Author: emilyschwartzspeaks@gmail.com

Living In The Blur

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If you ever work from home, whether it is just a day here and there or whether it is part of your permanent schedule, you know about the blur that occurs.

It happens when you could have sworn you were at your computer, but suddenly you’re doing your second load of laundry. When you realize it’s 10:00pm and you’re still working. When you draw the mailman into a twenty-minute conversation because it’s the only social interaction you’ve had all day.

Working from home requires careful time management skills to keep the blur between work and home life under control.

Many people find working from home to provide greater flexibility in their day, but that flexibility can be a detriment if not managed correctly. When personal tasks and work tasks become too mingled during the day, the work tasks have a tendency of taking over, thus turning your 8-hour work day into a 24-hour one. The following three strategies can help remove the blur from your life and keep work squarely in its place.

1) Designate your Work Space

When your work is spread out over the entire house then you’re never able to escape it. Designate one or two places in your home as “work spaces.” This way, you can feel like you actually leave work when you’re done for the day and won’t be tempted to just work from sun-up to down down. Remember: you work from home; you don’t want to live in your office.

2) Plan Time for Personal Tasks

It can be tempting to let personal tasks distract you when working from home. For example, you could be on your way to the bathroom and see a pile clutter of that needs to be put away, or a dish that needs washing. If you stop to take care of those things, pretty soon, you’re no longer working and instead you’re cleaning your house. This just makes your work day stretch on forever. Designate a separate time during the day to take care of these things so they don’t distract you while you’re working.

3) Make Time for Networking

Working from home can be extremely isolating. Invest some time in finding opportunities to network with other professional in your field. This allows you to find out how other people work and bounce ideas back and forth. You’ll never find better, faster or more efficient ways to do things if you never branch out and observe life outside your home office.

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Photo Credit: Sura Nualpradid

My Productivity Bracket

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Have you filled out your bracket yet? Basketball? No. I’m talking about your productivity bracket.

We all know what it feels like to be pulled in a million different directions. When we accomplish work, it didn’t just…”happen.” It beat out many other priorities that day. This bracket is a tribute to the countless  time management battles we all fight each day. What tasks would you add to your bracket?

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Spring Forward

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Ever feel like time is just disappearing as you’re trying to get everything done? Well, this weekend, time really did “disappear.”

Unless you are fortunate enough to live in the great states of Arizona or Hawaii, you lost an hour today as we Sprung Forward for Daylight Savings. Don’t worry. You can make up that lost hour with a few  time management strategies. Try these time management tricks this week to make up for your missing 60 minutes.

1) Kill a Time Killer
Remember, Time Killers are those little things that waste our time without our permission.  Little things like email, Facebook, YouTube and Internet surfing can be necessary for communication and fun Desserts…but only at the right time! Don’t let these things prolong your work by distracting you.

2) Invest Your Time
Over the past few months, I signed up for an email management service for my mailing list and a database to keep track of all of my citations for my school papers. Both of these services took time to figure out, but I have more than recouped that investment in the time these services ended up saving me. Have you been putting off a similar time management investment? Waiting for later? What better time than now? Do it this week.

3)  Delegate
Do you remember when you were 7-years old and you’d try to slip extra food on your dinner plate to the dog while your mom wasn’t looking? Oh how times change. Now that we are all grown up we try to heap more tasks on our plate and take care of it all ourselves. This week, pick one thing and delegate it. You don’t have to have a staff working under you to delegate. It could be as simple as asking a family member to help out, or hiring out a household chore if you can afford it.

And don’t worry, you’ll get that lost hour back in November anyway!

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Photo Credit: Idea Go

March Fo(u)rth!

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Have you been putting off starting that one big project? You know, the one that has been at the bottom of your list forever just waiting for “some day” when you’ll finally get to it? Well, that “some day” is today. Just ask your calendar.

March Fo(u)rth!

Today is the only day of the year whose date is a complete sentence, and its message is important.

“March forth and conquer that last lingering task on your list. Reclaim your day and your productivity!”

(OK, so maybe it doesn’t say all of that…but that is how I choose to interpret it!)

We all have those tasks that seem to cling to the end of our list and never go away. The worst ones are the tasks that no one is “checking up” on for us.

If I miss deadlines for work, I’m definitely going to hear about it. If I turn in a paper late for my doctorate, my professors will ask for it. However, other types of tasks tend to get pushed to the bottom of my priorities when I know I’m not accountable to anyone else.

I have told myself that I need to try to set up a book signing for my new book, but I’ve been putting it off. Nobody was pressing me for it and it was easy to push it down my priority list. But no more!

Today, I will March Forth to the local bookstore to get the ball rolling. It will only take about an hour of my time and I will be so happy to finally check that task off my list.

What will you march forth and do today?

Btw, if you enjoy amusing calendar dates, you won’t want to miss  “pi day” on March 14th (3.14) and Star Wars day on May 4th (may the “fourth” be with you.)

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Photo Credit: Michael Marcol

Have You Trained Your Understudy?

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Many of us are content to do everything ourselves. In fact, we often ensure that we do everything ourselves by not telling anyone else how we do things. But what happens when we need other people to help us out? Think of those people as your understudies.

