98: 7 Barriers To Effective Time Management And How To Overcome Them

We've been talking over the past month about practical strategies for managing your day. Today's focus is a little different. We're going to look at 7 barriers to effective time management and how you can overcome them. These obstacles are just as important to consider. If we can eliminate the barriers, we can more effectively focus on implementing the strategies we've talked about in the last few episodes.

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Until next time,
Crystal

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Chapters

• 0:51 Barrier 1: Not Having Enough Margin
• 2:01 Barrier 2: Not Making Time To Plan
• 3:00 Barrier 3: Overplanning
• 3:56 Barrier 4: Planning Too Much
• 5:25 Barrier 5: Viewing Every Task As Urgent
• 7:26 Barrier 6: Not Delegating Effectively
• 9:31 Barrier 7: Perfectionism
• 11:05 How To Overcome The Barriers

Transcript

Crystal Wagner: 0:03

Welcome to the All In A Homeschool Day podcast. I'm Crystal Wagner, and it's my mission to help you cultivate a thriving home atmosphere. One of the ways we can do that is by getting control of our day so that it doesn't control us and our schedule doesn't dictate what the atmosphere of our home is like. We've been talking over the past month a lot about practical strategies for how you can manage your day. But today's focus is a little different. We're going to look at seven barriers to effective time management, and how you can overcome them. These obstacles are just as important to consider as the other strategies are, because if we can eliminate the barriers, we can more effectively focus on implementing the strategies that we've talked about. So let's dive right in with the first barrier and that is not having enough margin. You can't manage your day, if your schedule is too full. It's going to be hard, because you don't want to miss out. You might be afraid that you are not providing your children something that they probably need. The reality is, they probably don't. You might feel guilty about not helping out where someone has asked you to volunteer. It's okay to say no, so that you can have enough margin in your day to be able to help with unexpected needs, to be able to be calm and restful, to be able to focus your energies on what really matters most to you. If this is a barrier for you, you may want to go back and listen to episode 96, where we talk about creating your family schedule, of evaluating what's going on right now, what commitments you have, and how you might take first step to creating some more margin. Now the second barrier is not making time to plan. We had a whole episode on this also, episode 94. It's just hard sometimes to make time to plan. You might think you don't have time to sit down and plan your day. You might think you don't need to plan out your day. You might want to live spontaneously and not be defined by a schedule. Or, you might think you can't live by a schedule. There's always a way that you can plan out your day. You can get more details on episode 94, but in a nutshell, when you sit down and you look at where you need to be the next day, what meals you need to plan, and what three to five tasks you really need to focus on and get done, you will find that you are much calmer, you'll get a lot more done, and your home, your home atmosphere will start to change. Now the third barrier to effective time management is over planning. I am not sure how many of you out there are like me, but I am definitely guilty of this on a regular basis. I find there are times I have to tell myself to stop planning and start living. I mean, I can have the best laid plans, but I have to actually go implement them. So there comes a point when you have to stop thinking about what might be. Stop dreaming about the future and just start executing. Take the first step in moving towards that goal right now. Your goal can change. You can change what you want to accomplish or how you want to do it, but sometimes we have to just take that first step. The fourth barrier to effective time management is planning too much. I am also guilty of this quite frequently, even though I have talked about this for a number of years and teach it to in my Flourishing Days Framework course. You have to leave room for the unexpected. You have to know that you won't get everything done in a day that you want to get done. In episode 93, I talked about how you can have realistic expectations for how much you can get done in a day. And on that episode, I went into more detail about this, but basically, I can only plan six tasks in a day. Any more than that, they're just not going to get done. So there are days that I don't even plan that many because the schedule is too busy, and I just know it's not going to happen. But honestly, there are still days that I will plan more tasks or not recognize that the schedule, the commitments that I have for the day are going to be too great to allow me to even accomplish a couple of tasks. And when that happens, I just have to say, You know what, tomorrow's a new day, I'm going to focus on getting this one top priority accomplished today, and then I'm moving on. And I will do a better job planning tomorrow. The fifth barrier to effective time management is thinking that everything is a fire. There's a whole lesson in the Flourishing Days Framework about this. I love the Eisenhower matrix, and how he talks about how a task has a level of importance and a level of urgency. And if we are living in the quadrant