Time Management

Let’s talk about one of the most needed skills in today’s busy world: time management. How does a lack of time management skills keep you from being productive? How much of the week do you spend stressing on all the things that you have to do? How about feeling stuck in your email inbox, where you feel like you have to be connected the whole time? How about the  indecisiveness that’s consuming energy and brain power on figuring out what to do? And lastly, how about the distractions that we get from being on social media?
 
I think you get the point.

Sometimes, us women wear “busy” as a badge of honor. We get so busy being busy that we lose perspective on which tasks are of high value and which ones are not. We put our energy into spinning in our hamster wheels. The difference between efficiency vs. effectiveness is getting a lot of tasks done vs. getting the right tasks done. Which tasks will move your business or career forward? 

Perfectionism is another thing that holds most people back from being productive. I should know: I am a recovering perfectionist. Taking the time to overanalyze a task instead of submitting it and moving on is another waste of time. Instead, develop the mindset of “It’s good enough” and move on. Besides, what really matters is that you improve along the way, so learn to let go. It’s like a muscle: the more you do it, the more you get used to it. 

Multitasking is another time waster. By being halfway towards completing one task and switching suddenly to another, realizing much later that you didn’t finish either one, you waste energy by switching tasks and not completing them. It’s a strain on mental resources. 
I wanted to go over three of the most important time management goals that we all must have. 

1. Family & Personal Goals: how much time to spend with family.
2. Business & Career Goals: this is the means of how we achieve our family goals.
3. Personal Development Goals: your outer life will always reflect your inner life. 

A lot of times we find ourselves in conflict with these three goals. When that happens, I have three questions to ask yourself to keep yourself in check. 

1. What’s really important to me? You can ask yourself this question whenever you find yourself with too much to do and so little time. The answer you get is what you want to be doing.
2. What are my highest value activities? What can I do to add the highest value to my life? What do I enjoy the most that gives me pleasure?
3. What’s the most valuable use of my time right now? Since you can only do one thing at a time, you must get organized so that you can get the greatest joy and satisfaction from everything you do. 

Use your calendar--if you can't measure it, then you can't improve it. Track everything you do in your calendar and time block your tasks. Throw out your to do list. 41% of the items on your to do list are not completed. Structure and routine as many recurring tasks throughout the week so that you have time to focus on other tasks that are more important for you to make progress towards your goals. Also, by scheduling tasks and deciding ahead of time, you free your brain from finding excuses and procrastinating so it eliminates the need for brain drama.

Stay tuned for more great topics and tips that you can use in your life and business right away. If you found this post helpful today, be sure to subscribe because it will only get better from here. I cannot wait to connect with you here again next week!
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For more, I have a FREE “Guide to top 10 mental blocks for entrepreneurs” when you visit my website elonaloparicoaching.com where you can take these concepts further so they can help you right away.