Paying attention to your intentions allows you to management your time and energy.
Time management is important for both men and women. However, in a woman's brain there will always be more to do. The more stress a woman feels, the more overwhelmed she becomes. There are too many things for her to do before she can relax. The more exhausted she feels, the more urgent it becomes for her to get everything done.
For both men and women creating a more holistic paradigm of balance to your work and home life will help you from thinking you are running between compartments. This new dynamic equilibrium is meant to allow all the parts of life to work synergistically in a highly interrelated whole. A good place to start is taking an in-depth look at time management.
Take a Time Management Self Assessment for only $24.95
Stephen R. Covey in his book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, tells us that time management is all about organizing and executing around priorities. That does not mean just focusing on creating notes and checklists or having well-scheduled calendars or appointments to give some semblance of recognition and inclusiveness to the many demands placed on your time and energy.
Time management is not just about setting long and short goals and using your time wisely by keeping in mind the prioritization of those goals. Too efficient scheduling and control of time can be counterproductive. The efficiency focus creates expectations that clash with the opportunities to develop rich relationships and to enjoy spontaneous moments on a daily basis.
Because many believe that 'time management' is one or more of the above practices, people have become turned off by such programs and planners that make them feel too scheduled and restricted in their daily lives. For example, you could reschedule all your internal meetings for just 30 minutes. This would seem to be a logical way to manage time since there is only about 30 minutes of true productivity in a meeting set for an hour. However, time management is not about focusing on things and time but focusing on preserving and enhancing relationships and achieving results. A better way to manage time would be to cancel all recurring meetings with your staff and only ask them to come to you with major issues, not every little decision that needs to be made.
Covey tells us that two factors that define an activity are urgent and important. Urgent means it requires immediate attention. A ringing phone is urgent. Most people can't stand the thought of just allowing the phone to ring. Importance, on the other hand, has to do with results.
We react to urgent matters. Important matters that are not urgent require more initiative, more paying attention to. We must act to seize opportunity, to make things happen. If we don't have a clear idea of what is important, of the results we desire in our lives, we are easily diverted into responding to the urgent....and that....pulls us in many directions adding to stress levels and drains our energy bank.
The most important knowledge is self-knowledge.
Knowing what's important to us requires good, honest introspection. Changes in self-awareness lead to changes in behavior followed by important improvements in time management and work-life balance.
Zone in on your passion by knowing your life signature.
It doesn't matter what you have your sights set on...but they must be set on something. Hopefully, you have decided that just getting the job done and earning a paycheck is not enough. If you don't know where you want to go, it's unlikely you'll succeed in your career and life. If your goal is vague, seek specificity.
Life is not a dress rehearsal. It is the actual performance and you deserve to live your life by utilizing the best of your intentions and abilities.
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