Rebuilding Your Life after Recovery, Pt. 2: Time Management

Last week, we covered work ethic in terms of rebuilding your life after recovery. This week, we cover how to better manage your professional and personal life with time management skills.

We all have busy lives managing several parts of our professional and personal life.  Do you have that friend that seems to always have extra time on their hands and seems to be able to get everything done in a day?  Do you also have that friend who seems to always be rushing, late to events or appears to be challenged with multi tasks? Managing our time effectively is a skill we can all improve upon. It is easy to get distracted or lose focus with so much going on in our lives, even though the concept itself is quite easy to understand. It requires us to prioritize tasks, organize thoughts and actions as well as remain accountable.  So while the idea of managing our time may seem effortless, there are actually a lot of moving pieces we could focus on improving to overall increase our efficiency.

Here are three ways to improve time management:

1. Prioritize tasks from important to urgent.

Understanding the distinction between urgent and important is critical to learning how to organize by priority. Urgent tasks can be defined by tasks that have an immediate expectation or deadline. An important task may be defined as something requiring attention within a reasonable time frame but may not be expected right away. Many tasks that are important may become urgent over time if not addressed in a timely manner.

2. Stay organized.

When we remain organized both mentally and physically it allows for us to strategically plan accordingly. If our space, desk, office or home is a mess, it will be more difficult to remain focused and on task. Make lists in order of priority to help you also stay organized and focused.  Doing so will help you be more conscientious of your time and the tasks ahead that will also require allotted time.

3. Stay calm and self-care.

It is easy to become overwhelmed with a long list of to do’s, especially when crunched for time. Feeling overwhelmed can cause added stress. If you feel yourself starting to get anxious, take a reasonable break and refocus. Even a 5-minute break can help us to refocus and continue working diligently.

Getting an adequate amount of sleep is also important to consider. When we are well rested, and taken care of we are able to perform more effectively.  Be sure to eat throughout the day, hydrate and get enough sleep so that you’re able to think clearly and work efficiently.  If you’re managing your tasks wisely and using your time well it is likely not going to be the end of the world if the last task on your list gets put off until tomorrow.  Looking at the overall big picture sometimes helps us to remain grounded with perspective. Do your best to remain accountable. This is a skill we are all continuing to improve and it doesn’t change overnight.