Time Management Training Creates Thriving Environments

If you want to thrive at home and at work, implement time management training. The wasting of time is a leading cause of most stress. When everything is unorganized, and everyone is too busy running around as if on fire, a surviving attitude takes hold. In a survival mode, everyone starts feeling the stress, then you can’t think straight, and your emotional senses are heightened. Any little thing out of place can cause tempers to flare and a breakdown, thus wasting more time.

At Home -- Families have a lot going on these days. There is work, sometimes multiple jobs for multiple family members, school, as well as extracurricular activities. This can create a very stressful environment that feels claustrophobic because there is no time just to breathe. Moms are running here and there trying to get children to all their activities, often feeding everyone on the run via a drive-through or ordering takeout. This is a difficult way to live.

You can take control at home easier than you can at work unless you happen to be the boss. So, work on your home environment first. Limit your daily and weekly extracurricular activities. In a family of four, if there is one activity per-person per-day you could virtually be running seven days a week with 28 activities. So it is important to prioritize and schedule down time for yourself and each family member, in order to create some family time and reduce the amount of running around. Once again, this allows each of you the opportunity to breathe, refresh, and express yourself more productively.

Also, try share driving duties with friends by starting a carpool, or if available make use of public transportation. Besides reducing your carbon footprint, reading a book or just resting a moment while riding in a train or bus is a lot more productive than fighting traffic.

Assign everyone in the family some household chores. I know this is an old fashioned idea, but your mother was right. Everyone who lives there should have chores without being paid to do them. By sharing the responsibilities of the household chores, you will increase the free time you have for family and outside activities.

At Work -- If you're not the owner or boss it can be harder to implement time management in the workplace, but it is not impossible to manage your own time. Control your inbox by implementing folders and rules in your email. Automatically delete those awful forwards, and make certain keywords go into priority folders for immediate attention. Only check email three times a day and make sure your autoresponder is set up to inform those who do email you what times you check your email, so they will know when you will respond.

Learn to keep phone calls short. When someone calls you at your desk, and you know it's an internal call, simply say your name and ask "how can I help you?" Not "how are you" or any of that because that opens the line for chit chat. When they ask if you have time say, "I am working on xyz project, but I have a moment. How can I help you?" Then proceed to listen and stick to your word and get off the phone the minute chit chat starts.

Create standard operating procedures for regular tasks if none exist, and stick to doing tasks in the same way. Doing something in the same way each day may seem boring but by creating systems, you create efficiencies which will give you more time in your day.

If you want to thrive in all your environments and fully express the best of yourself, then learning and implementing time management skills will help you relax and enjoy more out of life.