Slowing Down With Better Time Management

Each month I bring together a collection of posts on a theme. This month’s theme is on time management. But not managing your time to cram more into your days, using time management to prioritise, re-align and slow down. After a pretty crazy six months, this is my aim for the rest of 2011.

1. Bizness Babes – Paperwork and Time Management

Slowing Down - Time Management
This is really a two for one deal! Bizness Babes is a not for profit organisation with a range of business training programs for women who want to succeed in business. They have just rebranded themselves and launched a blog and already have a couple of great post to get you thinking about how you can use your time:

  • Paperwork – a super tip on how to manage the financial paperwork
  • Time Management – “You don’t make time; you schedule time” – so very true! They have a free time pie chart you can download so you can analyse how you are currently scheduling your time.

2. How to Protect Your Time from Too Many Good Ideas

I loved this post from Rachel at Small Notebook. I have been heard to say a number of times, that I am not short of ideas, I am short of time.

I just don’t think it’s a coincidence that one of our biggest challenges is time management and priorities. We see the things that other people are doing and try to do them all.

If you are a blogger you should also check out Rachel’s fabulous e-book Simple Blogging (aff link). The book looks at how you can grow your blog while balancing your family life. It is such a calming read. It is the first blogging resource I have read and not finished it feeling overwhelmed with all the extra things I should apparently be doing!

3. Time Management 101: Determine What Your Priorities Are

Closely related to the above this post from Money Saving Mom, has a similar philosophy – you can’t do everything. What I like the most about this post is how her list of priorities, is much shorter than things which aren’t on her priority list.

4. What’s Your Minimum Wage?

This post has had me thinking A LOT! It has also helped me make some better decisions lately. Very simply the post highlights the importance of valuing your time:

I like this idea of setting our own minimum wage. In our quest to be good stewards of money, we often forget that time is valuable too. We shoo the kids outside — without us — so we can spend a Saturday scrubbing because a cleaning service is a “waste” of money.

5. How To Control Your “Check-In” Addiction

Best Apps For Conferences
I do love my iPhone (sad I know!) and I have been managing well. Emphasis on have. Bad habits have come back recently and I feel myself compulsively checking emails etc for no good reason. This post by 99% was a great reminder what a time waster this is.

6. Simplify Your Life with the Touch It Once Rule

This post from Productivity Your Way is smart common sense.

When you get the urge to set something down and deal with it later, think through what obstacles are in the way of putting it away right away.

7. 10 Things we Don’t Spend Time On

Simple Organized Living is a new to me blog. What we don’t spend time on, can be just as important as what we do spend our time on. My two favourites:

It can be really easy to over-think all my decisions, but that wastes TONS of time. So I’m trying not do fall into that trap and simply make a decision and stick to it. {easier said than done!}

I love coupons, rebates, and getting great deals — and I save a lot of money by being so frugal. However, my time is also valuable so I never want to waste time searching for EVERY single deal.

8. Scheduling Your Life

From the Huffington Post this article has a great list of questions to get you thinking about how you can make time for in your life for the things you really want to do, like this one:

Have I looked at my physical environment, at home and at work, to see what kind of structures I have created to support my schedule for living and working? What is reflected there when I do look?

9. 10 Benefits of Rising Early, and How to Do It

Leo Babauta from Zen Habits gets up at 4.30am everyday! While I don’t get up that early, all this year Mon – Fri my alarm has been going off at 5.45am so I can get to the gym before Mr I goes to work. It has been the best change I have made to my day. I don’t always necessarily feel like getting up, but I do it. Leo has great reasons for why getting up early works and how you can do it, like:

Do not rationalize.If you allow your brain to talk you out of getting up early, you’ll never do it. Don’t make getting back in bed an option.

10. X Minutes At

A recent find for me, this is a very cool online tool. x.minutes.at allows you to enter a website address, click go and visit the website via a new address for example http://15.minutes.at/theage.com.au/. I have this address in my bookmarks, so when I want to have a quick read of The Age Online Newspaper, I can do it here and it will present a pop up box after 15 minutes to let me know my time is up and to get back to work.

So I will let you know how I go with slowing down. How is the pace of your life at the moment?