Overloaded Schedule?

What I hear most from my clients and from others is that they don’t have time to breath. Really? Is your day that packed? Is your to-do list running your life because that is not the way it is supposed to go? It reminds me of this anonymous quote, “The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.” This hurried lifestyle isn’t greatest way to live the stress of it is mentally, physically and emotionally unhealthy.

Here is the secret to managing your schedule. You can not do everything. It really is that simple. I am sorry to be the one to tell you. You are not a superhero. Sometimes the way to gain room to breath is to let some things go that aren’t a priority and to shift your thinking. Your to-do list should not be running the show. Sure there are times or days where you need to hustle a little but it shouldn’t be every day all the time.

Short term help if you are behind tips:

1. Use the four Ds from Julie Morgenstern. Delete: What can you get away with not doing? Delay: What doesn’t need to be done today, this week or this month, Delegate: What can someone else do. Have a family-put them to work or hire help to grocery shop, clean your home, do yard work,  watch the kids so you can catch up, do the laundry and Dimish: What can you do in the easiest way? Need to bake something for school-buy it, need to do a report but did something similar before-edit it to make it fit.
2. Hire an organizer who has had training- States don’t have guidelines  for professional organizers so anyone can call themselves an organizer. Being organized yourself doesn’t mean you know how to help others. Before hiring ask about their training or check out their website. Are they are a member of NAPO or ICD? Why or why not?  Reading the latest trendy book doesn’t count as training. There are many areas of organizing find someone train for what you need.
3. Clear your schedule for a day. Call in sick if you must;dig in and caught up.
4. Do the hardest most dreaded task first-it will make you feel productive and give you the energy to keep going.

Long term help so you don’t get behind again:

1. Hire an organizer to set up systems that work for you
2. Consider writing a personal mission statement or goals. I highly recommend this and have had my client do it when needed. I have a personal mission statement and goals as well.
3. Spend time picking out keywords that define what your needs in life and what your values are. My needs are freedom, religion, order, and aesthetics. My values are humor, compassion, education and loyalty. Yours will be different. Needs are what you must have in life and values what you use in life. Spend time thinking about yours or go to a life coach or an organizing coach.
4. Say No the items that don’t match numbers 2 and 3.
5. Stop calling your to-do list a to-do list.
6. Start calling it a capture list or a menu of options.
7. Start putting everything on one capture list; actions you want to do count, actions that service a hirer goal count and both personal and business. You have one life so you should have one place to record its events.
8. Only put actions on your capture list that you will actually do.
9. The night before or the morning of pick four actions. During that day as other items come up, you can choose to capture them or to do them. If you notice there is an action on it that never get chosen, consider deleting it.
10. If an action truly will take less than 2 minutes; just do it.
11. Schedule downtime, social time, family time. You don’t necessarily need to commit to what to do during those times. The idea is just to block out your schedule so you aren’t tempted to schedule something else in there. What you do during those time can be spontaneous.

Top ten practical tips:

1. Sleep 7-9 hours. There is no substitute for sleep. It is important for your health.
2. Use task lighting and analog clocks.  
3. Give the task or action at hand your full attention.
4. Don’t write an email when a telephone call will be shorter.  
5.  Register with www.damchoice.org to reduce junk mail and spam.
6. Recycle as much correspondence as possible but shred any correspondence with your name or address on it.   
7. Schedule specific amounts of time to review and dispense with your mail, voice mail and email. Assign a time limit.
8. Have a shredder and recycle bin near where you process mail.
9. Be selective about newsletters you sign up for either hard copy or digital.
10. Schedule time and a half to twice as long as a task takes to buffer for breaks and interruptions.

Enjoy life!