Written by: Stephanie Reh, Executive Contributor
Executive Contributors at Brainz Magazine are handpicked and invited to contribute because of their knowledge and valuable insight within their area of expertise.
I have both a hyper-functional and dysfunctional relationship with time. I’m obsessed with it. I get a lot done in a short amount of time, and yet I’m always looking for new ways to maximize my efficiency and effectiveness.
Therefore, it should come as no surprise that I produced the Time Is On Your Side speaker series to help accountable people find more time and make the best use of it. I interviewed over 25 influencers for the series, many of whom are fellow contributors for Brainz Magazine.
Rather than summarize the general takeaways from the speaker series, I will reflect on some of the most relevant insights to my life right now. In doing so, I will reference a sampling of key learnings from some of the speakers in the series.
First, time management is a lifelong challenge and opportunity. This I knew already, of course. In fact, I depended on it! It excites me as the Accountability Evangelist to confirm that there will always be ways to enhance my time management approach to make myself more effective as I seek to help more people serve more people.
Summit headliner Robyn Pearce encouraged me to be prepared to evaluate my approach and adjust as necessary continually. In addition, her parenting tips, along with related wisdom from Corina Taylor, are game-changers for navigating the remaining school-age years with my daughters.
Barbera Schouten told me you have to know who you truly are to understand how you work best, and then you can design your time management approach accordingly. This wisdom gave me permission to honor my preferences rather than fight them in an attempt to adopt a generally accepted best practice that doesn’t work for me.
Second, changes to my time management approach needn’t be complicated or revolutionary. A small tweak to my system can have a huge impact. Small tweaks are easier to incorporate and are less jarring. The downside is I don’t always notice the difference right away, but when I stick with the new habit, the benefits become clear.
Thanks to Steuart Snooks, I have pared down my number of email folders. It never occurred to me that I could be OVER organized! While I’m not quite ready to reach his level of austerity, I immediately noticed the time savings from eliminating layers of subfolders.
Amber Barry’s summit interview and recent Brainz Magazine article motivated me to analyze my processes further and seek to automate as much as possible. Without even taking action on that yet, my mental relief is palpable, knowing that there is a straightforward path to get where I want to go - which is a place where I am doing more about less and spending most of my time on the stuff I am best at and only I can do.
Third, I need to challenge my assumptions about how I spend my time.
Agnese Rudzate gave me a new definition for procrastination: when I do easier things that don’t matter instead of harder things. Busted!
From Karena Calhoun, I learned I could set myself up for flow, even for activities I don’t enjoy. Say what?!
Alka Chopra taught me that self-care needs to be intentional but not necessarily purposeful. It’s meant for rejuvenation, not to accomplish something. Super hard for me, but it totally makes sense!
Patricia Suggs helped me get to the root of my dysfunctional relationship with time. I find it hard to be present because I’m often thinking about what I should be doing rather than what I am doing. She convinced me that doing my best and being my best at the moment increases my chances of the future being great for me. Sold!
Finally, unwavering conviction about my primary purpose and top priority goals is the best way to protect my most precious resource: time. I aim to protect it but often find myself giving it away just because someone asked for it. I’m learning that the stronger I feel about what I am trying to accomplish, the easier it is to say no.
Ironically, there is liberation in restriction. Mark Sephton, Brainz Magazine Ambassador (among many other things!), is a master at using value filters to decide how he spends his time. If it doesn’t meet his criteria, he doesn’t do it, and he leaves room in his schedule to entertain new opportunities that meet his criteria. Saying no to many things means saying yes to the best things.
While these reflections are very personal and relevant to my own circumstances, I share them here because I suspect readers may nod in agreement with many of my insights, seeing how the concepts apply to their lives as well. This is why I gathered so many other experts to share their own experience with time management: to make their collective wisdom available to the people I choose to serve and to fill my own cup so I can continue to pour into others.
Stephanie Reh, Executive Contributor Brainz Magazine
Stephanie Reh is on a mission to help more people to serve more people. Stephanie’s aim and passion as CEO & Founder of Accountability Evangelist are to help accountable people achieve their most ambitious goals so that they can happily live a life of fulfillment and make a tremendous, positive impact on the lives of the people they choose to serve. Stephanie’s signature offering for personal transformation is the Focus & Momentum Goal Mastery online group coaching program. She specializes in Succession Planning / Leadership Development, Strategic Planning / Goal & Risk Management, and Change Management for Mergers & Acquisitions for organizational transformation. Stephanie is an active community volunteer and champion. One of Stephanie’s current priorities is to help build a thriving, diverse, and inclusive entrepreneurial community in Western New York State, USA.
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