The Time Management Mindset to Conquer Overwhelm
"I'm overwhelmed." I told my mentor. He looked calmly back at me through the zoom screen and nodded thoughtfully.
"I don't seem to have enough time to get everything done. I'm working so much and I'm exhausted." This was all true, or rather it felt completely true to me in that moment. It had been my reality for several weeks now since things had kicked up a gear in my business.
"Annika," he said, "listen closely now to what I'm about to say."
I leaned in to the zoom screen, early awaiting his solution.
"There is enough time. You have enough energy."
My first reaction was a combination of confusion and disappointment. Wasn't he listening? I had just told him how busy and tired I was.
And then it dawned on me. I had just told him how busy and tired I believed myself to be.
Through my work in psychology and coaching, I had come to recognise that our beliefs and corresponding thinking influence every level of our lives and performance. So why wouldn't they influence our sense of time? By believing I didn't have enough time, or there wasn't enough time in general to complete my workload, I was buying into an external locus of control. In other words, I was letting the determinant of my success be "time" something outside of my control, and therefore handing away control over my success.
If we start from a different belief, that there is enough time and there is enough energy, the responsibility lands squarely back on us to manage ourselves better within that time to optimize our success.
Did you know there are 168 hours in a week? If we subtract…
56 for sleep (8 hours a night)
56 for work (8 hours a day)
7 for exercise and eating (1 hour per day)
7 for commute (1 hour per day)
We still have…. 42 HOURS.
Isn't that crazy? It sure doesn't feel that way. For me this is hard evidence that there is enough time. I just was not managing myself optimally to make use of all the time that was available to me.
Three tips for self-management that results in better time management:
Engage with a growth mindset (more information here).
Work on seeing hard work as a challenge instead of a threat. When we can see struggle as what we want, instead of what we are trying to avoid, it helps us to take action and move through challenges, learning as we go. If growth and learning is our priority, then struggle or discomfort is a sign that we are doing the right thing! Therefore, it's what we are looking for.
Understand the source of negative emotions.
Negative emotions are usually generated by a perceived gap between where we think we should be and where we actually are. Or who we think we should be and who we actually end up being on any given day. Instead of beating ourselves up over mistakes or missed opportunities (big time waster), we benefit from simply looking for the lesson in what happened and staying curious about what's next for us. Accepting that the process of seeking excellence in any area of life is destined to be riddled with mistakes and failures allows us to let go of them faster and get back to work moving forward.
Work for efficiency instead of productivity.
Do we really want to endlessly improve our productivity? This would mean fitting in more and more work into shorter amounts of time, which then frees us up to do MORE work in the time we have clearer for ourselves. Productivity is a bit of a fake prize. In his book Clockwork, Mike Michalowicz shares that what we really need is better efficiency so that we can get more done by doing less. This means working smarter instead of working harder. To really adopt this mindset we have to challenge the limiting belief that only hard work generates success, or that only hard work deserves success. Does the idea of making more money while doing less make you uncomfortable? If so, it's possible that one of these limiting beliefs is effecting you. Personally, I carried around both for years! Challenge these beliefs and rework them into more empowering beliefs, such as: working smart more valuable than working hard because it allows me to live a more balanced life according to what's important to me.
In summary, we must choose to believe there is enough time out there. It is squarely up to us to learn to manage ourselves really well within the time that we have.
I see this as an opportunity - a perspective that continuously drives my curiosity and passion for improving performance.
Interested in hearing more about the psychology and mindset of time management? Reach out to me at annika@annikamcgivern.com to learn about group training and one to one coaching opportunities.
Until next time,
Annika