We all think we have a fixed amount of time - and that no matter how much we have, it’s never enough! But how true is that….?
If a family member became ill today, would we find the time to take them to hospital? If our car broke down would we make time to find a mechanic? If our partner surprised us with tickets to our all time favourite band would we go?
The truth is, time is elastic and it can stretch when we absolutely need it to be - when we absolutely have to do something we can find a way. But it’s often the case that for certain tasks, it suits us not to find the time - making that challenging phone call, delivering that uncomfortable feedback, completing that tax return - and we can put these things off. But this comes at a cost - stress! We know it has to happen, it plays on our mind, and by leaving it - the task can often get worse…now the challenging stakeholder is angry at being left in the dark/due to lack of feedback that colleague has continued to under perform, and now we have a late penalty charge to boot! My suggestion - get the tasks you least want to do out of the way early in the morning/early in the week/early in the month - then you can get on with what you really want to do without it niggling away at you!
But if your elastic is stretched so far it actually is ready to snap - maybe it’s time to review what is making you so busy, are the things you are doing giving you the results you are looking for? One of the ways I most enjoy supporting my clients is a time management workshop, which can be one to one or within a group. We look at their diary together and really challenge what is in there - and what value it is actually generating. It can take a fresh eye to see what you are too busy to see.
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