As I was watching Wicked for the first time on Friday night (because I don’t catch on to things until years after they are popular) I flipped open the program to see if any of the leading roles were being played by understudies that night. After all, I had paid a lot for these tickets and I was going to be bummed if I didn’t get to hear the “real deal.”

Then it occurred to me, we all have “understudies” in life, whether we plan to or not. No matter how hard we try, there will be a time where we simply can’t do everything. Either we’ll get sick, an emergency will come up or we will have just over-committed ourselves. The better we get at letting people help us, the easier it is when these situations arise. After all, the “show” must go on, and you don’t want the “ticket holders” in your life to be left hanging.

“If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.”
How many times have you used that phrase as an excuse to not let others help you? It’s easy to point to other people’s failures as a reason to not delegate, but did you really set that person up for success?

Consider what would happen if the understudy for a major Broadway musical was given no script, no choreography and no direction. He was simply left to figure it out. No one would be a bit surprised when the performance crashed and burned would they? Make sure you don’t do the same thing with your understudies.

1. Take time for training
While it seems like taking the time to thoroughly train someone on a task takes far too long, it actually saves time in the long run. Give the person the right tools to succeed and you won’t have to waste time redoing it later.

2. Consider the person
Make sure the person you are asking for help has the skill set necessary to complete the task. You won’t ask a soprano to be the understudy for a tenor.

3. Assess
Make opportunities to assess the work others help you with. If something goes wrong, don’t simply take the task away. Help fix it. This will allow the person to learn rather than fail.

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Photo Credit: Phanlop88

Time Management for College Student Survival

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Below is an excerpt from my new book, “The Time Diet Time Management for College Survival.” This section deals with one of the common pitfalls of college: procrastination. Don’t let poor time management skills affect your favorite college student. Pick up your copy today on Amazon.com for only $11.99!

Procrastination: The Enemy of Time Management

“Sometimes we procrastinate because we can’t find the time to get everything done. However, there are other times we procrastinate because we just really really don’t want to do our homework. We know we should work, but work isn’t fun and watching college sports and reality T.V. is. Don’t worry. You’re not alone. Even the best students feel like this sometimes. Here are some ways to motivate yourself to do homework you just don’t want to do.

Break a large project into smaller pieces

The best way to combat laziness is to break up a Meat task into smaller pieces and tackle them one piece at a time. For example, if you have a research paper to write, you may not want to start it because it seems like such an immense task that you don’t have the energy to tackle. Watching TV, going to the gym or getting a root canal all sound more appealing than starting something so overwhelming.

Instead, break the large project into smaller chunks that are more manageable. Instead of saying “I’m going to start my research paper today” say, “I am going to start my research paper today by compiling a bibliography of library sources.” Setting smaller daily goals makes a large project feel more approachable.

Promise yourself a reward

We can all agree, there are a ton of things in life that are more fun than doing hard work! Instead of having the mindset that your work is preventing you from doing something fun, just re-frame your thinking. You are still going to both have fun and get work done today, but you are just going to switch the order around a little bit. When you finish compiling your bibliography for your research paper, then you are going to reward yourself with a 10-minute chill-out session with your iPod, or run over to the Student Center for a smoothie.

Be creative with your rewards. Rewarding yourself with a lengthy break or Dessert task every time you finish a difficult chunk of work is not always practical. Instead, be creative with your rewards, particularly if you are trying to save money and a java mocha chiller just isn’t in the budget every time you need a pat on the back.

A reward can be as simple as stepping outside for some fresh air, eating a few jellybeans from your drawer stash, or texting with a friend. Finally, remember that putting off your homework won’t make it go away even though you really wish it would!

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Graduation is coming up. Instead of presents that will clutter a dorm room, why not get some time management advice that will help students succeed? They will thank you later. Click here to buy on Amazon: The Time Diet Time Management for College Survival

Time Management is Like a Box of Chocolates?

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With Valentine’s Day around the corner, no doubt many of you will be receiving a box of chocolates. This holiday always reminds me of one of my favorite cliché movie lines (which I am only actually quoting here because some of my readers were still in diapers when Forrest Gump was released).
“Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re going to get.”

Here is how that applies to time management.

Always put your all into tasks because you never know where they are going to lead.

Opportunities have a way of presenting themselves in unusual ways and you never know where different tasks and experiences will lead you. That’s why, before you dismiss a task as a frivolous waste of time, look deeper. Sometimes the potential is sitting just beneath the surface.

From Hobby to Opportunity

For example, a few years ago, I wrote my husband a song for Valentine’s Day (yes, that’s cheesy and no, you can’t hear it!) I knew next to nothing about recording music, but I wanted this to sound good, so I learned everything I could about the music software Garage Band. At the time, I remember thinking this project was consuming far more of my day than necessary, but it was interesting and fun.

After I finished that project, I realized what a great teaching tool Garage Band could be and started to use it in my classroom…

…which led to me giving several presentations about music technology at our state conference…

…which led to me helping my school district design and implement a music technology class…

…which led to me being asked to teach a Garage Band class at Arizona State University.

