Gift of Time

With some extraordinary exceptions, only you can give yourself the gift of time.

With the pre-set 24 hours in a day, "extra" time can only be found by reorganizing how we spend time currently.  Reallocating a significant amount of time usually requires long-term planning and could mean re-thinking priorities.

However, first get rid of wasted bits of time.  For a week, keep a time diary in 15  minute intervals - on paper to make your mind focus on this unusual task.  Next Monday morning, look at your time diary with a cold eye.  Highlight all the truly wasted moments; this does not mean the courteous chat over coffee with your staff or your colleagues.  Rather, it may mean drifting through a website for 30 minutes when 10 would have been sufficient.  Apply the obvious self-discipline and repeat the time diary exercise after a month.

Long-term planning for time management comes in several flavours.

• Identify projects or tasks that need to be finalized after sitting on your desk for weeks or months.  Clear them out one-by-one, if possible, by putting all your available time and attention on each in turn.  
• Start projects earlier.  Looming deadlines tend to make us waste time in last-minute negotiations with people who have other priorities.  Experts or technical staff may have been assigned to other projects with their own demands.  Logistics become complicated because others have booked facilities, or calendars, or equipment.  Approvals are tenuous because senior management senses panic and unpreparedness.  Start early and enjoy the luxury of nothing going wrong.
• Some projects may not really be yours.  Perhaps you volunteered in a rush of mis-guided enthusiasm for a responsibility that does not align with your skills or knowledge.  Perhaps you were the first person to speak-up, providing everyone else with relief at not having to react to a boss's suggestion.  Or, more productive, perhaps one or a team of your staff could learn by taking on the project with your guidance.  In all cases, find the best person for the job, prepare the ground for their engagement, and shed the project.

Spend your gift wisely: pay extra attention to a special staff member, learn a new skill, go home on time, start an exercise program, volunteer, read a book, write a novel.