Once people enter the workforce they often struggle to deal with juggling between their family and work responsibilities.
Why is it that some people seem to achieve success in both areas, while many others continually struggle?
People fail to realize that a work-life balance can be better achieved through values-driven time management techniques. Of course, there are also those are aware of the approach, but fail to implement it for various reasons.
The Basics of Time Management Process
The human brain is so great and clever that it easily becomes bored and distracted. We may be thinking about other work while doing one task, or even musing things that are not at all related to the tasks we know we need to get done. We may even turn our attention to a new ‘task’ and forego the one we were attending to.
Effective time management involves documenting and following steps that help a person achieve greater efficiency in maximizing their time. Task analysis, list making and task prioritization are techniques being used in time management.
It may involve, but is not limited to carrying out any or all of the following steps:
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Write Things Down
Develop a complete understanding of all the processes that are crucial for the completion of a specific task. Writing these steps down according to the order in which they must be performed.
The importance of this step cannot be over-emphasized. Our goal-seeking mind can be trained to see each next step as a task to be completed and checked off. No matter how many times it has been done before. This creates a positive self-reinforcing loop that encourages focus on the tasks at hand.
Too many projects and jobs have no documented format or protocol and rely solely on repetition and memory. Taking the time and making the effort to document a procedure will lead to discovering wasted steps and potential improvements.
Individuals and businesses have made huge bounds in productivity by implementing procedure for every task in their sphere of operation.
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Tools
Use day planners, sticky notes, project management software, memo boards, memory tools, shared calendars and other tools that may serve as personal information manager to be able to ensure tasks are completed on time.
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Monitoring
Closely monitor the execution of each step as it occurs. Use previously learned techniques that helped increase efficiency. Identify those steps that indicate potential of creating bottlenecks.
Work-life Balance
From a personal perspective the goal of better time management is to enable completion of tasks more efficiently, with an end-view to getting more done with less stress and having more time left over for optional pursuits. When starting out in managing their priorities, there is a risk that a person may only focus on achieving their career goals while neglecting personal responsibilities in their family life.
Unfortunately, if the process of time management only emphasizes task completion while placing little importance on the preservation of work-life balance it can make a person even more prone to experiencing stress. Some traditional approaches being used in time management strategies increase the tendency to over-emphasize efficiency and completion of tasks, while the process of aligning actions with the person’s values falls by the wayside.
This kind of prioritization may set the stage for failure as it causes negative thinking, especially during instances when one fails to meet a self-imposed deadline for a specific task.
A trap to avoid is that of solely prioritizing tasks depending on their level of urgency or according to their set deadlines, without taking into consideration the impact on an individual’s values in life. When life is being managed well, there will be a greater focus on importance rather than urgency. With practice, important events will be dealt with before they become urgent, there will be fewer ‘squeaky wheels’ to attend to, and stress will be greatly reduced.
If you’re interested in more time management skills, be sure to check out my Facebook Group – A Pathway to Peace. I share live meditations and practical tips on how to live a life filled with more peace, joy and freedom.
