Time Management Blog

The Time Management Tip That Can Change Your Life

An extremely common source of stress on the job is largely self-inflicted: the chronic underestimation of how long a task will take.

Whether it’s a routine motion you have to draft, a “touch-base” meeting with a partner or staff member, a quick call with a client, or cleaning up your office, it often takes longer than you assumed (or you don’t accomplish all you had hoped in the time available). The result is the build-up of pressure as your day progresses.

The problem is rooted in unrealistic thinking about the activity at hand. And the paradox, of course, is that consistently coming up short on estimates (or not even considering how long a particular activity will take) leads to more stress and reduced effectiveness.

Fortunately, as with so many areas of performance improvement, the beginning of the solution lies in increased awareness of your thoughts and emotions in the moment.

Here’s a simple process that takes 20 or 30 seconds. As soon as you notice yourself moving on to a new task or activity:

Pause.
Think through what’s involved and how this kind of activity typically goes.
Determine the specific scope of the action/activity you want to accomplish; that is, the specific chunk of work you want to get done given the time you think you have or want to spend
Revise your mental schedule using the new, more realistic timeframe.

A good rule of thumb is to add 30% to the amount of time you initially give yourself (depending on the nature of the activity). If you finish early, great – you’ve got some breathing room when applying the process to your next activity.

How can you develop the habit of using this three-step process? One way is to keep a log for a few days: at the start of a task, jot down how long you think it will take, and then go back to record the actual time it took. By completing even one full page of such a log, you’ll have gotten your brain’s attention and will have reinforced the pause-think-revise process.

Remember, much of the stress that builds up each day stems from the fact that your internal thoughts and feelings about how long you should be spending on something are out of sync with how much time you’re actually spending on it. Getting your inner and outer worlds in sync puts you in greater control, reduces your stress, and makes you more productive.

Bill Jawitz is dedicated to helping Time Management for Attorneys , learn how to run great businesses and become happier, more profitable practitioners. While on the site, read more articles on Attorney Marketing written by Bill to find more ways to become more vibrant, more authentic, more engaged in your life as well as your work, effortlessly attracting business.

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This post was written by timepiece on January 24, 2010 Comments (0)

24; 1,440; 86,400; 31,536,000. What do this numbers have in common?

Imagine for a moment that Mr. Donald Trump came and told you that every day at midnight he was going to deposit $86,400.00.00 into your bank account. That’s $31,536,000.00 in a year. Now the money is all yours and you can spend it as you desire, but there is one catch (isn’t there always). You must spend all of the money in the 24 hour period. You cannot carry any over to the next day, everything must be spend; to the last penny.

Here is my question. How many ways would you be coming up with to spend that money? How creative do you think you can get. Would you still be a couch potato or would you re-prioritize your day to make the most of all that money.

Well, what $86,400.00 represents is really all of the seconds that you and I are allocated every single day. We can never get one of those seconds back, and we cannot roll those seconds over to the next day. Think about this every time you tell yourself, Oh I’ll just watch this show and then I’ll get to the task or I’ll get to that tomorrow, etc.

Time is a precious commodity. So next time you say to yourself “there just isn’t enough time in the day.” Well truth is there is 86,400 seconds to be exact. How are you spending those precious seconds? Learn to make the most of it. How do we go about doing that? Well here is a few to think about

Keep a “To Do List.” You will find how much more you get done every day if you stay focus on your goals for the day; and don’t let anything distract you.

Think of time as money and budget it as you would a bank account.

When running errands map out what stores or places you need to visit. Then try to visit those places in a circle or square sort of trip. That way you are not doubling back to somewhere you were already at.

TiVo or similar technology. You record all your shows and then when it is time to sort the laundry and fold it or some other similar task, you can do both a t the same time.

Well, I hope at least I got your thinking about it. Remember, we can never get yesterday back and tomorrow will just become your today. Do the most with it.

To get your very own free copy how “How to Live on 24 Hours” book, please visit

Manny is IT system Administrator with Intel Corp. who has recently started doing internet research on weight loss program and now also self improvement and internet marketing.

Examine Your Conscience

I believe everything happens for a reason, and ‘if it was meant to be, it will be’. So when I returned home from Las Vegas, I picked up the “Happy Pockets” book by David Cameron. The page it opened to said this, “Keep your goals always beyond your comfort zone. If you achieve all of your goals and fail to create new bigger ones, you stop to grow. That can be dangerous, even though it may feel comfortable. Did you know that most people start getting the symptoms and diseases associated with old age within a few months of retirement? Through retirement, they signal to their brains and body that life is now wrapping up, coming to an end, society does not require their services any longer, and certain functions can now start to switch off. Retirement is not the problem; it is the signals that people accept that is the problem. Again, there is nothing wrong with retirement, but watch your signals. The lack of goals to achieve can be dangerous to your health, unless it is what you wish to have.”

This is exactly what I teach and walk people through who are nearing retirement or who have recently retired. This is precisely why you often see people who have recently retired become sick or even die. Our mental capacity was meant to always be moving to the next higher level to maintain and thrive in life. Retirement is no different! You need to keep yourself challenged and moving forward toward life, not death. For the minute you believe retirement is death, your self-fulfilling prophecy starts to become true.

So take a few minutes to examine your conscience, and consider, what is it you are moving towards? I’d love to hear your comments. Pop me a quick email to let me know how this new found knowledge ’sits’ with you.

Tracey Fieber
Your Retirement Transition & Marketing to Boomers Expert, Creator of “Secrets to Retirement Success SystemTM”