Tips for Time Management

Once a month, I write a column called “Creating Home.”  This is for the young woman setting up her first home, whether it’s her dorm room or sharing an apartment with a friend.  If you are an experienced homemaker, please share this with someone younger.  I also hope you’ll share you experience by posting a comment at the end.

God has entrusted me with responsibility for a number of things.  For example, I’m responsible for my faith, health, home, children, my role as a wife, and finances.  However, there’s one area of responsibility that weaves its way through all of these: time.  God is watching to see how well I handle these responsibilities in the time I’ve been given.

In order to become a better steward of the responsibilities God has given me, I’ve worked to become a good manager of my time.  And I’ve had lots of experience managing time in many different life experiences.  You see, in the past 20 years I’ve  worked full-time and part-time outside the home, worked part-time in the home for someone else, not worked for any pay at all, and owned my own business from home.  I think I’ve done it all.  Through all of life’s changes due to moves, children and becoming an entrepreneur, I’ve always valued wise time management.

I don’t know about you, but I feel a heavy sense of responsibility to be about God’s business – whatever that looks like in my life.  Whether it’s been going to school, becoming a wife, or running a home and/or business, I want God to trust me.  Without some basic time management skills, I find myself looking back on a day or week, and realizing that I was busy, but I didn’t always accomplish what I believe God was calling me to do.

To help me stay on track with my God-given responsibilities, here are some time management tools I’ve incorporated into my life.  Note: these are very low tech and affordable on purpose, so everyone can use them:

1.  Keep a to-do list in a spiral notebook.  I learned this tip at my first job out of college from a co-worker.  When she completed a task, she dated it.  This notebook was also the place to store names and phone numbers.  The benefit is you can always review your lists to see when you finished something, or to retrieve a piece of information.

2.  Organize your tasks by projects.   If something involves more than one step, then create a project title for it, and action steps necessary.  For example, writing this post could be a task or a project.  If I wanted to read a book on time management, and review some websites, then I might make it a project.  If not, it’s a task and just goes on my to-do list.

3.  Create a project list for projects and a to-list for one-step tasks.  Transfer one action item from your project list to your to-do list as time allows.

4.  Purpose to do one significant task a day, other than your daily tasks.  When I write “significant” that doesn’t mean time-consuming.  It just means something important you want to get done.  It could be filling out a form, preparing for Bible study, or grocery shopping.  Set expectations at a reasonable level.  And if you get six significant things done this week, then congratulate yourself.

5.  Only check e-mail, Facebook, Twitter, and so on at given times of the day.  Schedule this time into your day.  Otherwise, it starts to master you.  Turn it off if necessary.  I read about one person who told her co-workers and friends she would only be checking e-mail at certain times of the day, and to not expect an immediate response.  If you need to get control over your electronic connections, consider doing the same.  Your friends and co-workers will understand.  If there’s an emergency, they can always call you.

6.  Create margin in your schedule.  In other words, allow extra time to do everything.  This might mean you arrive at a meeting or church early, or that you have time to call your mom.  (hint, hint)  You might finish projects early and have time to help someone else. By establishing this practice now, you’ll find your life has more peace and that you’ll develop a reputation of dependability.

I’m always interested in hearing how others manage their time.  I hope you’ll take a moment and share some of your tips.  We can all learn from each other.

In His Love,

Glynnis Whitwer

www.GlynnisWhitwer.com

About The Author

Glynnis Whitwer has written 35 articles on this blog.

I'm a wife, mother of five, and on staff with Proverbs 31 as the editor of their magazine. I'm the author of two books, and co-author of four Bible studies. My next book comes out in August and is titled "I Used to Be So Organized." To learn more about Proverbs 31, click here. And I invite you to visit my blog at GlynnisWhitwer.com.

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