JenTekk Blog

After giving some thought to the whole concept of Time Management, I concluded that there is no such thing. Time manages itself, one second at a time, minute by minute, hour by hour… you get the picture. With or without me, its going to keep moving on.

Since working as a Freelance website designer, I have often found myself standing small and overwhelmed at a mountain that seemingly threatens to come down on me.

I know that this is all my ‘perception’ but it has a profound impact on my ability to concentrate and make even the smallest decisions where work is concerned.

So, in the pursuit of answers to this dilemma, and rather than Google the keyword ‘insanity’ I decided to take a journey inside myself and figure out what was really going on - what a trip!

IN A NUTSHELL

Firstly, I am the first to admit that I am a perfectionist – regarding everything. Not that I’ve ever achieved perfection, and not that there’s anything wrong with trying, but I subconsciously think I should be able to achieve perfection – always! As a result of this crazed mindset, I now realize I was putting an unrealistic amount of pressure on myself.

Secondly, I place the utmost of importance on each task that lies in front of me. By thinking that everything is equally urgent, I create for myself the impossible task of deciding where to begin. Its like being in a room with thousands of post-it notes frantically swirling around in a tornado and not being able to grab even one. Welcome to my mind.

Thirdly, I am passionate and intense when it comes to everything, including work. You may not always see it outwardly, but inwardly, I’m often preoccupied with the details of my life. After crashing several times from exhaustion, you’d think I’d learn (hitting palm to forehead).

SOLUTION

Well… last week I came up with a general solution to help create a greater sense of direction, control and balance when it comes to not only work, but also life in general.

For me, the results have been immediate:

#1 Realize
Be kind to yourself. Realize who you are, and that often your greatest strengths, if unchecked and out of control, can be your greatest weakness. The key here is balance and a dose of reality!

#2 Prioritize
We all have 24hours a day. Determine how much of it you’d like to dedicate to ‘work’ and then write down on paper all the tasks at hand - from the most pressing to the least.

Assigning each task a priority accomplishes several things: it gives you a place to start - that being the most pressing task. It relaxes your mind about all the other lesser pressing tasks, which you now know you’ll get to in time. Finally, you’ll feel confident about your ability to meet each day’s demands, and like you actually are in control.

#3 Tranquilize
Not with drugs, although that has often come to mind when I couldn’t seem to pull my thoughts together. Often people who live with great passion for work and life quickly forget the importance of rest, relaxation, and sleep. Then one day they wake up and question why they can’t think straight. This is the deal: without relaxation and rest… passion and intensity can burn you out. Life is about balance - take time to rest, and your mind will be the sharper for it.

~

There you have it folks. For me this is a starting point. As I begin drilling down into the details of my work hours and how efficient (or not) I am, I’ll have more to write about — stay tuned.

Oh, by the way… is it just me, or are there others out there who have any similar tendencies? I’d enjoy hearing from you. What are your challenges, and what are you doing to overcome them?

Peace.

Technorati Tags: time management, life management, skills, realize, prioritize, tranquilize, jentekk

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 22nd, 2007 at 3:19 pm and is filed under Business Management. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.