Do you feel like you are working all the time and yet always seem to be behind?  Are your spouse, significant other, or kids complaining they never see you and when they do you’re asleep on the couch in front of the TV from exhaustion?  

You aren’t alone.  I’d guess that almost every client I work with tells me one of their goals is better time management, which includes more time with friends and family.  They believe there is a time management technique they have yet to learn and once they do they will have the key and their life will be better. 

It isn’t true that there is a tool or technique that magically improves your time management and thus your life.  There are however mistakes most of us make that interfere with us being able to manage our time successfully, or at least get some level of control so we aren’t in a constant state of frenzy.  

Avoid these traps and you’ll reduce your stress and the constant hounding from others that you are never available.

1. Believing that if you had the key to time management life would be better.  Here’s the ugly little secret, there is no key.  There is no one technique or tool that if you implement everything improves.  Believing this not make you frustrated, it will actually cause you to waste more time, while you are looking for the solution.

2. Ignoring that you have a time management challenge.  How do you know you have a time management challenge but think you don’t?  You’ll hear yourself say things like “there is simply too much to do and it’s not possible to change this” or “as soon as this project is over or…, I’ll have time”.  

3. Not delegating or delegating enough.  Recently a client gave me a list of the 8 items he needed to complete and couldn’t figure out how to fit them into his schedule.  As we went through the list I asked him “who else besides you can do this”. By the end he had 6 of the 8 he decided he could delegate to someone else.  

4. Not planning your day and week.  Of course things happen that will interfere, and that’s part of planning…planning for the unexpected.  Every week I do a plan that includes goals and to-dos. This drives my daily plan. Each day I start by asking myself the question “what is the most important thing I can do today to move my business forward”.  You can adjust that to your department or the project etc. Or another question to ask yourself is ‘what is my high-value action item today? That action item would be the one thing you must do today or stated another way if this is the only item you completed today the day would be a success.  If you don’t plan your day and week you’ll get to the end of the week and realize there are any number of incomplete or not started items.

5. Being Inflexible.  All plans need to include time that is not allocated for meetings or anything else but simply open space because unexpected things happen.  No matter how well you plan you will get interrupted by a problem a client, a staff member…something. You have to leave unplanned time in your calendar to allow for interruptions and the unexpected.

6. Perfectionism can’t be the goal.  Often good is good enough and you have to stop there.  You don’t have to respond to every email, and certainly not where you were cc’d and it’s just for fyi.  I’m not suggesting doing subpar work, simply that striving for perfection means you put pressure on others to do the same, projects get delayed and you may lose an opportunity.  

7. Working all the time.  Yes I know your to-do list is long, the proposal has to go out, performance reviews are due, a report is already 3 days late…the list goes on.  I’ve worked 60-70-80 hours a week many times and I promise you that all work and no play makes for a dull, and often cranky person.

Get up every hour or so and take a break.  If the weather permits going outside can rejuvenate you. Have a cup of coffee or tea, just veg out and do nothing.  You’ll find this isn’t lost time, but time that can restore your mind and body so you will be more productive when you get back to work.

8. Watch your commitments. It’s easy to overcommit, and then under-deliver because you aren’t planning well or thinking through how long something will actually take.  Remember every time you say yes to something it means you have to say no to something else. It’s okay to go back to someone and readjust your commitment when something else comes up.  Disappointing and under-delivering isn’t the answer.

9. Trying something once and then pushing it aside.  No system or idea can work when you try it once and determine it’s not effective and quit using or use it once or twice and then go back to your old ways.  Commit to trying out an idea or system for a month or two and adjust as necessary before abandoning it.

While there is no silver bullet for managing your time, we do have some ideas to help.  Download the Time Management Checklist and find out what they are.