Many working parents do not appear to have enough hours in the day to do all the important tasks that they set out to achieve daily.
How sure are you about where your time goes during the working week? Many working professionals feel short-changed when it comes to fitting in their work, family and social activities.
Making effective use of our time is a skill that many people aspire to improving so they can enjoy a calmer and more balanced lifestyle.
The physical and emotional stress of everyday life can start to affect your well-being.
When this starts to happen, life seems to spiral out of control and almost certainly impact upon your personal values to be a good parent and a caring, loving partner.
To put this into context, in order to plan your time and daily tasks better you need to first of all recognise that you have to make some changes to the way that you currently do things.
It is important to recognise that you cannot 'manage' time however you can choose to manage 'yourself' more effectively and this will impact upon your time in a positive way.
Therefore, you will begin to assess what you can realistically achieve each day against what you want to achieve.
Many of us like to make mental or written lists of what we need to do usually as we go about our daily routine.
How effective is this method for you? Do you feel guilty or frustrated when you don't achieve everything you set out to do? This report will help you to analyse the reasons behind why this may be continually happening.
Here are some top tips to overcome habitual methods when it comes to managing our time: 1.
Over Planning: Some parents have many work and family related tasks as well as social events that the like to plan for and do so however they essentially set themselves up to achieving too much in a short timeframe.
This can result in no time allocated for unplanned tasks or activities that arise in the day.
Panic sets in and feelings of overwhelm and under achieving habitually lead us to believe that we are poor at time management.
TIP ONE is to plan time in your diary for reactive tasks that may arise unexpectedly or urgent jobs such as a report, telephone call or email.
2.
Procrastination: Many people put themselves under time pressure to complete longer tasks without breaking these down into smaller tasks over a period of time.
Long-term tasks or ongoing projects can be completed successfully if planned into your everyday routine tasks.
This strategy will stop you from worrying about getting started and will prevent you from procrastinating about where to begin and what needs to be done.
TIP TWO is to break down any big task such as planning a holiday or writing a book or report by first making a list of all the immediate activities related to your big task that need to be done over the next two weeks and then the longer term activities that need to be done over the next two to three months.
A mind-map in your diary or placed on your desk is a great visual way to keep you on track.
Make sure you have a date and time to complete each task and set aside five minutes per week to review how you are getting on.
3.
Time to Plan: Many people say they do not have time to plan their day.
Remember the saying, 'If you fail to plan, you plan to fail'.
Well to overcome this you can start to set a time limit to each task you want to achieve by deciding how long you would like to spend on it.
This will not only help you to manage yourself more effectively but will support you to plan better for a similar task next time! TIP THREE is to become time smart and know exactly where you time is actually going each day.
Invest just five minutes per day to sit somewhere quietly and check what you have achieved and what remains outstanding.
A daily time log is a great strategy to monitor what you are doing and how long it is taking you.
Do this for five days and you will start to notice that you are increasingly in control of your time.
The daily time log can be created easily on a sheet of paper (typed or written by hand) with the following headings: What I did/ Time Activity Started/ Time Finished/ Did I Complete This?/ What Do I Still Need To Do?/ Was This A Planned Activity? Next, take action! Start to fill in your daily time log every day over the next five days.
Include everything you do in your working week, one day at a time.
If you like to plan your day, then on the back of your time log write 'to do' list with no more than five tasks that you simply must get done and slot these into your time log, choosing when you will do them and how long you plan to work on them.
Finally, spend five minutes to review your time log at the end of each day and praise yourself for your achievements.
Unfinished tasks can be written onto the new time log.
So to sum up, follow the well-known method to achieve your goals: Plan it, Do it, Review It.
Best of Luck!