Are you also wondering about those big time management questions? Read along to find out more about managing your energy and time effectively and efficiently.
With all of life’s current demands, it can be extremely confusing and overwhelming to manage time and energy. Where do you even begin? If you’re an overthinker and overachiever like myself, you’re always wondering how to get more out of your time and bandwidth. I’m giving you a glimpse into our own time management strategy and am answering the most essential time management questions out there.
You are going to learn how to manage deadlines, breaks, perfectionism, lack of bandwidth and much more. No matter if it’s about pressure or prioritizing, we’re tackling it all so you too can start developing a solid strategy in time management.
After learning these strategies, you will be able to manage your time in a more logical and organic way. Especially flexibility will make it much easier to achieve your big goals and free up that much-needed bandwidth. Let’s go!
This post answers 9 essential time management questions that every overthinker and overachiever wonders about.
Time Management Questions
When you’re starting to take your time seriously, you can’t help but run into some peculiar contradictions and questions. Parkinson’s Law for instance, argues that the work will expand according to the time you make available for it. But then, when you only make limited time available, you’re sacrificing the quality of your work… Huh?! How do you balance these two out to your advantage? Let’s dive into some common time management questions:
#1 How Do You Handle Random Shit That Keeps Popping Up When You Have Time-Sensitive Goals?
Distractions and interruptions have this nasty habit of popping up when you already have a shitton to do. Managing them in an effective way requires you to have clarity on what your priorities are. It is essential that you filter out real emergencies from 1) tasks you can postpone, and 2) chores that cost you 2 minutes or less to tackle. The tasks you can postpone will automatically become practice grounds for you to learn how to confidently say ‘Not Now‘. This applies to both your own distracting thoughts and to people interrupting you. Simple, NOT NOW. You can tell the interrupter that you’ll write it down and get back to him later. Give an estimation of time if you can. Then, make a calendar block for the distraction so you can address it later, and stay on track with your time-sensitive goal. Do try to keep in mind David Allen’s two-minute rule: If the pop-up can be completed in less than two minutes, just get it out of the way right now.
#2 How Do You Prioritize Tasks And Chores When Everything Seems Urgent?
Again, everything that’s under two minutes to do, should be done right away. Tackle those small items first so you have a quick boost of freed-up bandwidth. Sort your remaining chores with the help of the Eisenhower Matrix. Label the tasks on your plate with important/not-important and urgent/not-urgent. This will leave you with 4 categories:
- URGENT + IMPORTANT: get this shit done, asap.
- NOT-URGENT + IMPORTANT: schedule these in for when the urgent + important chores are out of the way.
- URGENT + NOT-IMPORTANT: see if you can delegate something away to your family members or roommates.
- NOT-URGENT + NOT-IMPORTANT: postpone or scrap, but let go of these chores so the overwhelm doubles down.
#3 How Do You Handle Pressure And Overwhelm When Your Workload Starts Weighing Too Heavy?
Overwhelm and pressure are signals your body sends out to warn you that whatever you’re doing right now, is too much. Lack of bandwidth is a serious symptom that needs some caretaking. This is your chance to listen to your body and address a health issue before it even becomes one. Effective time management is about sustainability, not pushing yourself beyond the point of burnout. Of course, you can push through for a while, sometimes it’s a necessity to meet deadlines and other appointments. However, you can stay aware of the symptoms and try to find room to breathe during this time. Park non-essential calendar blocks away so you can find them later. If you really can’t ditch things off the workload and find yourself stuck in weeks of non-negotiables, find at least some wiggle room in your calendar where you treat yourself to something special. Reward yourself often for pushing through. It doesn’t have to be expensive or demanding, in fact, it shouldn’t. My favorite rewards are simple, but make me feel relaxed and pampered nonetheless. Sometimes it’s as simple as buying a Snickers, or taking a walk and a nap. Getting something I would otherwise consider ‘too unhealthy’ combined with some TV often already does the trick. I also am a big fan of half-hour showers because it always make me feel like I’ve been to a spa, without having to spend that money. If you have a bath, take one. You don’t have to spend big to feel like you’re spoiling yourself. But spoiling yourself is exactly the right remedy against an overwhelming schedule. Go try it, because you absolutely earned it.
#4 What Tools Or Apps Do You Use To Manage Time Effectively And Efficiently?
