Time Management 101 Archives - Page 2 of 3

Why You Really Need to Take a Break (and How to Do It Right)

For many of us, a break can often feel like a frivolous luxury.

You feel like stuff is piling up while you’re vacationing. Like you’re letting down your boss, your family, or yourself if you have some “me time” for a few hours. Like you’re slacking off if you stop working for a full lunch break or even just a 10-minute breather mid-morning.

If you’re a parent, you’ve probably heard this phenomenon labeled as “mom guilt.” But that nagging sense that you simply can’t take a break is a feeling shared by many women (and men).

But, boy, do you need a break!

So today, I’m looking at why taking breaks is an absolute must, how you can beat the guilt, and what steps you can take to maximize the benefit of your breaks. [Read more…]

How Micro-Actions Can Help You Conquer Your Goals

If you’re like most people, you’re probably a bit disappointed and frustrated right about now.

It’s a few months into the new year, and you’re already losing traction on at least one of your new year’s resolutions. You’re not where you hoped you’d be, or you’ve thrown in the towel already.

The problem for many of us is that we set ambitious goals that are nearly impossible to achieve. Think about it:

Are you a fast food junkie who’s now trying to eat 100% healthy foods?
Are you a compulsive spender who’s now trying to stick to a barebones budget?
Are you a clutter magnet who’s now trying to maintain a Martha Stewart home?

And once you mess up just one time, it’s tempting to get sucked into self-doubt that leads to even more mistakes.

But you can break this ugly new year’s resolutions pattern.

You can make big changes in your life. In fact, you can do it without any of the stress and self-flagellation. The trick is to realize that it’s rare that people successfully make those big changes overnight.

That’s where the magic of micro-actions comes in. [Read more…]

How to Take Stock of Your Year

New Year’s Day is right around the corner! And if you’re hoping to make the most of it, there’s no better time than now to start planning for a fresh and exciting year.

But to make the most of the year ahead, it’s essential that you stop and see where you are. That you take a good, long look at this year that’s wrapping up. That you see where you’ve found your happiness and where you want to make some changes in 2018.

If you’re ready to start off 2018 on your very best foot, let’s start by taking stock of your year in 2017. [Read more…]

A 5-Day Challenge for Your Most Successful Year Yet

Just like that, 2017 is almost over.

And with a new year comes the desire to make new year’s resolutions. Your big hopes for the future become your big goals for the upcoming year. You want to improve your relationships, take your career to the next level, get healthy, or finally tackle that home project you’ve been putting off forever.

But actually accomplishing those goals? That’s another story!

A few months — or even a few weeks! — into the shiny new year, you may find yourself throwing in the towel on those dreams.

So what’s the solution?

Setting yourself up for success with a step-by-step action plan from the get-go. [Read more…]

How to Craft a Foolproof Morning Routine That Saves Your Sanity

Getting out the door — for most of us, it’s the first project we tackle every day. And what a project it can be! Rushing around, frantically searching for lost keys and permission slips, hurling food into lunchboxes, and inhaling your breakfast as you run to the car.

But what if you could transform your mornings?

What if you could ease your way into your day, feel confident that you have all your belongings, and breeze out the door right on time?

Customizing your morning routine is the answer! Here’s how you can create your perfect, no-nag, set-it-and-forget-it morning: [Read more…]

7 Astounding Ways a Checklist Can Revolutionize Your Life

Checklists — I just love ’em!

In my life, they take any number of formats. I’ve got my daily to-do list front and center in my planner. I’ve got a ready-to-print list of things to pack when I travel. My husband and I routinely make a big list of things to tackle when we’re hosting an event. Heck, I’ve even got a checklist I used to create this blog post.

You probably know that checklists for kids are incredibly popular. Kids love them, and moms love them too! They’re a superb way to keep your kid on task and motivate him.

Consider those kiddie chore charts that act as graphic checklists for each day’s must-do tasks. Each day features colorful images instructing a child to make his bed, brush his teeth, put away his pajamas, and more. And once he completes a task, he enjoys the most awesome part of the process — placing a congratulatory sticker or perky magnet next to the task.

That internal motivation? That excitement over finishing an action step? That pride in a job well done? Even that sticker if you want it! That can all be yours with a checklist.

If you hate the idea of committing yourself to a checklist, or if you’ve only thought to apply checklists to a couple of areas in your life, check this out. I’ve got 7 big ways that a checklist can not just improve but revolutionize your life!
[Read more…]

4 Keys to the Perfect To-Do List

If you pick up your to-do list, does it cascade down toward your feet . . . and then keep unrolling all the way out of the room? If so, you likely have a “master to-do list” of which you are decidedly not the master.

The idea of a gigantic to-do list is to keep all of your tasks in one place. While that sounds good in theory, a master list quickly turns into a never-ending sequence of unconnected, disjointed tasks. Worse, those tasks eventually get lost in an ever-growing list.

Plus, how motivating is a gigantic list of things to do? How good do you really feel about tackling one item on a list of 50?

Throw out your confidence-crushing, massive list! Here are the 4 essentials to crafting a to-do list that gets things done! [Read more…]

Mistakes You’re Making With Your To-Do List

Morning dawns and the race to accomplish the host of tasks on your to-do list begins. Your list of must-do activities propels you through your day, but is it steering you in the right direction?

Streamline your life by eliminating these mistakes you might be making with your to-do list: [Read more…]

Getting Started With Time Management: Keep It Working

This post is part 5 in the series Getting Started with Time Management.

If you’re just tuning in, check out the previous four posts in this series.

By now you’ve put together a system for yourself:

You’ve taken stock of your goals and activities.
You’ve taken a hard look at how you currently spend your time.
You’ve built a time map based on how you spend your time and how you want to spend it.
You’ve picked a planner that complements the way you think.

Now, with wild enthusiasm, you go full speed ahead . . . until one of two things happens: [Read more…]

Getting Started with Time Management: Use a Planner

This post is part 2 in the series Getting Started with Time Management.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. Read my policy here.

If you are a planner person, then you don’t need to be convinced. Like me, your planner is probably one of the things you’d grab if your house were burning down around you.

If you’ve never used a planner — or if you’ve used the wrong planner — then you might be amazed by how much organization it can bring to your life.

I used to be a non-planner person. I thought planners were just portable calendars for business people with millions of meetings.

However, I eventually realized that I needed a planner so I could have a single, centralized method of organizing my time and making plans to reach my goals . . . and it worked. [Read more…]