It’s Time For Some Time Management

Alice in Wonderland: White Rabbit - Who Killed Time?
Brandon Christopher Warren / Foter.com / CC BY-NC

Ever since Nathan and I have been self-employed together, I feel like more and more of my time goes into this big black hole and is lost for all of eternity. At the end of the day, I know I accomplished things, but I still feel like it wasn’t enough. A normal day ends with a late dinner because our work ran long, yet there are still five+ things waiting for us on our to-do list.

And it drives me crazy because I used to be a PRO at time management. I didn’t waste my time when I was trying to be productive and I knew exactly how long tasks would take me. My schedule was never an issue because I always had time for the little things that always came up. What I failed to realize was that I just didn’t have that much going on. And that as soon as I did have a ton going on, I’d apparently forget everything I ever knew about time management and try to cram way too much into every day.

It’s been this way since late August and I think three, going on four, months is enough of me setting myself up for disappointment each day. This week, we’re trying a new way of scheduling our work by adding in how much time we think it will take to complete something so we know when we’ve exceeded our available work hours for a day. Plus it let’s us know if we’re doing a good job at estimating the amount of time our work is going to take. It’s been a bit tedious, but so far, it’s already shown me that I’m trying to cram twelve+ hours worth of work into six to eight hours of work time.

I guess that explains a lot?

Do you have any time management tips or tricks?