Make time for yourself.....

Study each of the following rules for making time and try to implement them in your own life:

Learn to say "No.'' Keep away from commitments that force you to spend time on low priority items. Be prepared to say, "I can't do this now.''

Banish low priority items unless you have completed all higher priority items for the day. The definition of low priority items is "they can wait.''

Build time into your schedule for interruptions, unforeseen problems, unscheduled events, etc. You can avoid rushing by making reasonable time estimates for activities, then adding on a little extra time for the inevitable crises.

Set aside several periods each day for quiet time. Arrange to be interrupted only in an emergency. Focus on deep relaxation using any of the techniques you have found useful.

Keep a list of short, five minute tasks to do whenever you are forced to wait or are "between things.''

Learn to do two things at once: organize an important letter in your mind while driving to work, or plan dinner while vacuuming.

Delegate low priority tasks.

Get up 30 minutes or an hour earlier.

Reduce television viewing: TV is a huge time waster. If you watch, make an agreement with yourself to write a one sentence summary of each commercial.

Block off your escape routes, when you have a top priority item to do. These escape routes include:

* schedule daydreaming for a later time
* stop socializing
* put away the books and the newspaper
* put away tiny, unimportant tasks
* don't run out for ice cream or other sudden indulgences
* forget errands or sudden bursts of house cleaning

Cut off non-productive activities as soon as possible, e.g., socializing on the phone when top priority items are begging to be done.

Throw away all the mail you possibly can. Scan it once and toss it or file it.

Stop perfectionism. Just get it done. Everyone makes mistakes.

Make a decision not to procrastinate

Every minute of your life you are making decisions. Even if you decide not to decide, it is a decision. If you let yourself daydream for five minutes, that is a decision. The important choices in life are usually composed of one or two early, "original'' decisions, and hundreds of little decisions thereafter. For example, you might have decided early in life never to suffer embarrassment. That decision could be supported by choices to procrastinate or relinquish any task in which you might fail or look foolish.

Many people have great difficulty in making any decision. This can be because they were blamed and criticized for choices they made as children. They decided very early to leave the decision making to others. The problem is that other people don't know exactly what you want or need, and they usually aren't worrying much about it. Even though the early decision not to decide made sense at the time, it becomes a liability as you develop into a helpless adult. Tracing back to the point of that initial decision can be the first step in remaking it. Awareness can help you recognize that poor decision at work in your life every day, and you can begin to discard it.

Here is a list of earlier decisions that may lie behind your current choice to procrastinate:

* Not to suffer more than a minimum amount of pain.
* Not to ever become really tired or work too hard.
* For everything to be easy.
* Nothing should be easy, but should be earned with hard work.
* Never to hurt anybody.
* Never to feel guilty, angry, or competitive.
* To be punished for having pleasure or fun.
* To be liked and accepted by everybody.
* Always to be taken care of.
* Always to "look good.''

Here are some specific ways to overcome procrastination. Know what you want to do, and realize that you will pay later for not acting now.

Recognize the unpleasantness. Any correct decision is often a little more difficult than an incorrect one, or making no decision at all. Face the prospect of how unpleasant the right decision may be. Examine the greater unpleasantness of putting it off or doing it the easy way. Look squarely at the cost and risks of delay. Use this information to create enthusiasm for getting something done in a time frame that will result in less overall unpleasantness.

Examine the real payoffs for not deciding or taking the easy way. For example, you avoid being anxious if you procrastinate. You won't call attention to yourself or have to face the possibility of failure.

Examine the advantages of avoiding whatever changes might follow from making a decision. You might have to face up to the difficult task of revising your self concept upward. You might have to give up your depression, or the secondary gain of attention that you get from being chronically unhappy.

Exaggerate your resistant behaviors. Exaggerate and intensify whatever you are doing that is putting off the decision to begin a task. If you are staring at yourself in the bathroom mirror in the morning instead of getting to work, draw it out. Really study all your pores. Go over each quadrant of your face minutely. Keep it up until you are really bored, and getting to work seems much more exciting.

Take responsibility for each delay. You are the one wasting your own precious time. Make a list of each procrastination or escape activity and note how long it took.

Decide everything now. Include in the decision when you will set aside all escapes to begin the task.

Prime yourself with lead in tasks. Let yourself into the activity gradually with a small but related task. If you have to mow the lawn, decide to go as far as filling the gas tank on the mower, then wheeling it out to the edge of the lawn.

