As an executive coach, your time is spread thin with tasks to keep your business running and growing. Each one requires full attention while addressing, and a continuous mindfulness when you’re not. How are you doing with managing all your time demands?
Between your coaching sessions, assessments, and personal development, it’s no surprise how fast your time evaporates. Reading, taking courses, getting certified through a qualified program, and attending seminars and conferences take time.
Plus there’s the time you need time for marketing: your newsletters, blogs and reports all need quality content—it’s one of the most effective ways to market your services.
This says nothing about your personal time with family, friends, hobbies or just relaxing (what’s that?).
Do you find yourself scrambling or falling behind too often? Are some of your tasks getting shortchanged and suffering in quality?
Try these three time management tips to take some of the craziness out of your life:
- Document your appointments on a calendar, preferably an electronic one synced between your laptop and phone. It goes with you everywhere and can be accessed at any time. Record your repeating commitments as far into the future as you can, before any opportunities can cause a conflict.
- Schedule responsibilities and tasks. Determine how much time you’ll need to address each specific task, the best day and time to do it, and block the time. For example, if you need seven hours to create your monthly newsletter, block out that time (not necessarily in one sitting) and make sure you tend to it every month like clockwork.
- Schedule all the regular personal activities you can. Adjust as needed, but eventually lock them down. And don’t forget to protect your free time—schedule it as necessary.
With visibility to everything you need to do, you’ll have no surprises. Eventually, you’ll form a routine, and you won’t need to rely on the calendar as much. And when new opportunities come up, your calendar will let you know how much more you can take on. If you can rearrange your tasks to account for more work, fine. If you can’t, you have the information you need to say no, or re-prioritize tasks. You be the judge.
Remember: Just because it may work on a calendar doesn’t mean you can keep up the pace without burning out. Your performance will signal to you what kind of pace you can handle.
Give it a try and let us know how your time management is going. We’d love to hear what works for you!