I could have never imagined this little project several years ago could have lead to so many cool things, but it did!

If something is interesting and fun for you, make the time to pursue it. By the same token, if something you have to do appears boring and wasteful at first, how can you use the knowledge you’re gaining to do something more beneficial?

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Photo Credit: Simon Howden

Time Management Karma

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No doubt you heard about the “golden rule” while growing up: treat others as you would like to be treated. MaybImagee you didn’t realize that it also applies to time management.

Treat other people’s time as you want your time to be treated.

I’m not saying you should always put the needs of others before your own, but it is all too easy to always put them last, and that just isn’t fair.

For example, have you ever been working on a project and had to stop because you needed one little piece of information from someone else? You send out an email or make a phone call and leave a message. Then you wait…and wait…and wait. You know that an answer will take about 30 seconds of that person’s time, but waiting for that 30-second answer is putting you days behind on your work.

Or what about this: Have you ever planned your day around meeting a friend or a colleague, only to have them cancel at the last minute for something they surely new about ahead of time?

These are examples of other people interfering with our carefully managed time. It’s easy to get angry, impatient and frustrated but sometimes we need to take a long, hard look in the mirror and ask ourselves, “Am I treating other people’s time the way I want mine to be treated?”

Mistakes happen, people get busy, emails get buried and appointments get double booked.  The key is to apologize and then don’t make it a habit. People want the importance of their time to be acknowledged. Think twice before you make a last-minute cancellation or move your colleague’s email request into the “do it later” pile.

If you respect other people’s time, you may find that yours is respected as well.

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Removing the Weight From Your Schedule

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Having excellent time management skills requires a feeling of control. As soon as the feeling of control goes away, your stress level increases and you become far less productive. That’s why it’s sometimes better to devote time to the task that’s weighing on you the most, even if it isn’t necessarily the most important thing you have to do at the moment.

For example, I had a big presentation coming up that, for whatever reason, was weighing on me. I found that while I was trying to work on more immediate and pressing things, this presentation was all I could think about.

I’d been having extremely productive workdays, but I didn’t feel productive. I may have been accomplishing important things, but the one thing that was stressing me was still looming.

Even though it wasn’t my most pressing deadline, I needed to devote a little time to this presentation or I was going to continue feeling stressed and not in control of my day.

I finally just dedicated a few hours to sketching out ideas. Seeing my thoughts down on paper gave me so much more confidence in my ability to finish this project. Pretty soon, I had a solid outline of what I planned to talk about, and my stress level had significantly decreased.

My presentation was far from finished, but I now felt I had a handle on it and had a clear mind to devote to other more pressing tasks.

Do you have a looming task that is stressing you out? Carve out a little time to get started now, even if the deadline is far away. Otherwise, the pressure of this impending task will just continue to build and start to interfere with your ability to focus on other things. The best way to remove the stressful weight of a task from your shoulders is to just do it.

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Time Management Paralysis

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Sometimes, when we have so much to do that we become overwhelmed with all of our impending deadlines, we freeze up and end up accomplishing nothing. This is what I call Time Management Paralysis and it is a huge hurdle to overcome in our Time Diets.

Time Management Paralysis is a problem because it causes our stress level to rise and our productivity level to sink. It isn’t caused by laziness or disorganization. It’s caused by a hectic schedule and a lengthy to-do list where everything seems of equal importance.

This week, I had to overcome a serious case of Time Management Paralysis. I went up to my office, sat down at my computer, looked at my list of tasks…and froze. I didn’t know what to do first. I’m staring down a jam-packed month of seminars, conference presentations, deadlines and projects. Everything I needed to do seemed like a big, daunting task that had to be a priority. When everything is a priority, nothing gets done.

Here is how I regained my productivity.

Four Steps to Fight Time Management Paralysis

1) Calm Down
It may seem simple, but a huge part of Time Management Paralysis is all in your head. If you spend too much time thinking about the huge stack of work you have to do, you psyche yourself out for failure. Don’t let yourself spend precious energy on self-doubt. (Loyal readers know my favorite story about the two cows that illustrates this point.)

2) Write it Down
All of our deadlines and obligations can get tangled up in our heads. Take the time to write down everything that needs to be done, even if it doesn’t seem very organized. Just putting it all down on paper can free up valuable brainpower, allow us to think more clearly, and bring back that feeling of control.

3) Break it Up
When writing down all of your big “Meat” tasks, be sure to break them up into smaller more manageable pieces. For example, I am giving a presentation in Texas next month. When I see “Create San Antonio Presentation” on my list, it sounds difficult and daunting. Instead, I broke that task up into smaller chunks and wrote, “sketch out speech,” “create slides,” “make hand out,” etc…Those smaller tasks are easier to complete and remove the anxiety of tackling something huge.

4) Set Yourself Up to Win
We know our strengths and we know that some tasks are bound to give us more frustration than others. When you are trying to overcome a case of Time Management Paralysis, start off with a task you know you’ll be able to finish. Experiencing some productivity success will give you the momentum to tackle the tasks that are more likely to pose a challenge.

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Photo Credit: David Castillo Dominici