Time Management

Happy Monday!  I hope you all had a great weekend!  I had a lovely time at my friend's baby shower, hanging with girlfriends while the boys entertained themselves with boats, cigars and future man-room ideas.  We let the day get away from us and ended up eating homemade pizza and rootbeer floats while watching a made-for-tv movie.  It was that kind of day.

Now the week's upon us and my schedule's looking a little full.  Staying on top of my calendar is my number one trick to time management.  You have to know the 'when, what and where' before anything else.  Here are a few other helpful tips for time management:

1) Make time for your priorities and make them consistent.  Exercise is high on my list, especially pilates classes and run club.  I keep those appointments on a re-occurring timeline so when something else comes up, I won't forget to schedule around them.

2) Be realistic about the time needed for an appointment.  Trying to cram too much to do into too little time will leave you in a frustrated frenzy.

3) Discuss your calendar with your partner: business, loved-one, children or others.  If your schedule tends to interact with someone else's schedule on a frequent basis, then keep each other up-to-date to eliminate confusion.  Create a joint Google calendar with your partner to keep track of eachother's events.

4) Know when your downtime is and use it wisely.  Sometimes I actually mark-off 'Downtime' on my calendar to remind me to run a few errands, catch up on my reading or just have some decomp time to myself.

5) Recognize the difference between a priority and a wish-list.  Priorities are things you are willing to make time for.  Wish-list items are things that you'd love to get done IF you have extra time.


Tell me, Appleshiners, what tips do you have for time management?

Also, here's a great article in the Wall Street Journal about being too busy (or so we think).