THE CHALLENGES OF MANAGING TIME
I had this plan when I got my site up and running, that I would post a blog once a month. Didn’t really pan out that way. And guess what? That’s ok. Turns out my business ended up picking up faster than I had expected and having many clients didn’t give me much time nor space of mind for blogging.
It’s been four months since my last blog. I think it is now time to take a step back and carve space to reflect on what I’ve learned so far.
The first thing that comes to mind is how much I love what I do. It gives me so much joy being with clients, helping them regain confidence and ownership of their space, and time.
As much as I love being with my clients decluttering, planning, organizing, a lot of my work still needs to be done outside of that fun space. Running my company means I need to structure my time between working directly with my clients, pulling together solutions and recommendations for them, marketing my business, curating content, networking, educating myself, and tending to all the administrative aspects owning a business entails.
While I always did pride myself for being quite productive and knowing how to manage my time well, I must confess that no longer being on a 9 to 5ish schedule shook my confidence a bit. I had to become my own client and pull out all the productivity tools I owned and revisit them under a new lens.
I knew prioritizing my clients was of essence for the success of my business. Which meant my schedule was now unpredictable. I wanted to be able to fit all my clients in one go and soon realized that by doing so I’d burned down faster.
As a result I rapidly learned to block days off my calendar for non-client commitments and admin tasks. I also painfully discovered that while I could schedule half day sessions in a row, I couldn’t do two full days of physical work in a row unless working with the same client on the same project. After a full day I usually need a day for follow-ups, administrative work but also to physically recuperate. Going into someone’s home, lifting boxes, hanging, folding, continuously moving around is not the same thing as sitting behind a desk all day long.
Following up with my clients on next-steps to finalize the project, and offering alternative ideas and recommendations requires research on my part. And because I am still a newbie, that takes more time than I imagine it will once I have a year under my belt. This step also gets scheduled in my calendar, and for now I consider it part of educating myself. It has led me to curating a nice catalog of supplies recommendations and tips, which I am grateful for.
So what tools did I use to try to regain some sort of control over my time? Well the first thing was to accept that I couldn’t perfectly control it and that my schedule was bound to fluctuate because of how unpredictable it could be with last minute cancellations for instance. After acceptance came prioritization. With prioritization the reminder that multitasking is a myth and makes us lose time. And finally that the Eisenhower Matrix was my best buddy when looking at my extensive to do list.
The second tool I pulled out was a timer I borrowed from the kid. I love a good visual timer that isn’t my phone. It serves 2 purposes: 1) to observe how long it takes me to do things that are new to me, and better predict time in the future, and 2) to help me focus during a set time with no distractions, knowing that when the beep goes off I will get a break and avoid burnout.
Tracking how I spent my time and how long it took me to do things helped me understand when I am most productive and when I am prone to procrastination.
With my continuous use of my to-do lists, planner, calendar and timer, I am able to slowly but surely understand how to break down my time so I can get everything done. It’s not perfect. And it’s a great reminder that I launched Clutter Cutter as a means to embrace imperfection.
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There are so many incredible books, podcasts, apps and tools on productivity, I can’t list them all. Here are just a few links of tools I like and use.
Productivity tools:
How to prioritize: consider the Eisenhower Matrix
Timer: I personally love the Time Timer with the dry erase board so I can write down what I need to focus on. Many vendors have them for sale.
Time tracker: you can use an app like one of those, or create your own excel chart in 30 min increments like this one, or find printable versions online like this one.
To do list: I like to use a notebook because I love handwriting and crossing off what I did, but any digital task tool or app are great too because you can add a deadline, and prioritize. I like Google tasks because it works with my digital calendar.
Planning: There are many ways to plan. You can use your google calendar and visually add the task you plan on doing for the day at a specific time for a specific length of time; or you can use a printed planner. You can get a daily planner, or a weekly planner depending on what works best for you. The one thing I would recommend is that you set aside one day in the week, like a Sunday evening to map out your week, knowing you will readjust as needed on a daily basis.
Productivity Tip: Most importantly, make sure to schedule time for yourself, for fun and play… and celebrate your accomplishments.