This is the third in my episode exploring Marla Tabaka’s 50 tough questions to ask yourself if you’re constantly telling yourself that you don’t have enough time.
I’ve asked and answered these tough questions for myself, because although I don’t find myself saying “I don’t have enough time in the day..” I do find myself saying, “No, I can’t go have fun with you I have work I need to do.” Or “I’m feeling overwhelmed.” Or, “Why won’t this rash on my leg that’s been here for over a year and a half go away for good?” and then balk when the nurse practitioner suggests that it could be stress-related rather than an 18-month long bacterial infection that hasn’t killed me yet…
So what about you? What do you say to yourself about time? Do you feel like you lack time?
You can get a link to Marla’s full article on Inc.com, “Not Enough Time in the Day? Ask Yourself These 50 Tough Questions to Find Out Why.”
So here we go with my answers to question 21 through 30 on the list, and I’d love to hear your answers too!
You can join the conversation in the comments on the show notes at shannonmattern.com/132, or find episode 132 in our Facebook group, or find me on Instagram or Twitter @shannonlmattern – I LOVE hearing from you guys.
- Do I drop everything to manage someone else's problems? (Is anything really that urgent?)
- Do I have a system in place to address the unexpected issues in an organized and efficient way to lessen their impact on my priorities?
- Do I regularly track my time to better understand my strengths and weaknesses in the time management category?
- Do I batch my calls into certain days and time slots as to avoid 30- and 60-minute voids between them? (Seriously, nothing important gets done during that gap of time.)
- Do I assign specific days and timeframes to specific tasks (e.g., Tuesday mornings for sales calls, 12 p.m. to 1 p.m. every day to return calls and answer emails, Thursday mornings to write blogs or do your marketing work)?
- Do I procrastinate on important tasks?
- What is my belief system about money? Do I feel like there will never be enough? (This leads to poor decisions, based in fear rather than logic.)
- Do I pick up the phone every time it rings and respond to every email when it comes in?
- Do I drop everything for those one or two clients who are most demanding? (Bad idea!)
- Do I train my employees well, so they don't have to ask constant questions?
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