Freelance Writing and Research

Is Time Managing You?

Do you find yourself always trying to beat the clock? If you do then you also need to ask the question whether time is managing you rather than you managing your time.  I know that it is only a couple of weeks since I last wrote about writing and organization

For reasons I'll not go into here just before Christmas I found myself trying to beat the clock at every turn - largely because I was spending so much time feeling sorry for myself that work came last on the list and there were two deadlines I didn't meet on time - for clients I do not want to lose; I had to start taking myself in hand.

Self Management

A number of time management experts now take the view that it isn't time that needs managing; rather it is the person. Self management means more self discipline, less excuses, more personal time, more treats, more done. I now realise that I can never manage time, time just is - but I can manage what I choose to do on any given day. I missed those deadlines because I chose to be miserable and indulge in thinking that resulted in self sabotage. Many of us do this and then we end up feeling that there is no time for anything and each time we do this we fail to carry out the things that we want to do as well as the things that bring in the money.

I had a great book for Christmas called "Time Management Secrets For Working Women" it is a must read if you are considering self-management. Most time management texts are meant to be generic and that means that they favor men's time rather than women's time.

Most women's days are governed by two things work and home/family whereas most men think about work and personal time. Women also need personal time but in order for it to work it has to be planned into your day. Self-management involves deciding on your general goals and then writing down why you want to achieve these things (your values) e.g. general goal - to be a better writer - I want to be a better writer so that I can give more value to my clients and thus get more repeat work, I also want to be proud of what I have written and have the appetite to write some more. The purpose as you can see is to find out what really motivates you and structure what you want to do accordingly.

The Rule of Three

If, like me you are looking to manage yourself and what you do with the time available then you must think of your day (your waking hours) in terms of three parts - work time, home/family time, personal time. How much weight you give to each of these things depends on what type of person you are. If you are a traditional wife who just wants to earn a bit of money to help out while spending more time at home then the majority of your focus would be on home/family time. If you need to work full time when you are a traditional wife then you need to look at what sort of work you can do from home. Career oriented women will have their focus on work. Like many women I am somewhere in between - I am going to call these types 1,2, and 3 respectively to see how the day might be divided.

1. home 50% work 25% and personal time (necessary for your sanity) 25%

2. work 50% home and personal time 25% each

3. work 45% home 30% personal time 20%

You might want to decide your own percentages but the point is that you need to balance your day to suit the type of person you are. If you are a traditional wife but are spending 50% or more of your time working outside the home then you will feel stressed, tired and guilty. Each personality type (and these are of course broad generalizations) will need to find their own balance. I have started doing this and am finding that things are gradually beginning to fall into place - you never know by this time next year I may be a fully fledged self-managed woman.