"Time Management for Superwomen"

By Sandra Graham

The Problem

     The alarm rings. You hit the floor and quickly put on your high-heeled boots and grab your blue spandex, greeting the world as Superwoman, ready to start the day!

Because you can do it all, you must do it all. Or are you ready to resign as Superwoman?

     You see, Superwoman doesn’t set priorities. She doesn’t use her values and goals to manage her life. She tries to do everything at once, and she tries to do it all perfectly.

     You probably have read a lot on the subject of time management and don’t understand why you can’t get it. Well, relax. Time management is not a quick fix that once learned lasts forever.

     We need to recognize that, like many other things, time is very personal and unique to each woman. We must learn to delegate time between being a wife, mother, and career woman, and do it in a way that meets our own priorities. We have to make peace with time.

The Plan

     Here is a time management plan devised for Superwomen like you. I have incorporated professional tips on time management, but most important are the questions that ask what you want and how quickly you want to get it. Customizing time management to your life is the key to success.

I. Devise your own plan by continually asking yourself:

What am I doing? Why am I doing it? Where can I use shortcuts? What can I eliminate? Where do I want to be in 3 years? What will I be doing? What am I doing NOW to make this a reality? 

II. Listen to the experts:

Pat Materka in her book, Time in, Time out, suggests:

1. Make a list of all your current roles and responsibilities. Rank them twice. First according to how much time they take, and second, in order of their importance to you.

2. Practice saying "no" to new demands on your time. If you feel a sense of relief afterward instead of regret, you’ll know you’ve done the right thing.

3. Ask for help. Delegate responsibilities at home and, when appropriate, at work.

4. Look for ways to cut corners, focusing on results, not the process.

5. Look for ways to simplify your life by eliminating what is unnecessary.

6. Make time for yourself. Never allow yourself to become so driven that you sacrifice the time you most want.

III. Establish daily habits of success:

     The average person with a modest routine of daily self-development will out-perform a disorganized genius every time. In establishing these patterns, remember that most of us were brought up with the slogan, "Any job that’s worth doing is worth doing right." While this phrase is true, if taken to the extreme, perfectionism is an impractical, if not impossible goal.

     Sometimes we become bogged down in nagging details and lose sight of our objective.  Procrastination is an outgrowth of perfectionism, and procrastination produces guilt, which in turn produces worry and indecision.

     Perfectionism is appropriate for some careers like brain surgery. However, the rest of us should shoot for excellence.

     Most of us approach time management assuming we already know what we have to accomplish and that we only need to figure out a way to get it all done. NO, the goal isn’t to try to figure out how to do every good thing, but to develop our ability to choose what’s important from among them.

How do I start my habits of success?

1. Get very clear on what is important to YOU. Understand your values and priorities. Evaluate your commitments and their importance to you.

2. Set your goals on what you want to accomplish, not only a long-range goal for the different areas of your life, but 30-60-90- day goals. Then plan the week. Put your goals in writing or they are merely dreams.

3. Use a legal pad to keep a master list of everything that needs to be done and everything that comes up. The importance of the list is not what it helps you remember, but what it lets you forget. Dr. Robert T. Riley quotes, "It is hard to conceive of a less meaningful use of mental energy than the remembering of things to be done." From this master list you will make a to-do list every day and prioritize each item. The list should not look like everything we aren’t doing, but how we choose to live for that day. Tackle the tough jobs first. Use the power of habit to accomplish tasks in your to-do list. Stay with an activity until it is complete. I am a firm believer in leaving a to-do list on the desk as a part of closing the day at work. That way, the time spent with your family is true quality time, and you aren’t still working in your head.

4. Always ask yourself, "What is the best use of my time right now?" Consolidate similar tasks and group similar jobs. 

5. "No" is as hard for some women to say as "help." You add one more short-term responsibility to the pile, not realizing that you’re over extended until it’s too late. What happened to your priorities? They are now buried beneath everyone else’s. Be realistic about how much you can do and do well. This is the one area in which you have no one else to answer to but yourself.

6. Eliminate clutter. How many weeks of your life have you lost looking for your car keys, the library book, the missing shoe, etc.? There is a place for everything, and everything has its place. Things should be left as they are found (as soon as you have them organized!). Things should be kept as close as possible to the place of their use, the most frequently used things being most accessible. This rule applies to every area of storage (yes, even the refrigerator and that back hall closet!). Organization relieves frustration.

7. Never handle a piece of paper more than once. This holds true for home and office. Have a bill department and throw all the bills in there, unopened (unless there is something that needs immediate attention) until the appointed time to pay them. Only ‘do the mail’ when you have time to do it properly, which is where the "Dump it, do it, or delegate it" rule comes in (Have a large trash can available).

8. Keep a centrally posted grocery list. Each family member notes a favorite food running low, or any time they just used the last of something. Print a master grocery list.. Yes, list everything you buy on a check sheet (don’t rewrite grocery lists). If you’re using a computer, print the grocery list on an envelope and use the envelope to keep coupons for that day. Buy staples only once a month. I find it easier and much less time consuming to shop for groceries at times other than the 5-7 rush and Saturday mornings.

9. Have menus with the grocery list on the same page. Most families have favorites that you cook over and over. This way you just check the items you need on your master grocery list.

10. Get enough sleep--and while you are laughing about this--a recent study shows that the old adage of "just do what works for your body... some people only need 5 hours," is not true. The human body needs 8 good hours to repair itself. We have just trained our bodies to live on less. You will be more productive, more creative, and be able to do more with 8 hours sleep.

11. Regarding household cleaning, the job is to see that it is clean, not necessarily that you clean it. Hire someone to come in a couple of times a month and/or delegate chores to the family that your quality time with your family is spent as just that. Needless to say, you and your family being in the same house together does not necessarily constitute quality time.

12. What if you have an especially rushed week? Delegate. Hire a youth or have one of the kids run your errands, buy your groceries, etc.

13. Do you travel a lot? Keep a bag of toiletries and cosmetics packed and ready to go, with a small note pad so that when you are running low, you replace it when you get home. Eliminate packing the same things over and over for every trip.

The Summary

     The key to managing multiple roles, whether as a career woman, a working wife and mother, or as a single parent is balance.

     You achieve balance by having a plan that focuses on your priorities. It is imperative to focus on what is important to you in all areas of your life. Focus eliminates confusion and frustration.

     Focus eliminates confusions and frustrations. Know your values and put your energy into those activities which offer you the greatest rewards. Remember, you don’t have to do it all, and you don’t have to do it alone.