Time management: What are you saying ‘no’ to?
Pause for a moment and imagine that one hour just opened up on your calendar for today.
If you could spend that hour doing anything – with the only rule being it has to be something that brings you joy (so, not answering emails) – what would you do?
Okay, now let’s talk about how to make that a reality, if not for today then for sometime in the not-so-distant future.
One disclaimer before we dive in – the advice I’m about to give flows out of my own challenges with time management. I fail at this often. But I also occasionally succeed (why I have an hour today to write this blog post!) So, I’m right here with you in the struggle.
The most important piece of wisdom I’ve ever received when it comes to time management is that every ‘yes’ to something is a ‘no’ to something else.
Sometimes this is obvious, as there are two events happening at the same time and we can only choose one. Other times it is less obvious, for example when volunteering to serve on a committee means you won’t have time for your regular fitness class or meetup with friends.
The root of the challenge is that we clearly see the things that we say ‘no’ to intentionally. But we often miss the things that we say ‘no’ to by default. These are the things that silently fall off our calendar as a result of saying ‘yes’ to something that we don’t actually want (or need) to do.
How do we change this?
The key is to start looking at the full equation when we are making decisions about what to commit to. Yes, there are many tasks that are absolutely required for you to be performing well at your job. I’m not talking about those. I’m talking about the things that are good things to do, but where you don’t need to do all of them.
Rather than seeing an opening on your calendar and just signing up for the meeting or agreeing to the task, stop for a moment to think about what else you could spend that time doing. Come back to your answer to the question I asked you a moment ago.
In other words, when faced with a question of whether to agree to something that will take your time, we often think of the decision as being “Do I want to do this or not?” In reality, the question should be “Do I want to do this thing or [other thing that brings you joy]”?
When we recognize the tradeoff – the hidden ‘no’ that will come with our ‘yes’ – we make better decisions about how to spend our time.
This may not fix the busyness of your calendar or the overwhelming flood of your email inbox. But there is a good chance it can open up pockets of time for things that bring you joy in the midst of the chaos.
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