Managing Your Time in 2007
Brought to you by Joan Kosmachuk, Professional Organizer
and Personal Life Coach

Most Days come pre-sliced
but sometimes if you’re lucky
you get the uncut loaf—
warm and full and fragrant,
all your own.
Think twice before you touch the knife
and mind how you butter your hours!
- Anne Lindbergh

As a new year unfolds, many of us resolve to spend our time differently than we did the year before. Your goals might be very specific such as “I want to spend more time reading”, or more general such as, “I want to be more productive with my time.” This month I’ve provided 4 simple steps for helping you to set, apply, achieve and measure your own time management goals in 2007.

1. What are your time management goals?

If you know what you value most in your life, it will be easier to set goals for spending your time in light of those priorities. If you haven’t already made a list of your key values/priorities, do that first and then create time management goals that will support the things you value most. One of my own personal goals for 2007 is to “spend my time more thoughtfully”.

2. Working out the Why

Evaluating why you may have fallen short of your time management goals in the past is a critical step in the success of any new goals you will set for 2007. What is eating up your time to such a degree that you don’t get to spend it the way you want to? Do you waste several hours each day looking for lost items? Is the balance between work and personal life too heavily weighted in one direction? Have weak boundaries enabled others to dictate how your time is spent? Do you have trouble delegating tasks to others? Do you procrastinate? Exploring the “whys”of past failures is hard work, but is essential to your future success.

When you think about how you want to spend or manage your time differently this year, you also need to know WHY you want things to change. For example, you and I might both set a goal to spend less time watching television in 2007 but our reasons “why” may be vastly different. Perhaps you want to spend more time with your family, have more “me” time, or have time to volunteer. As I think about this question in light of my own goal, “spend my time thoughtfully”, I want my television time to be chosen rather than finding myself watching an hour of television without having planned to. Knowing WHY you are setting your time management goals will help you to succeed. 

3. How?

Fail to plan and you plan to fail: With any new resolution we make for ourselves, it is critical that we have a plan. In the case of organizing your time, you don’t necessarily need to come up with that plan yourself. There are any number of time management plans readily available and one key to a successful plan is to make sure that it’s a good match for your lifestyle, personality, and goals.

Julie Morgenstern Time Management from the Inside Out (www.juliemorgenstern.com) uses “time mapping” as a means by which you can organize your hours and days. This works well for those who have a routine schedule. If your work hours are fixed, your weekday evenings predictable, your bedtime rarely fluctuates etc., this would be a good plan for you.

David Allen, Getting Things Done (www.davidco.com) is one of the most current time management systems for those whose lives are anything but routine. Rather than attempting to slot tasks into pre-determined times, Allen advocates action lists that make use of the time, tools and energy at your disposal at any given hour of your day.

There are dozens of other good time management systems out there. Your success lies not so much in which plan you choose, as in implementing the plan you choose.

4. I’ll know I’m successful by…

A final key in reaching our goals is to find a means of measuring our success in achieving them. For a great measurement tool, try using the phrase: "I'll know I'm successful by... and then add in a quantifier such as by "how often" or "how profoundly" or other qualifying adjectives that suit.  For example:  My goal is to “spend my time more thoughtfully”. My measurement phrase is: I’ll know I’m successful in reaching my goal by how rarely, at the end of a day, I regret how I’ve spent my time. You can see from this phrase that I intend to measure my success daily, and that the measurement is the absence of regret in how my time was spent. How will you know if you’ve met your time management goals for 2007?

“So teach us to number our days, that we might present to Thee a heart of wisdom” Psalm 90:12

If you need help with setting goals, finding a suitable time management plan and/or implementing your plan, consider getting professional input by hiring a personal life coach. To hire the services of Joan Kosmachuk, please email your request to info@simpleeffects.com or call 617-784-0707.