June 8, 2008

Time Planning - How do you handle falling behind?

Browsing through Yahoo Answers I've stumbled upon another nice woman with some questions about Time Management. Her name is Nicole and she says:

"I'm new to this so please don't laugh…

"Here's my question: How do you handle falling behind? Do you just continue to work through your list OR do you move on forgetting what you've missed just to keep with time? Also how do i get rid of the feeling of failure every time i miss doing something i planned?"

These are three excellent questions, so let's skip right to 'em then.

First let's have look see at some of the very interesting responses Nicole received.

One person had this to say:

"I rarely fall behind. I've got this weird mentality where deadlines seem to me to be of absolute importance, and failure is not an option. When I do though I just talk to someone higher up than me and see how I could get everything done, possibly by extending the deadline of my new tasks."

It seems this person works in a corporate environment and has the ability to lean on the higher management for support and possibly get some relief from their time pressured work load.

So essentially, this person handles falling behind by requesting extension of deadlines. Though to be sure, not everyone actually has the luxury of flexible deadlines.

Wouldn't it be nice though?

And I'm not sure Nicole can relate well to the corporate world, so let's press to discover a more naturally suitable solution to her situation.

Another person had this to say:

"We all procrastinate I suppose, but to set a goal, it must be attainable for one to achieve success. Even then… it's a goal, the idea that you set it to start with is success in a form. Don't beat yourself up, just get up dust yourself off and try try again."

This person makes a good point about being practical with your expectations (i.e. can't very well do everything all at once).

From my view though, procrastination is the inability you have to motivate yourself into action; and we cannot really be certain that Nicole has a problem getting motivated, can we? However we do know that she has difficulty the process getting thing done and tends to feel bad (like a failure) when doesn't get done whatever it is she has set out accomplish.

And the quest continues… (I saved the best for last

This one is by far my favorite response. Not because it's good time management advice, but because it is a common misunderstanding and classic mistake among the modern approaches to time management.

"The secret is prioritizing. Rank everything on your list based on importance.
Get the big stuff out of the way first, and then move on the the little stuff."

This my dear readers is exactly how innocent people get hurt!

Ok, ok… I'm joking, but only a little because this is very serious stuff.

It's this type of 'sound good' time management advice is down right harmful!

On the surface it seems like good advice, right?

Well let’s see… Just write down the top 6 priorities you need to get done, and do nothing else but them until they're all done, one by one…

And sure, it seems like common sense doesn't it?

Make a list of what you gotta do…
Prioritize the most important one's,…
And then do them one at a time.

But before you wreck your life, please consider relaxing into this very insightful article about the problems and solutions of time management (or preferably just continue reading…)

Now assuming you're still with me, let's go ahead and take a clean stab here at solving our friend Nicole's problem with time management, as per her first question.

How do you handle falling behind?

It's really important for you to realize that you will very likely always fall behind. No matter what you do, it is absolutely bound to happen at some point.

But it's not your fault.

Everyone has their own trouble with trying to manage their time with all the constant road blocks.

Career pressures… not enough personal time… juggling other people's demands… all those interruptions… and on and on.

Now here's the real kicker.

How Do You Get Rid of the Feelings of Time Management Failure

…every time you miss doing something you planned?

Typically it seems the hardest part is to really acknowledge that you are actually failing with time planning (remember your feelings are the key indicator here). Once you've done that (like Nicole has) then the next best thing for you need to do is identify what the root cause of your time management failure is.

In which case I HIGHLY recommend you download and absorb this extraordinary Free Time Management Report exposing the 3 techniques that cause total time management failure in today's fast paced modern lifestyle. It's 9 pages and formatted for fast reading.

Consider that in today's fast paced modern lifestyle your time planning solution must include both your work life and career development as well as your personal time management of leisure, rest, and play.

It must include:

The big things like - What do you really want to do, have, and become?
The medium things like - Where do you see yourself 2 years from now?
The small things like - How can you get your hair cut, mow the lawn, take the dog to the vet, AND drop Sally off at her tutor?

The only solution to successfully juggling all those areas seems to be the InstaTime System.