“Lack of direction, not lack of time, is the problem. We all have twenty-four-hour days.” ~ Zig ZiglarWorking for myself has taught me the importance of managing my time. If I don’t, my day gets away from me.
A long workday with a lot of large tasks that all needed doing yesterday can be overwhelming. This is especially true if you are prone to procrastination or if you aren’t sure where to start on even one of those projects.
When I worked as an HR Specialist, my coworker and I talked about how our days didn’t belong to us. We were two reps for approximately 300 employees and since most of them worked in the field for most of their day, when they came into the office it felt as if we needed to meet with them because that moment may have been the only opportunity they had to come into the office. It didn’t matter what time of day they popped in. We felt we had to stop what we were doing and help them. Good customer service. Right?
Our boss listened to us for the full fifteen minutes we sat before her complaining about why we couldn’t get our work done. HR is a deadline driven profession and there were deadlines we had to meet to send our numbers over to corporate HR.
When we finally stopped talking, she said, “What you guys don’t realize is your time is yours.”
Had she not heard a word we said? How could our days be our own when there was no rhyme or reason to when an employee might drop in with a human resources question.
After that conversation, my coworker and I made a huge calendar on the wall where we broke down all the deadlines and individual tasks we each handled. From there, we made our individual daily schedules.
To mitigate the distractions caused when employees simply walked into the office looking for help, we developed a daily office schedule where only one of us would handle the walk-ins. If an employee needed to speak with a specific person, they had to make an appointment with that rep.
Were all the employees happy with this arrangement? Of course not. Some even complained to our boss about having to schedule time when they were used to walking into the office any time they wanted. Our boss had our backs. It took some training, but once employees became accustomed to the new process, they began asking for appointments.
Takeaway
You have control of your day. Every action you take should move you toward reaching your goals. It may not feel good to tell a friend or neighbor you need to get back to work, but it will be worth it when you reach your goal. It didn’t feel good to tell employees they had to schedule appointments to talk with us. We had built relationships with many of these people. In the long run, the process we put into place helped us have better control over our day and time.
Tomorrow, we’re going to look at how creating a schedule will help you be more productive.
Affirmation
I have the tools to manage my time effectively.
I am in control of my time, and I am in control of what does and doesn’t get done.
I am aware of what needs to be done and I stay focused on that.
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When you’re feeling overwhelmed with your To-Do list or life, you need a little positivity. Head on over to my website and grab my free Positivity Journal: https://patriciabumpass.com/
