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Monday, June 18, 2012

One thing many clients ask me for are time management tips. What, you thought they'd be asking me for help with their physics homework? This is a blog about getting your sh*t together...well that... and you know, what happens when your vagina has terrible taste in men...and the joy of cats. But I digest: here's 3 basic but very helpful time management tips:

1.Get up early, and plan your day.
I don't know about you, but when I'm up @ 5, and envision my day, I become a machine. I become a wonderful if terrifying thing to behold. I get sh*t done. I nag encourage my clients, I do all my own work & writing and that evening, I can even go out and have a drink or 12, since I spent all day working, not just procrasturbating about the work I have to do.  (Crucial difference.)
On the other hand...if I hit snooze, and don't get up till say 7:30...already I'm freaking out about all the work I have to do and telling myself that dammit, the day is shot. (You think it's easy to be this neurotic? You have to work into this level of neuroses...it takes years.)
So, do the hard thing--since it's easier in the long run--and get up early, pre-think your day, reward yourself at the gym, or the track and increase your confidence by seeing your chores/goals get accomplished.

2. Keep the to-do list SHORT
While I think lists can be very helpful in keeping you organized...I also know they can increase the pressure. You can end up with a three page to-do list...and then spend the day watching cartoons and whining at the cats, since it's all too damn intimidating. So instead, wake up early in the day to get organized  DON'T check Facebook, DON'T get bogged down in emails, DON'T do anything but get organized) and identify 3 (max) goals you can and will accomplish that day, based on what is most pressing. 

Keep those 3 goals realistic, so that when, at the end of the day, you have accomplished those goals, you'll feel more powerful and those three chores will have served to give you new ideas, opportunities. etc.. Then go home and sing Kumbayah on your own time, hippie.
3. Avoid getting bogged down in emails.
I would seriously considering "grading" ALL email contacts, by order of their importance, so that, for example, whether you get 100 or 1000 emails a day, you can immediately see which is time-sensitive, which is a friend saying 'sup, and which is something you can look at later. To that end, I would suggest encouraging, or even forwarding, all friends/family to a personal email account, which you don't even open during the weekday. Then go through all your work contacts and be honest regarding who is important, who just thinks they're important and who is a time-suck. This might take you say 3 hours on a weekend...but if organized correctly, you can create a system that in future when you get a work email, it is automatically delineated as important, or not, and so you don't look up and realize, "Shit, I've spent 2 hours on emails, trying to get the break-room booked for a meeting...and now I'm f**ked. Hulk smash!"

Need more tips on time management, or rocket science or where to get a great strapless bra in NYC? Then email me @carlotazee@gmail.com!

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