Often, I find myself talking to someone who is overwhelmed by the sheer volume of STUFF to do.
There’s Work to be done IN your business (Servicing Clients)
There’s work to be done ON your business (Marketing, Lead Generation, Paperwork, Training)
There’s work to be done IN your house (Spending quality time with Family)
There’s works to be done ON you house (Maintenance, cleaning, Paying Bills)
There’s work to be done IN/ON Church and schools and Charitable pursuits.
There’s work to be done maintaining relationships with Friends and Extended family.
and the list goes on . . .
For many folks, it eventually becomes apparent that no matter how organized we all become there really is no way to DO IT ALL!
There’s no time management program or technique that solves this problem . . . and at the end of the day all we really want is to be able to live in the present . . . guilt free.
This topic surfaced into view for me twice in the past 24 hours.
The first time from a person who was looking for a way to continue to do the same things but wanted a different result. Take the same 24 hour day and dice it up differently such that EVERYTHING can get done and leave enough time to play with the kids and love his wife. The horrendous truth is that this is not possible . . . Somethin’s gotta change if you want “better”.
the 2nd one was a person who had spent virtually an entire career CAREFULLY mapping out every minute of every day . . . Closely managing every aspect of her life to the nth degree . . . and is now waking up to smell the coffee that she really didn’t have to work so hard . . . that the same level of personal satisfaction could very well manifest simply by being present in the NOW moment with an eye always on a clear vision.
Last night I wrote something that I hope makes sense . . .
“I Don’t do it all!”
That could be construed to be a flippant answer, but that’s not my intent. I believe (maybe) the biggest challenge might be that “8 hours at work IN the business – Servicing clients” . . . If that’s true for you every day, then I say: “OF COURSE you cannot get it all done!.”
So . . . You either leverage yourself with People, Systems, or Tools to do some of the stuff for you . . . OR . . . you simply do less stuff.
My solution as the sole employee of my Real Estate Firm . . . and also a full time REALTOR is that I only allow 4 hours of “work” (in my business) every day. That can be two 2 hour appointments or one 4 hour appointment. If what I want is an 8 hour day, then I can start @ 8 and be with my family by 5 (with an hour break in there somewhere).
This leaves 4 hours for me to do everything else (other than working directly with clients) – paperwork, marketing, Lead generation, blogging etc.
I do an annual plan . . . and a monthly plan . . . and a weekly plan . . . such that I know very clearly what MUST be done every day . . . I do ONLY that FIRST . . . THEN I get to do the other stuff . . . and many days, I never get around to the other stuff.
I hired a person 2 hours per week to do my financials . . . I did that because I hate doing those.
One thing to consider – think about tweaking your promises as to when you can complete the tasks (pad them a bit so as to avoid the “all-nighters” to hit the deadline . . . add a few days to your estimate to complete the job and work fewer hours on the tasks each day so you can have the time built in to do the ON the business work (the other stuff) . . .
You then get to be HOME at a reasonable hour to play with those kids and love your wife.
There’s no magic pill here.
But I do know that we’ve all been wired to fill the allotted time with the task at hand . . . and if we tighten the time frame, we’ll still get the task done (Just watch any football game in the last 2 minutes).
So . . . Why would you ever really want to work more than 40 hours in any given week?
Just sayin’
Best,
b