Time management is harder now than it’s ever been – and getting worse. Why?

“The mere consciousness of an engagement will sometimes worry a whole day” said Charles Dickens (c.1850).

If Dickens felt like this when he probably had very few appointments it’s no surprise that most people are constantly anxious about what’s coming up on their schedule and very rarely relax knowing that they won’t miss something.

Despite apps, smart phones, smart watches, on-line calendars and reminders, how many times a day do you remind yourself about an upcoming appointment, call or deadline?

Most people can’t switch off their internal reminder system no matter how many other systems they put in place, so concentrating and focusing on one task is getting harder. If you break up your day into lots of little chunks of time, your productivity is massively destroyed even though the time available is notionally the same.

One of the greatest ways you can improve your productivity is by limiting the time you are available to other people.
If you work for yourself this should be entirely possible. Having control of your time is one of the main reasons many people decide to start their own business – but then they don’t use the privilege they created and give in to the pressure of always being available.

Figuring out where the pressure comes from is the key to dealing with it.
It could be because you think if you don’t jump when a client shouts, you’ll lose them.
It could be because you think you have to grab every opportunity because there may not be another one.
It could be because you’re still thinking about what other people will think instead of making your own rules.
It could be because responding to other people’s demands is easier that deciding what you really want to do with your time.

Does a day without appointments spook you?
Try blocking out a day a week to work on your business (or on yourself). If that feels like too much, try a day a month and build it up.

Can you ignore messages for a day?
Blocking out time means you don’t respond to emails, texts, WhatsApp or other messages – preferably that you don’t read them either. There are very few businesses where this will make a difference to anything significant.

What about the income?
If you need to work every hour to make ends meet it usually means there’s something wrong with your pricing and you’re attracting the wrong clients. This is a whole other conversation!

If you feel frazzled because you’re always thinking about what’s coming next, give this a try, and if you want some support while you experiment, get in touch!