What's Your Secret Sauce for Epic Time Management?

????The burning career question of the week:

Your newsletter last week on Work-Life BLEND resonated. What's Your Secret Sauce for Epic Time Management?

Great question. Do I ever!

Unsurprisingly, the topic of time management gets a lot of press! Research suggests time management is positively correlated with increased wellbeing, confidence, self-esteem, and higher measures of academic success, job performance, and workplace satisfaction.

Sounds amazing, right?

Aeon and Aguinis (2017) defined time management as using decision-making to structure, protect, and adapt time to changing conditions.

Before I throw a bunch of practical techniques your way, I want to preface that different techniques work for different people. Before choosing the best time management technique, consider these 3 points:?

1. Read last week's edition of "Ask the Expert." It holds valuable insights into setting priorities, understanding your energy flow, managing boundaries, making choices, and relying on your community. No time management technique will be helpful if you haven't reached clarity in these areas.
2. Do NOT go it alone. There is a time management technique out there for everyone! The key is finding the one that's right for YOU. Finding YOUR technique might require a bit of trial and error. That's OK-stick with it!
3. Consistency wins the race. Speaking of sticking with it, once you find the technique that works, USE IT-again and again, and again, and again. Consistency builds momentum and habits!

Here are 5 Stand-the-Test-of-Time (hehe) Time Management Techniques

1) CUT THE CRAP

Distractions are everywhere! Even the most expert time management gurus have things that can be eliminated. But what are they? And when are these distractions more likely to derail your progress?

Keeping a time journal is one way to gather these details. To start, spend approximately two weeks diligently tracking your time and tasks. After two weeks, analyze your time journal for patterns. Once these patterns have been identified, decide where you are able and willing to decrease time-wasting activities.

Here are a few examples:

Challenge: Obsessively checking emails, social media, message channels

Solution: Block specific times throughout the day for these tasks (e.g., ? hr at the beginning, middle, and end of the workday to check and respond to emails).

Challenge: Repeating the same task multiple times a day/week

Solution: Automate. Use templates. Ask, "How can I do this more efficiently." I get it; it takes time upfront to set up the systems, but you're saving yourself time and headaches in the long run.

Challenge: Procrastination

Solution: If a project or assignment seems too large to start, break the project into smaller, more manageable parts. Ask a colleague or friend to help. I work with doctoral students who have 300-page dissertations staring them down. Talk about overwhelming! We take it chapter by chapter, section by section. Reframing the project from a 300-page paper to ten 30-page papers makes the work much more manageable.

Keeping a time journal raises your awareness (with data!) of how you spend your time. Once you've identified time-wasting patterns, you'll have a better chance of combatting them.

??This technique works best for anyone who wants to cut a bunch of nonsense out of their day!

2) RAPID PLANNING METHOD (RPM)

Motivational speaker Tony Robbins developed RPM to train your brain to focus on a vision to make your goals a reality. To execute,

• At the beginning of your week, write down all the tasks that need accomplishing.?
• Group these tasks by commonalities (personal, academic, career, family, community). Your groups will depend on your tasks.
• Make four columns on a sheet of paper (Task, Result, Purpose, "Massive" Action).
• For each task, determine the result you want from completing (what), the purpose you have for completing (why), and the "massive" action you'll take to complete (how).

RPM is an effective time management method because it shifts focus from "task" to "results," which helps with motivation and clarity. You are more likely to stay committed and energized toward task completion if you understand the reason for your efforts. The other extremely helpful piece of RPM is the "massive" action plan, which breaks down large goals into manageable steps, reducing the burdensome feeling that larger tasks often create.

??This technique works best for individuals with long-term goals and those with large projects (students).

3) EISENHOWER MATRIX

The Eisenhower matrix (invented by D. Eisenhower when he served in the Army before becoming President) is a powerful time management tool that helps prioritize tasks based on urgency and importance.

First, list and categorize your daily tasks into four quadrants based on their urgency and importance. From there, you prioritize tasks in the "Urgent and Important" quadrant first, then move to "Important but Not Urgent," and so on. As with any time management technique, you regularly review and update your matrix to reflect new tasks and changing priorities as your day progresses.

Matrix Categories:

• Urgent and Important (Do): Tasks that require immediate attention and are crucial for your goals. Examples include crises, pressing deadlines, and urgent problems.
• Important but Not Urgent (Schedule): Tasks that are essential for long-term success but don't need immediate action. Examples include strategic planning, personal development, and relationship building.
• Urgent but Not Important (Delegate): Tasks that must be done quickly but aren't crucial for your goals. These can often be delegated to others (or automated). Examples include repetitive and administrative tasks.
• Not Urgent and Not Important (Delete): Tasks that can be eliminated to free up time for more valuable activities. Examples include trivial activities, distractions, and time-wasters.

??This technique works best for individuals with competing priorities, highly complex schedules, and those with leadership or strategy roles.

4) THE PICKLE JAR

I run this time management exercise with my doctoral students during our career development course, and it is always a huge hit!

The pickle jar theory helps you figure out what is useful and what is not useful in your daily life so you can plan tasks and set priorities more effectively. This exercise can be visual or tactile.

Supplies: Pickle jar, rocks, pebbles, sand.

To get started,

• Imagine all the TIME you have in a [day/week] fits in a pickle jar.
• The rocks represent the most important tasks that need to get done (finishing a client project, attending an important event).
• The pebbles represent tasks that need to be completed but can be done on another day or by someone else (prepping for an upcoming meeting, some administrative tasks).
• The sand represents disruptive, unplanned elements of your day (phone calls, text messages, emails, social media, etc.).

Consider how your daily tasks would fit into the above categories (rocks, pebbles, sand). Make a task list (with associated time-on-task), starting with the rocks and ending with the sand. Decide how you will fill your jar based on your task list and allotted time. Balance your time to ensure all your rocks, pebbles, and sand fit in your jar by the end of your allotted time.

Note: If you fill your Pickle Jar with sand and pebbles first (less important priorities), by the end of your allotted time, there will be little room left for the rocks (critical or most important priorities).

??This technique works best for individuals who are visual or appreciate tactile exercises; concrete thinkers.

5) JUST SAY NO!

My all-time favorite time management technique...Just.Say.NO. Harder said than done, I realize. Being presented with extra work disguised as opportunity, while trying to satisfy your existing personal and professional demands is a daily challenge.

However, there are major implications of taking on extra work when you're already overextended. The shortlist includes deterioration of mental and physical wellbeing, risk of failure in one or more areas of your life, and negatively impacted relationships.

The key to saying no is learning HOW to say no. Beagrie and McGee (2007) suggest practicing declining invitations in a neutral way where the implications of the extra work on available time are made explicit. This technique takes practice, but it is well worth it!

Here are some examples:

There will always be responsibilities, tasks, or assignments that are impossible to decline; however, having a clear sense of self and purpose can help delineate when NO is possible and when yes is in order.

??This technique works best for individuals with difficulty taking on too many responsibilities at once, feel overextended, or simply cannot say NO!

Remember: Time management isn't some magical gift - it's a skill. It involves clarifying who you are and what you want, prioritizing tasks, and developing strategies to handle distractions and procrastination. As I mentioned, these are five of the many time management techniques available. Figuring out what works for YOU is important. Then, with consistency and the right tools, you'll find it easier to juggle your responsibilities and carve out more time for what truly matters.

? The great news is that anyone can learn and improve time management with practice! All you need to do is GET STARTED!

If you're ready to work together to update your LinkedIn profile, target your job search, or explore your next career path, book a DISCOVERY CALL with me!

Until next Friday, thanks for reading!

Heather

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