to schedule a coffee with a friend, allocate time for sports, for some hobby, for family activities, or just time for oneself. The most important thing at this point in the agenda is learning to say NO to activities that interrupt this programming.
Tip. No. 5 Clean to rest
This point refers to keeping your desk or workplace clear of papers, having only what you are dealing with, because a saturated place tires the mind and also generates stress. What to do to achieve a clear place? You have to make use of what I have called DATT and that refers to not moving a paper if you do not intend to do something with it. That is, every time a document arrives (or e-mail, it applies the same) what I can do is: DELEGATE, give it to whoever is responsible for solving it and only follow up on it; ARCHIVE, if you require further attention, so I will know where you are and I will not have my desk full of “pending to do”, PROCESS, if what is required is to provide a data, make a call or answer an e-mail, ¿ why do it later,if it has to be done anyway ?! and lastly, what can be done with a document that is informative, or that is simply not of interest to us, is to SHOOT; Thus, DATT is reduced to: Delegating, Filing, Processing or Throwing. But whatever you do, handle the papers ONE time to keep the workplace and mind clear.
Tip. No. 6 "Do not put off until tomorrow what can be done today"
I am sure this is not the first time you have read this saying, but I am also sure that little is applied in your own distribution of time. This is the last tip that I will give you to manage your time, it has to do with NOT POSTPONING! One of the great thieves of time is to be full of work, (most likely because the first 5 tips are not carried out) and think after a while or then I will. Can you imagine if "after a while" or "after" were a deposit or a container in time? Surely this container or tank would be full of activities and things that were not done when they were due and of course when you get to that tank you will suddenly face everything you did not do and will saturate your mind, stress will not wait and I could almost bet that in the face of such an accumulation of activities I would say again… "I'll take care of it later".
I could give you many more tips so that you are the one who controls your time and not this one to you, but as I said, only one thing at a time, so I hope that these 6 tips are useful to you so that at least when Listen or say the phrase: "Sorry, but I have not had time…" Be more aware that what you are actually saying is: "Sorry, but I did not want to take the time."