one that is urgent and important all the time, we won't be focusing on things that are really important to us but have not risen to the status of being a fire. And when that happens, we just we don't have time to really focus on what we want to accomplish. We're just dealing with what has to get done. So in the Flourishing Days Framework, I talk about how if our focus is on too much of that urgent and important, then we have no boundaries. We've not put in place the boundaries that we need to have to be able to say, No, that's actually not a fire I need to deal with. I really need to focus my efforts on what's important to me today so that we can live in the purpose driven matrix and live in that quadrant where it's important, but not yet urgent. Melisa, one of the students in the Flourishing Days Framework, said that it seems that "There are always fires to put out, but using your time management tools in the Flourishing Days Framework has really helped minimize the fires and their severity. It's helping me find peaceful moments to feel God's presence and discern what personal goals he wants me to set for myself." It's possible to live in the purpose driven matrix and have your focus on what's important to you but not have everything that's a fire because that saps our energy in such a big way. The sixth barrier to effective time management is not letting go. Oh, my goodness, we could talk about this topic on so many episodes. You have to stop and think why am I not delegating? And the most common answer that I hear from parents is that they don't want to let go of control. I just heard a term recently called over functioning, where we're doing more than we should be doing, and we don't trust others. How many of you out there feel the same way? Yeah, it's hard to let go. It's hard to not think that a task has to be done a certain way or by a certain time, and just let someone else do it. This is especially true with our children. When we're just starting to train them and just starting to turn over some of the responsibilities to them, it is so easy to want to pull it back, to go back and redo what they did, to not want to take the time to teach them because yeah, it's going to take us longer in the short term if we have to teach them and help them and then go back over and check their work. But in the long run, we will save time because they will be able to help out also. And the same is true when there are tasks that need to happen like errands to run when your kids get older. Or if you turn over the responsibility for them scheduling some appointments. There are times it doesn't get done. They're still learning. And it's really hard to let go and let them learn those lessons. I am speaking from experience here. We will be talking about this in the future, about how you can create that atmosphere in your home where your children want to assume responsibility and where you can allow them to do that because it is hard for us to let go of that control. The seventh barrier to effective time management is perfection. We have to recognize we're not going to do it perfectly. We're not going to manage our days perfectly all the time. The task does not have to be completed perfectly, and it doesn't have to all get done. You can pick a stopping point. That it's actually really hard for me to think that I'm not going to get this whole project finished in the time that I have to work on it, and I'll think I just want to keep going and just a little more, I'm almost done. And before you know it, my whole day was spent on that one project when I had several other things that I really wanted to do that day also. The other aspects of this is that we don't always see the whole picture, we don't know where we're going to end up. We don't know each step of the journey. But we still have to take a step. We have to step out in faith sometimes and just do the next thing and not wait until everything is crystal clear. So let's do a quick recap of those seven barriers to effective time management. Number one is not enough margin. Number two is not making time to plan. Number three is over planning. Number four is planning too much. Number five is thinking that everything is a fire. Number six is not delegating. And number seven is perfection. Which barrier most resonates with you? I encourage you to schedule a meeting with yourself, and journal about how you can overcome that barrier. Find a few quiet moments in your day and ask yourself the following three questions. What changes in mindset do you need to make? What micro step or little bitty step could you take to minimize the effects of the barrier? What might be motivating your actions that contribute to blocking your success? If you want some help processing these questions and overcoming your obstacles to a successful homeschool day, the Flourishing Days Coaching Program may be helpful for you. In addition to six coaching sessions, you'll also get access to the Flourishing Days Framework. And I would love to be your coach through this process and provide you that space where you can really think about what's going on and identify the barrier that is causing the most stress for you. If you're interested in this, you can go to triumphantlearning.com/flourishingdayscoaching. And if you're not ready to work with a coach right now, just ask yourself those three questions and journal about it, and you will find some great answers to help you move forward and find your next step. I know that you can get control of your days, and you can have a thriving home atmosphere