Managing our Time to Support Well-being and Success at Work

People often reach out for support around time management, hoping that with the right system, tracker, trick, or calendar gadget, they will be primed for ultimate productivity and success. Unfortunately, the answer is rarely that simple and it almost never lies in a fancy planner or app. Time management is connected to and impacted by several different factors - our values, our environment, our motivation and energy, and our physical and mental health, to name a few – which is why there is no one-size fits all intervention here. But some helpful concepts that can empower us all to navigate our unique time management hang-ups are:

1. Understand your motivational pathways:
   
   Why do you do what you do? It can be helpful to reflect on why you do the work that you do. When we’re connected to our work, it can help us find reason for pushing through the more difficult tasks we put off or don’t enjoy. Consider the ways that mundane tasks that may wear you down or pile high on your to-do list connect to your higher goals and purpose in your role.
   
   When are you sharpest or at your best? If you have agency in your schedule, consider pairing tasks that are more taxing or difficult in these optimal times.
   
   
2. Routinize the work: Action prompts motivation, not the other way around. If we wait until we “feel” like doing something we likely won’t get done all we need to get done. Or if we do, it may come at high internal costs given all the worry and stress we experience as a result of procrastination leading up to a looming deadline. Motivation comes and goes for everyone; no one has an endless supply of it so it’s unhelpful to count on it. But when we develop routines that consider our workload and needs, and then schedule our time according to task difficulty, we are less vulnerable to decision-fatigue – feeling the weight of making moment-to-moment decision about what to do, when. Some strategies to help initiate action include:
   
   Habit stacking: schedule the task to immediately follow an existing habit you already do. Example: I will respond to the previous day’s e-mail immediately following my morning coffee.
   
   If/Then Planning: use time or environmental cues to signal the start of working on a tasks or project. Example: If it’s 12pm and I haven’t taken a break from work yet, then I will go for a walk around the block.
   
   Pleasure bundling: complete the task while coupling it with something you really enjoy. Allow yourself to only enjoy the pleasure during this particular task completion and no other time. Example: I will write my paper while drinking my favorite kind of tea.
   
   Creating accountability: find someone who can follow up with you on plans you have made to help support in following through and problem-solving potential barriers.
   
   
3. Organize your environment – physically and socially – in a way that supports your goals: We are all navigating a world where distractions are abundant so being thoughtful of what may pull you away from particular tasks is important. Do you need to put your phone in a place you can’t readily access? Do you need others doing the work along side you to promote accountability and support? Each of our needs in terms of helpful environments is going to look a bit different, but consider for yourself what ways your current environment promotes or hinders your productivity and time management and what simple shifts you can make to move closer to your goals.
   
   
4. Respond versus React: Often there are times throughout our day when we are faced with a decision to divert from our original plan or schedule. This is okay, sometimes even helpful, but it’s important that when we’re faced with these in-the-moment decisions that we take a moment to PAUSE and deliberately choose a response that considers our needs and goals, both in the short and long-term as opposed to react out of exhaustion or lack of awareness.
   
   
5. Stick to one thing at a time: When we’re multi-tasking we are switching between two or more tasks and in that switching we are losing cognition resources, retention, focus and as a result, our work is taking a hit. In the end, the allure of multi-tasking is just adding to many of our stress loads and lack of completed to-dos. Instead, block time in a way that allows to you engage fully with one task before you move on to another. Scheduling days based on task difficultly, not time helps up more accurately assess how and what we can focus on and attend to.
   
   
6. Be willing to adjust: Scheduling our time well takes on-going assessment and adjustments. As demands and tasks change, so does our energy and time constraints. As we’re figuring what works for each of us, it can be helpful to build in margin in our days. Many of us are prone to over-estimate how much we can get done, which can leave us feeling frustrated at the end of a stressful day, perpetuating a cycle of self-judgment and shame that only negatively impacts our overall productivity and well-being. Try reflecting at the end of a week; ask yourself what worked and what might need to be adjusted for this next week to feel a bit more manageable. With this practice you will keep developing awareness around not only areas of needed change and improvement but of where you are really doing things well – something we certainly don’t take enough time to give ourselves credit for.