Recently, I organized a little investigation to find out people’s main concerns… and guess what came out at the top of your list of concerns? Getting better organized and managing your time to get ahead, even when you’re a busy woman. To answer this question in a practical way, I’m pleased to share this article with you

Good time management … means prioritizing!

Time isn’t elastic, and I imagine that, like us, you’ve realized this… Often, you say to yourself “I don’t have time”, “time passes too quickly” and “if I had more time”… You convince yourself that it’s not your fault, there simply isn’t enough time in the day! The incredible thing is that we all have the same number of hours in the day!

Einstein, Mother Teresa and Steve Jobs all had 24 hours in the day. What was their secret?

Taking back responsibility for your life and your time. That’s the key! Accepting that there are so many hours in the day, and that we are responsible for what we choose to do or not to do. And yes, it’s all about the intention to make our time management a priority: to consciously focus our attention on what’s really important to us, to define what’s a priority for us and why it’s really important, and to keep this common thread in mind, every day, every hour… So how do you make time your ally again?

Olvia: Personally, I’m training myself to change my vocabulary and replace “I don’t have time to…” with “I choose to make this my priority” or “this is not currently my priority”. I’m taking back the reins of my life, and it’s doing me a world of good!

Susan: For my part, and this ties in a little with what Olivia just said, rather than trying to “find” time, I take it. I haven’t found any time in my cupboards yet, and yet I’ve done some tidying up! So, I decide to take the time for this or that action. It’s a question of priority, of choice, which I plan in advance.

Good time management… means taking action
It’s important to keep one’s intentions and choices in mind, so as to define the objectives to be achieved as a priority. To take action, break down your objectives into small, easy-to-achieve steps so that you can calmly reach your goal.

These small actions constitute your action plan. Every day, make it a point to carry out at least one of these small actions. Following your plan and carrying out one action a day will keep you constantly connected to what’s essential – your essential.

This will make it much easier for you to make conscious decisions, accept them and take action! Never forget that it’s better to take a tiny step, or a little something imperfect, than nothing at all…

Whether it’s organizing your next vacation, changing jobs, or planning the week’s household chores, whatever your goal or project, creating an action plan works for everything! So think about it when you feel procrastination creeping up on you.

10 tips for good time management

To keep control of your time, here are a few tips and tricks:

• First thing in the morning, plan the most important actions or tasks. Susan likes to prepare her day the day before. For example, preparing the children’s clothes, school bags and snacks when it’s time to go to school will make for a more relaxed morning.
• Define priority tasks and eliminate unnecessary ones. For example, Susan has got into the habit of choosing 3 priority tasks from among those that are in line with her goal for the week. And she always starts with the one she finds most difficult.
• Doing one thing at a time is much more efficient. It prevents you from spreading yourself too thin and feeling like you’re not making any progress.
• It’s better to plan fewer tasks into your day and have more time for yourself in the end, than to put in too many and feel overwhelmed or disappointed that you didn’t get everything done (That one, girls, I’m going to post on my work plan!).
• Step by step, one small action at a time.
• Keep track of how long each task takes so you can better estimate how much time you’ll need later. You’ll soon realize that emptying the dishwasher or answering a customer’s last e-mail rarely takes more than 3 minutes, watch in hand!
• Schedule no more than 50% or 60% of your time. There are always unforeseen events. Keep the remaining time to deal with these unforeseen events, rest or do something enjoyable! That way, you won’t wear yourself out unnecessarily, and you’ll always have a margin of safety in case you overrun your schedule.
• On the other hand, bear in mind Parkinson’s Law, which states that any task tends to last so as to occupy all available time. This means that, without a deadline, a task will tend to drag on and on. Hence the importance of setting yourself deadlines, a time or a deadline.
• Take the time to congratulate yourself regularly for every action you take, every objective you reach. Don’t forget, you’re great!
• Give yourself a break. Take the time to breathe and clear your head. After a certain amount of time, we inevitably become less efficient, less fast, because we’re tired. That’s why it’s so important to take regular breaks from longer, more tedious tasks.

Managing time well… an action plan!
An action plan is there to give us direction. It’s essential to be able to adapt your plan to keep moving forward and avoid repeating the same mistakes, to regularly take stock and ask yourself a few questions. Have I achieved my objectives? If not, why not? What can I do better next time? What have I learned? Take a little time at the end of the day or weekend to take stock and start afresh the following days.

And a magic tool!

The difficulty is to keep at it over time… That’s why I felt the need to create a tool for myself so that I could constantly stay positive and organized. I needed something I could take with me everywhere, a sort of companion. For me, the diary is the ultimate tool for simplifying life, going straight to the point and keeping track over the long term. The paper version of the diary allows me to take control of my life, to literally write it down and create it.

Every day, I write down the important things to do, the goal I’ve set for myself this week, so that I can keep in mind what’s essential to me and not lose sight of it in the sheer number of things I have to do every day.

I’d like to add that to stay organized in the long term, it’s important to keep your motivation intact. To do this, I apply the little tricks we talked about above, but not only. I’ve also set up routines, a morning routine and an evening routine.

This allows me to achieve a lot more without really noticing and without questioning myself. On the other hand, when I feel that my organization leaves something to be desired, I don’t hesitate to review my plans and adjust my action plan or routines. I think it’s important to know how to question yourself. That’s also why I’m a big fan of challenges, because they motivate me to the max.

It allows me to surpass myself, to test other ways of doing things and to see other perspectives. For example, this is how I adopted a new way of de-cluttering my home as the usual methods motivate me much less!

And since managing your time well helps to reduce stress, limit burn-out and live a more zen life, we couldn’t resist giving you two more tips to help you do just that! Follow the guide!

Don’t let yourself get distracted
The real problem with feeling short of time and not knowing how to manage it is that we are easily distracted… And the impact that a simple ringing phone can have on our concentration is too underestimated.

Worse still, according to a study by the University of Chicago, the mere presence of our smartphone within arm’s reach has an impact on our ability to concentrate. So stop, when you want to manage your time well, limit distractions:

Keep your phone away
Set goals and stick to them: check text messages, e-mails and social networks every hour or two.
Set a specific time to take a break and eat
Explain to your family and friends that you’re not available from such and such a time.

The 80/20 method for good time management
We’ve all heard of this law. In business, it’s the principle that 80% of results are obtained by only 20% of work. This law can easily be applied to our daily tasks, whether personal or professional.

The technique for good time management is to identify which tasks are essential and really bring you results, and which tasks are incidental and easy to remove from your schedule. For some, on a professional level, this will mean stopping giving quotes to unqualified customers. For others, on a personal level, it will be to limit the time spent on social networks…

So no more excuses, Zen girls, you’ve got all the tools you need to manage your time well from now on! What recommendations have you already tried? Have they worked?