We have a very specific time management strategy over at Outsmarting Thoughts, and make use of the 2-way sync between the Todoist app & Google Calendar. The flexibility is INSANE and it lets you manage time from both a to-do list view and a calendar view. The absolute beauty of this strategy is that they sync: As soon as you bounce one task off your to-do list, let’s say from today to next Tuesday, your Google Calendar has already automatically put the calendar block in the right place. It’s so easy to see time issues before they even happen this way. I also love adding thoughts to calendar blocks, in order to collect ruminations in one place to save loads of time and stress in future endeavors. There are of course many time management methods and apps out there, but most simply didn’t have the features and freedom that this combination does have. If you’re more into project management and have to share and delegate tasks, we also highly recommend Click Up. If it stays mostly personal and you only want to share a calendar or tasks with family members, the Todoist Google Calendar combination is an absolute gem. I seriously keep wondering why I don’t see this time management strategy more around on the internet.
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#5 How Do You Keep Your Shit Together When Emergencies Pop Up?
How much will be depending on the severity of the emergency, but you do really need to clear up the time. For instance, when your son has to go to the E.R., it hopefully only takes an afternoon until the stitches are set. Other cases might require you to clean up more time. Simply pull up your calendar view and start canceling things that aren’t essential to life right now. Do NOT try to manage everything as if nothing happened. What isn’t essential can wait until you’re ready. Park it on a list for when you have more bandwidth, and address the emergency first.
#6 How Do You Set Deadlines For Your Big Goals And Break It Down Into Manageable Tasks?
As an overachiever, I always come up with new projects and goals. But funnily enough, I also finish them on a regular basis. This is how I keep pulling off slaying away my bucket list items with only those 24 hours a day: I first think of when I want to have this goal finished and make a calendar block for the deadline. Then I start working my way back: I think out all the requirements I have to meet in order to finish this goal. I then make calendar blocks for each to-do and schedule them in my time management software. This is the moment where I can see ahead how realistic the deadline really is, and where I feel out how overwhelming this goal is on my bandwidth. I make decisions based on these outcomes and decide where to cut my losses. I either push the deadline ahead when I feel that quality is more important than the time investment. Or, when I decide that the deadline has the highest priority, I start scraping things off from the workload. Put some items on the parked wishlist for the goal. Some decisions are hard to make, that I’ll admit right away. But I always try to reassure myself that it’s better to know those bottlenecks upfront, than to be stuck in wishful thinking.
#7 How Do You Balance Breaks With Big Workloads & Big Ambitions?
Short answer: listen to your body! Ignore the childish voice inside saying ‘But I don’t wanna..‘, but do take ‘I feel exhausted‘ seriously. It will always feel counter-intuitive, but it is so much more efficient for your productivity to take breaks than to bulldozer through. The time investment of the break will reward the quality of your work highly, which makes it easier to get back into that flow state and gain forward momentum. Especially on long working days, I love to take a 30 minutes long walk halfway through the day, and then nap for another 30 minutes. Funnily enough, my energy levels reward this strategy, and that hour of investment during my lunch break makes me sharper, faster and more effective for the rest of the afternoon and evening. More breaks equals being able to tackle bigger workloads. Remind yourself that breaks are investments in your own sanity and the quality of your work. It’s worth it.
#8 How Do You Balance Perfectionism With Getting Shit Done?
Ah yeah, that constant push and pull of quality versus time. You don’t have to compromise the complete quality of your work, but it would definitely help you to focus on progress over perfection. If you’re able to shift your focus from ‘Best‘ and ‘Perfect‘ to ‘Good Enough‘ and ‘Above Average‘, you’ll be able to finish way more goals than your perfectionistic side could have anticipated. Perfectionism is a voice in your head that can bully you hard. It’s okay to still want to be the best, don’t assume the feeling and drive will go away. But talk back to it with compassion and reassure yourself that ‘Good Enough‘ & ‘Above Average‘ are way more sustainable and achievable goals. It will balance out your life and you’ll get more shit done.
#9 How Do You Get Back On Track When You’ve Been Out Or Down For A While?
There are so many reasons we fall off the bandwagon. Whether it’s a burn-out or a holiday, at some point you’ll find yourself ready to pick up the pieces again. Assuming you fell way behind schedule, the first thing to tackle is your overwhelm. Acknowledge the shit, embrace the suck, and then let’s dive in to make an action plan. Start outlining your tasks in your calendar, until you have an order and schedule that feels doable. Catching up is a nasty feeling that can create a lot of resentment. But bear in mind that the pursuit of control is giving you peace of mind. It can feel as if catching up is a waste of time, but in fact, you’re gaining peace.
No matter if you’re getting back on track or managing an already jam-packed calendar: making a place for your thoughts and strategically managing them is the key. It just becomes so much more CLEAR when you have, and a to-do list view, and a weekly calendar view with all your tasks and appointments right there to play around with. We hope that answering these time management questions inspired you to get your own system & time management strategy. Because if anything, you deserve the peace.
