3 Strategies to Take Back Control of Your Time AND Your Life

I spent nine hours in meetings today.

My email inbox has 25,000 messages.

I didn’t have time to use the restroom until 3 p.m.

It takes me hours to fall asleep at night because I cannot turn off my brain.

I don’t remember the last time I did something fun.

I feel overwhelmed, stressed out, and frazzled.

My life is out of control.

Sound familiar?

It is time to take back control of your time and your life!

How? By tackling three of the most pervasive time wasters:

ineffective meetings, bulging inboxes, and your resistance to delegation. In my new video series I give you tips, tools and strategies to to overcome these time-wasters take back control and reclaim your life.   Here’s a sneak peak:

Drowning in Meetings

Meetings are wasting your time! Did you know that studies show we spend the majority of our days in meetings? Don’t get me wrong: an effective meeting can lead to innovation, but too often meetings are wasteful wastes of time. (And who has time to waste?) Ask yourself the following four questions before attending your next meeting:

1)    What is the purpose of this meeting?

2)    Did I receive an agenda for this meeting?

3)    Why was I invited?

4)    What will I not be doing if I attend this meeting?

If you don’t have solid answers, skip it.

Your Pigsty

Is that a pigsty disguising itself as your inbox? I thought so. We are simply bogged down by email – many of us slog through hundreds per day. And sloppy emails cost you hours each week, hours you could be putting to better use than writing or responding to unclear emails. 

If your inbox would be better suited for a pig, how do you clean up the mess? Here are 3 steps: 1) automate; 2) craft more effective email messages which are understood the first time and don’t require lots of back and forth; 3) use the subject line to improve email response time. I’ll delve into these steps further in my video, but trust me. In no time, your inbox will be sparkling.

“I Can Do it Myself!”

Was that my six-year-old wanting to pour her own cereal?  No? It was the Senior VP of Marketing?  You don’t say…  

You know you should ask for help when it comes to tasks that don’t allow your unique talents to shine. Delegating is a powerful skill to boost productivity! Yet so many of us resist for 3 reasons: 1) psychological; 2) organizational resistance/ lack human resources; 3) assuming the process of delegation is too time consuming. We’ve all had the thought, “It’s easier just to do this myself.” But delegation done well builds cohesive teams and lets you get to the work that matters to you. Overcome your resistance!

Remember: Your time is a nonrenewable commodity to be invested for your personal and professional growth. Conquer these common time-wasters and you’ll have more of it. In this series, I’ll send you an email each day with a video I’ve created just for this series. I hope you’ll join me!