Have you thought about deadlines? I hope you’ve learned to prioritize your to-do list, keep your calendar updated, and have a place to jot down notes.
Next in your time management arsenal should be making deadlines for each task. Many of us do not report to anyone else—we’re stay-at-home moms, creatives, or entrepreneurs who report only to ourselves.
Working to deadlines, self-imposed or not, is smart. Some can be as simple as having a goal to finish a certain project by lunchtime. Or have several things you want to do before you go to bed every night. Others can be a lot more difficult to set, especially if they’re really big projects (such as writing a book or decorating a whole house). In the case of big projects, break them down into daily doable timeframes, figure out how many days it will take you to finish, give yourself a few days wiggle room, and put that deadline down on your calendar. And keep it at the front of your mind every day as you do your daily work.
Good planning, then having deadlines are the keys to good time management.
Great advice. If I didn’t have deadlines, I would do very little. I need the carrot, the threat, or both.
Thanks for commenting, Carol. For a long time I didn’t think of giving myself deadlines as a writer, unless a particular publisher had one, or I was writing to submit to a critique group. But I’ve learned since then that making my own deadlines is a, as Martha Stewart would say, good thing.