By Trish Dozier, LA4HER Affiliate
It’s true; no one multitasks like a busy woman. And instead of actually doing something to reverse the damage that is done from this hyper-superb-quality, we generally power through it. We complain occasionally. We break down, get back up, and repeat. And we’re always growing. And with that, we tend to pile a little more on, well, because we’re good at it. There exists a moment that wakes some of us up from this cycle, and we navigate our course a bit to the left or right, whatever is needed. There also exists a moment where we can’t recover and end up in a place we swore we could never handle, but somehow… we do.
So, the common thread to the woman who is perfectly adept at doing too much, too often and undeniably well is… time. Father Time. The essence of time. Can somebody please turn back time?
Charles Darwin said, “A man who dares to waste one hour of life has not discovered the value of life.”
Robert Orben was genius with, “Time flies. It’s up to you to be the navigator.”
Lord Chesterfield reminded us with, “Take care in your minutes, and the hours will take care of themselves.”
And my personal favorite, M. Scott Peck with, “Until you value yourself, you will not value your time. Until you value your time, you will not do anything with it.”
So, I’m going to take the lead here and create an itinerary of time reducers that is going to leave me with one more glorious, necessary, hour in my day… below, you will see my intent for carving sixty new minutes out of every day that I didn’t have before. Which equates to a whole lot when you place it against the totality of yet another year that topples shamelessly against your calendar:
Here goes:
- As it stands, I build in 30 minutes of “wake up” time into my alarm clock schedule… I am not the person who can jump out of bed at the first startling reminder. But i recognize 30 is quite the buffer and represents more of a time warp than anything else. It’s not as if I am taking away from the very necessary sleep I need. I’m not resting during this time… typically; I’m pondering and anticipating things that I may as well be starting to actually do at that point. I will remove 10 and 10 only of those minutes in order to gain awareness. It’s a realistic number, and maybe over time, it will grow into more.
- I waste time double checking email (blackberry to email) every day. The simple answer for this lies in the settings I’ve put in place, but the honest answer is the obsession with staying over-connected. I am relinquishing 15 minutes of the unnecessary cross over in the name of peace. Which involves no rechecking. Just a quiet, painless delete.
- I talk quite a bit on the phone on both business and personal matters. It occurred to me that at least 25% of my conversations related to both aspects of my life are banter, useless, yet consuming. I will gladly let those go, not toward a talk that is curt or dry, but just better spent. The old adage of quality over quantity is responsible for 20 minutes of my blessed life, every day, at least, and this is my attempt to recover them.
- At least once a day I obsess over some superficial quality of myself that makes no difference to anyone, including me, at the end of the day. Some days it crosses over into time that is just plain stupid, and other days, it’s a glimpse of a time period that you scratch your head later over and wonder why it ever mattered at all. In rounding out the numbers, I am excusing myself from 5 minutes of this unnecessary responsibility. 5 minutes may seem minute, but any time not spent on something that ultimately chips away at your confidence is worth it. Baby steps.
- For at least 10 minutes a day, I act upon things that are not my business, passion, or interest. For the sake of the act itself. I am done with this. Perhaps it’s outside pressure. Or a decision made without enough clarity. Or just a plain case of “following.” I am worth more than giving something so valuable away because it seems like it’s orthodox to someone else.
That’s a total of 60 minutes. And, to be perfectly frank, I could probably extend the time allotment to a factor times five. But similarly to the New Year’s resolutionists who hit the gym with full force on the second of January, behaving as if this guttural force is going to translate into endurance… well, I prefer to take the realistic road.
We women are looked upon, so often, as Superwoman. We can make the most difficult of combination-challenges look effortless, and all the while it takes a toll on our psyche, inner being, and overall health.
I just created an hour that I intend to stick to, which will inevitably provide an infinite gain in the long run. I invite you to do the same.
MORE READING FOR YOU…
Add Hours to Your Day
No one multi-tasks quite like you. But one woman – even with ambitions like yours – can only do so much. Doing it all yourself often requires giving up the luxuries in life – like sleeping and eating. Delegating tasks away will ease your workload while empowering your team.
“Once you learn to let go, you can devote more time to leveraging your skills and going above and beyond – rather than getting bogged down in busywork,” says Aliza Sherman, co-founder of Conversify, a social media marketing agency, and author of PowerTools for Women in Business. Plus, delegating builds a network of capable, trustworthy individuals who can keep the world turning when you’re out of pocket. “If everything rests solely on you, productivity – and revenues – stop when you’re out of reach.”
READY TO DELEGATE?
Are you ready to let go? List all the tasks that you do each week, mark those that you could delegate and pass them on to a capable co-worker whose areas of expertise complement your own. Plus LearnThis.com gives eight easy tips to successful delegation, including brainstorming, making sure they understand the task and putting together a plan action.
When relinquishing the more complex tasks, consider putting instructions in writing or setting up a training session, suggests Oprah.com.
Test your delegation skills with this Wall Street Journal quiz.
Bonus PINK Link: Sherman offers five ways delegating can jump-start your career.
“The nice thing about teamwork is that you always have others on your side.” Margaret Carty