A New Take On Time Management

I’ve been asked by a friend to write a post on time management. It seems fitting at the beginning of each year to look at how we manage our time and “resolve” to manage it more appropriately as we begin anew. 

But other than this one tidbit of time management advice, I’m not going to write today about time management: How you spend your time should be based on your purpose, and your purpose should be captured in a mission statement to govern how you spend your time. 

Instead, in considering time management, I think it is worth reflecting on this quote from Raising Self- Reliant Children in a Self-Indulgent World by H. Stephen Glenn and Jane Nelsen: 

“Studies of successful, healthy people show that they are consistently good finders who see lemonade in lemons and glasses that are half full rather than half empty.  Incidentally, such people, who are quick to celebrate any little movement in the right direction, have very few problems with burnout and stress.  People who look at what they failed to accomplish during the day, not what they did accomplish, and who go to bed and burn themselves out in stress tend to invalidate themselves and others.  We need to be encouraging to ourselves as well as our children, and celebrate our own incremental successes as we go through life.” 

So if you want to manage your time wisely, my advice this year: Celebrate your successes, your “little movements in the right direction” and try to do more of it one day at a time. Don’t beat yourself up when you haven’t checked everything off today’s to-do list. Move what hasn’t been accomplished to tomorrow, and go to bed knowing that you did get something accomplished today. My hope is that you celebrate the accomplishments of each day and purposely connect them to something that connects to your personal purpose. 

What is the best advice you have received on how to manage your time?

Want some more traditional reading on time management? Here are some recommendations: 

Books:  Ready Covey: Seven Habits of Highly Effective People,  First Things First

Blogs:  Joseph Lalonde’s How to Improve Your Time Management Skills  (the comments on this post are also good reads)