Is Time On Your Side?
Something I’ve learned about 8-year-olds…well, at least ours…no sense of time.
Like none.
And no, I’m not knocking her or making fun of her, I’m just simply stating it.
Why can I not make fun of her?
Well, first because that’s mean, but also because I struggle with this as well.
Not in the “it only takes 15 minutes to get across town” but in how long a task takes to complete.
Editing a reel - eh, 5 minutes (more like 15)
Writing client follow-up notes - 15 minutes (more like 30)
Networking event - 1 hour (huge lie because of the drive time, parking, mingling, etc.)
I read an Instagram post that people who underestimate time are optimists…Sean didn’t feel that that was actually a good thing in this case 🙃
Okay, so why does this matter?
Because, at the beginning of the day, we put 10 things on our task list and believe with every bone in our body, the day will go perfectly and we will finish everything.
And then when the day is finished and we have only finished 3 things we have a negative voice that comes in and tries to tell us how shitty we are at things like managing time or being effective.
Can you relate? I know I can!
Throw in the wonderful time of year when sickness blows in out of nowhere and you also have Christmas shopping to finish.
We get to the end of the day annoyed because once again ask ourselves, “Why do I still have so many things to do?” “What did I actually do today?” “What is my problem?”
A lot of my clients are looking to create a schedule that works for them. One that is way less chaotic and reactive and more intentional and helps them be proactive.
When we list out all the items they do on a daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly basis they first recognize how much they actually are doing.
In their mind, it’s not a lot because individuatlly none of them “take that much time.”
But when they see it on paper - whew!
Then we take it a step further and write out how long the tasks take and how often they need to do them.
Then we put it back into their schedule.
Then they print this out and follow it for a week or so.
Typically there are 2 types of responses: “I need more time in the day because some of those things took way longer than I thought” or “ummm I have more white space than I realized.”
In my opinion, both of those are great responses because now we have some actual data to help them work through their new schedule.
So, my challenge to you is to take some time to see how long some things actually take to do. When you start doing this you can start to set more realistic expectations for yourself. And when you set more realistic expectations that shitty voice starts to go away.
Okay, so are you going to actually try this? Let me know if you do and what you found!