It seems like my blog on Time Management struck a chord for many and in response I’ve put together a Free resource “12 Tried and True Time Management Tips for Busy Professionals” for those of you on my mailing list. To sign up just scroll down to the boxes on the right hand side of the blog titled Free Resources.
For me, one of the ways I find supervision most rewarding and most powerful is finding what works for the individual. We are each unique, with our own ways of doing things, priorities, values and personalities. Each supervisee I work with comes from their own work and family context and there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution to their time management challenges.
“The secret rests in developing habits that allow you to make the best use of the hours in a day”
Paula Peisner Coxe, Finding Time.
What I have pulled together in my “12 Tried and True Time Management Tips for Busy Professionals” e-book are some of the great tools I have learned by exploring time management theories, and applying them to my clinical practice. These are what I share with my supervisees. The tips are relevant to anyone in the people professions wanting to work “smarter not harder” in order to free up time to concentrate on the parts of life they most value.
Here is one example:
80/20 rule
Brian Tracey (Eat That Frog) calls the 80/20 rule “one of the most helpful of all concepts of time and life management.”
Also known as the “Pareto Principle” this rule says that 20% of your activities will account for 80% of your results. For instance if you have 10 items on your To Do list, two of those items will gain you more than the other eight items put together.
So when identifying your MITs (most important tasks) for the day, get really clear on what value each task has to reaching your goal. You will never completely empty your To Do list, but you can have a significant effect on those things that really matter.
One last suggestion before you jump in. Changing habits takes time (no pun intended). Choose the area of your work you find most frustrating (such as responding to your immense email list) and apply a strategy for a month then review. If you can’t find a strategy that fits your biggest headache, bring it to supervision and we can work together on it.
