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).
