Manage Your Time With a Big Fat NO

You can’t really manage time.  Time is. All you can do is make choices about what action you take – or don’t take – in a given moment. Sometimes difficulty managing time is simple a matter of being over-committed. Maybe instead of a fancy new time management you need to learn to say NO!

Take a Yes Sabbatical

I’m all about saying yes to life. When something comes up that sounds the least bit fun, interesting, or educational, I’m the first to volunteer. This is why I know what I’m talking about. I wake up one day with a hundred large and small commitments I’ve made and not enough time to write out a To Do list, let alone accomplish all the things I set out to do.

Sometimes you need to clear your plate completely. It’s especially nice to do this near the end of a big project.  All you do is say no.  You keep saying no for an agreed upon (with yourself) period of time. Maybe it’s a week, or maybe you need a month to clear out your schedule. As projects are completed and there’s nothing to immediately take their places, you get to slow down.
While things are relatively calm, pay attention to how you feel. What activities do you truly enjoy? Which things cause your gut to twist up? A little space lets you notice what’s really important to you, feelings you may have ignored before – when you just HAD to get everything done.  When the next opportunity presents itself you’ll have a much better sense of whether or not it’s something you really want to take on.