Improve Your Time Management Skills. Make Christmas Dinner Easy
The smartest people I know have the least amount of time to get things done. Why? Because their time management skills aren’t as strong as their I.Q. skills.
It’s been 35 wonderful years of working with Executive Dysfunction and here’s my petri dish of evidence-based anecdotes & antidotes:
Most people here in Silicon Valley that I know who have ridiculous ‘smarts’ (high I.Q.s) usually have something else that’s not necessarily well balanced; in most cases it’s always running short of time. Classically the dirty little secret is they didn’t plan their day, week or weekend well. The time management part of the prefrontal cortex of the brain (and the language centers) is not inextricably linked with I.Q. So who is the person with the best time management skills? The person who works hard at sensing time, not the smartest person. If you choose this for your New Year’s goal, you will certainly have more time if you follow these directions. While I have written below some exercises, here is a practical exercise I gave to my B.F. for her cooking Xmas prep for 26 people.
I made her a “Time Blocking Sheet” “TBS” (comment here if you want a custom copy or you may just use a calendar but the very best thing is to block out your activities by the hour if, you are truly time management handicapped.) I really like Calendarpedia.com forms b/c it lets you fill in the hours and they’re free (see bottom of this post for links.)
The ingredients for the Xmas dinner prep on the TBS were:
Researching and printing recipes,
Making a shopping list,
Marketing (including how many stops),
Grocery Organization (at home),
Prep and Cooking time (which I always double from what the recipe states.)
I add an extra hour for the unseen interruptions.
I scan for threats (what could go wrong?)
I re-evaluate the tasks as I am moving through them to see if I need to adjust my lens.
The end result is a manageable, hopefully enjoyable journey that does not result in panic (for the unpracticed chef.)
So here are the generic steps:
Get a sheet and block out your busy day by the hour.
Always have an ‘exit strategy’ for one thing on your list that you can drop if you get time locked (meaning you are running out of time.)
Scan for threats and adjust accordingly.
Give yourself “padding time” like an hour for the unseen interruptions.
Go to the library if you need uninterrupted time.
Wake up an hour earlier if need be to tackle a super hard schedule.
Revisit your schedule at lunch time and see if you are on schedule or need to adjust.
Using an analog watch will help you get a sense of time (digital does nothing for growing your sense of time.)
Challenge yourself before you do a few of the tasks: notice the time, estimate how long you think the task is going to take and note the actual time it took. Do that enough times and you will be better at sensing time.
A well planned day needs planning, reflection/evaluation and adjustment.
Wouldn’t it be nice to know you have JUST ENOUGH TIME for all you want to do?
Remember me until next time,
Jenn Bulka, Memory Specialist
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