Finish things, Avoid beginning a new task until you have completed every segment of your current task. The satisfaction of finishing a task is one of the greatest rewards in decision making.

Don't think about it. Just do it!

Now that you have read about these time wasters, answer the following questions in your journal:

1. What Time wasters prevent you from getting your work done on a typical day?
2. Identify activities this week that were ritualistic and relatively ineffective.
3. Identify tasks this week that could have been delegated.
4. What tasks did you do this week that could have been simplified?
5. What single activity or habit wastes most of your time?

Study your answer and take steps necessary to eliminate your time wasters.

Some ways to save time on the job

* Write down your ideas. Do not trust your memory, however good it might be!
* Set your priorities first thing in the morning, before any work gets underway.
* Use your high productivity hours for your high priority projects.
* Do not over-schedule. Leave two hours of the day free from appointments.
* Tackle time consuming projects in stages.
* Concentrate on one item at a time.
* When a day's work is overtaxing, get out for lunch. Plan to have lunch with a friend or do something recreational.
* Use your low productivity hour(s) for easy to do projects and casual reading.
* Work on the appointment system as much as possible.
* Carry a 3 x 5 card in your pocket to jot down ideas when you are away from your desk.
* Carry reading material with you at all times. Use waiting time to read.
* Use travel time to listen to or to dictate material on audio tapes. Utilize a car phone if possible (but be careful when you are driving-use speaker phone if driving).
* Set reasonable deadlines for yourself and others.
* Make decisions now whenever possible. If further information is not likely to change the ultimate course of the decision, do not wait.
* Batch items for discussion and talk at scheduled times. Do not make contact every time you have a thought or an item for discussion. Encourage others to do the same.

How to get yourself oriented to manage your time

To get yourself ready to manage your time better answer the following questions in your journal:

A. What is my time worth? How much do I get paid per hour? If I could save one hour a day, what would this amount to in the course of one year?

B. What is my job? What results are expected of me? Am I meeting a predetermined, definable purpose, or am I just drifting?

C. What have I been doing? At the end of a day, am I able to account for my time, or do I say to myself, "Where did the day go? I don't feel I have accomplished anything.''

D. Have I been doing the right things? Am I involved in work activities that rightfully fall under the responsibility of my subordinates? What are the five most important tasks I have to do?

E. How am I spending/investing my time? What results do I see for the time I spend on each activity? What would happen if some of these things were not done?

F. Am I goal oriented? Am I working toward quantified objectives? Have I established performance standards for myself? For my people?

G. Have I done any planning? When I arrive on the job in the morning, do I know what it is I want to accomplish during that particular day? Have I established priorities? Have I determined a hierarchy of importance?

H. Have I tried to manage, schedule, control my work and time? Is the job running me or am I running the job? Am I suffering from "brief caseitis,'' i.e., bringing more and more of my work home?

I. Do I delegate all possible tasks? Am I able to hand over more tasks to my co-workers or staff at work and to my spouse or children at home?

J. Does the time I spend on the job affect my lifestyle? Am I enjoying life and having fun, or am I so stressed from the pressures of poor time management on the job that the tension carries over into my everyday life?

Steps to making a time budget

The use of a time budget can help to organize daily and weekly activities for a more effective use of time. Complete Steps 1 through 5 in order to make maximum use of your time.

Step 1: List in your journal the things you do during one week's time according to the following schedule:

* Daily activities.
* Those done at definite, stated intervals.
* Those that you must do, but which come at unpredictable times and require unpredictable amounts of time.
* Those you would like to do if you had the time.
* Allow time for planning and thinking.
* Allow time for emergencies, the unexpected.

Step 2: Determine the time you now spend on each job or duty, the average time under normal circumstances.

* Spot duplications of effort.
* Determine those activities that could be delegated to a subordinate.
* Determine those activities that could be done in less time.

Step 3: Prepare a time table based on the above factors for each day of the week. Try to fix a time of day to do each job. Allow time for special and creative work. Take into consideration when budgeting activities those periods in the day in which you are at a high for energy level. Budget activities requiring less energy when you are at a low energy level. Plan your work so that you complete similar activities in the same block of time. This eliminates excess time in "setting up'' and orienting yourself to each new task.

Step 4: Use the budget, revising it when necessary. Use the sample Time Budget for a Typical Week at the end of this section to create your own time budget forms.

Step 5: If you are still unable to manage your time wisely, review the material in this section, return to Step 1 and begin again.