How Much Time Do You Really Have?

How much time do you really have?

I’d be willing to wager it’s not as much as you’d like to think.

On a Friday I like to review my task management system to assess what I intended to accomplish over the course of the week …versus actual results.

Do you do the same? If not, I highly suggest it as an end-of-week exercise. 

Admittedly, for a brief moment I experience that initial pang of not-completing-everything-as-planned. Know the feeling?

It’s completely natural to feel that way, we want to achieve great things after all …but let’s not berate ourselves!

First of all, it’s important recognise and celebrate what you did accomplish.

We often let what we didn’t do overshadow what we did do.

Secondly, for anything on the week’s agenda that didn’t come to fruition, acknowledge that you’re human and that there’s a good possibility you were a tad overly ambitious.

Nothing wrong with a good dose of ambition!

The trick, however, is in being realistic with our expectations of what we can feasibly achieve.

And this comes down to asking yourself:

How much time do you really have?

We get in trouble when we think we have ‘a whole day’ ahead of us, or ‘all week’ to get our work done.

On closer examination, you’ll find much of that time isn’t really there.

So put pencil to paper and work out how much time you think you had over the past week to accomplish what you planned.

• How much time did you have to start with?

• How much of your time was spent on commuting, coffee or tea breaks, meetings, emails and phone calls, meals, interruptions, social media, unexpected change in plans?

• How much available focused work-time were you left with?

Now, looking at the list of what you wanted to achieve, how much time was needed for those tasks or activities?

Add up all the estimates. You may be surprised how much you were asking of yourself.

Did your demands exceed what you had time for?

Put your findings into practice as you map out next week’s goals.

Once you uncover a realistic picture of how much time you’ve got on any given day, you’ll be in a better position to…

— Work smarter

— Prioritise tasks better

— Minimise or eliminate time wasters

Importantly, you’ll feel more productive and energised by your victories when your daily or weekly goals are realistically aligned with how much time you really have.

To your productivity and success,

Cory

P.S. Feeling overwhelmed by a disorganised diary? Struggle to keep pace with a hectic workload? Let’s have a a chat to see how I can help you!

Call me on +44 (0) 7590 069 900, email me on cory@corycook.com …or schedule a complimentary call using my online scheduler here.