By Ann Swain
The phone rings and the caller says…”…have a second?” Before you can say a polite ‘no’, the caller is on their way with their multi-faceted barrage of questions, concerns, venting and who knows what else. At the end of the call, you find you have either agreed to do something you know you don’t have time to do or you find that you have to deal with a situation that you knew nothing about previously.
At the last National Conference on Volunteering and Service I attended a session called ‘The 32-hour Day’. Admittedly when I signed up for the session, I was actually thinking about the book on caring for someone with dementia called, The 36 Hour Day. At first I was disappointed that I had misread the title but then found myself in a session I sorely needed. Yup, the time management issue comes up every day of my life. How on earth can I get 32 hours of work done in 24? Actually, I don’t really want to use up the entire 24 working unless, of course it’s spread over a few days. One can only hope.
I realize there are a number of technological methods which could assist me in some attempt at time management. The first step to recovering from poor time management is to admit there is a problem. Then I can take a look at the list of tasks which need to be completed and prioritize the list, hopefully before it grows. Sometimes, this means not answering the phone for at least one-half hour if possible. So back to technology…some managers have access to the fancy phones which assist in scheduling, some have a PDA which will even alarm to remind them of a task needing attention while others use Microsoft Outlook. All of this technology still needs human attention to input data and to maintain the data.
When I truly evaluate the process and commit to it, it really does work. Schedule time for tasks and stick to it. Always allow for make-up time if you don’t happen to complete a task that was scheduled earlier in the day. By not procrastinating, the scheduled tasks always get done and on time.
I know this all sounds very rigid, but it really does save the brain from some measure of overload. And when someone asks you if you have time, it’s easier to take a look at your documented schedule and say, ‘I really don’t have time right now but I can get back to you at a later time’ (according to your schedule).
Ann Swain is the Director of the University of Maine Cooperative Extension Senior Companion Program and a featured blogger.
