The conversation continues with our popular “Ask the Expert” feature on The Other Side of Organized blog.  So far this year, we enjoyed great dialogues about clutter with Lorie Marrero, letting go with Geralin Thomas, next steps with Yota Schneider, and change with John Ryan. This month, I’m excited to bring you prolific author and organizing guru Julie Morgenstern to share her wisdom about time management.

Julie and I met almost twenty years ago when I attended a NAPO-NY chapter professional development workshop she organized on closet design. Since then, Julie’s become an internationally recognized expert in the organizing field and authored many books that have become industry “must reads.” My deep appreciation and thanks go to her for taking the time to join us. Before we begin, here’s more about Julie.

Julie Morgenstern, dubbed the “queen of putting people’s lives in order” by USA Today, is an organizing and time management expert, business productivity consultant, and speaker. A New York Times bestselling author, Julie’s five books are timeless reference guides that are insightful and jam-packed with innovative strategies. She has been featured in publications such as The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Time, and Business Week. Julie has made frequent appearances on national television and radio programs, including the Today Show, Good Morning America, The Oprah Winfrey Show, and NPR’s Fresh Air.  You can connect with Julie on Twitter, Facebook, blog, or website. Check out Julie's line of planners and notebooks on Levenger, part of the Circa notebook series.

Linda:  You are internationally known as the “organizing and time management guru” What are your best strategies for successful time management?

Julie:

• Capture all your to-dos in one place. The biggest mistake people make in managing their time is often quite mechanical—including the habit of scattering their to-dos and appointments among a variety of systems. Decide on one planning system (paper or electronic) and keep it with you wherever you go. Record 100% of your calls, appointments, and to-dos. This reduces pressure to remember, and enables wise choices when prioritizing.

• Schedule “when” you will do things. A to-do not connected to a “when” simply doesn’t get done. Schedule tasks into your planner on the specific day you intend to do them. Add a time estimate next to each item to ensure do-able days.

• Use the 4D’s to lighten your load. Good time management means focusing on the highest and best use of your time. Proactively streamline your workload (at work and at home) by applying the 4 D’s: Delete (discard tasks), Delay (reschedule for a more appropriate time), Diminish (create a shortcut), and Delegate (give to someone who can do it better, faster or good enough).

• Group similar tasks. Batching tasks boosts efficiency, and minimizes the time and energy lost when constantly switching gears. Group DO’s separate from CALLS— separate WORK tasks from PERSONAL ones. Identify the core activities you are juggling your time between (e.g. client service, strategic planning, sales, administration), and create a Time Map that designates regular time for each of those roles—and you’ll find that you will get significantly more done, in less time, at a much higher quality of output.

• Plan tomorrow +2 at theend of each day. People who plan their day find that time stretches—they get much more done, feel less stressed, and avoid getting caught up in unnecessary crisis. Close-out each day by spending 15 minutes reviewing what you completed and your schedule for tomorrow plus 2 days beyond that. A 3-day arc gives you the necessary perspective to adjust your balance as needed and mentally prepare for the upcoming days.

Linda:  Everyone has the same 24 hours in a day. Why do some of us have so much difficulty managing our time?

Julie:  The single most common obstacle people face in managing their days lies in their very perception of it. Most people think of time as intangible.  Unlike space, time is completely invisible. You can’t see it or hold it in your hands. It’s not something that piles up or that you can physically move around. Time is something you feel, and it feels utterly amorphous. Some days go whizzing by while others crawl painfully along. Even your tasks seem hard to measure—infinite and endless in both quantity and duration. As long as time remains slippery, elusive, and hard to conceptualize, you will have difficulty managing your days. You need to change your perception of time and develop a more tangible view of it. You need to learn to see time in more visual, measurable terms.

Once you understand that time has boundaries, you begin to look at your to-dos much differently. Tasks are the objects that you must fit into your space. Each one has a size, and arranging them in your day becomes a mathematical equation. As you evaluate what you need to do, you begin to calculate the size of each task and whether you can fit it into the space. When you start seeing time as having borders, just as a space does, you will become much more realistic about what you can accomplish, and much more motivated to master various time-management tools and techniques to help you make the most of your time.

Linda:  What has been your toughest personal time management challenge?

Julie:  As a creative person, I tend to be someone who hyper-focuses on whatever I am doing, and sometimes, as a result, I lose all sense of time, as I am so engaged with whatever problem I am solving.  This can happen when I am writing, or designing, or am highly engaged in a meeting with someone.  The good news is people and projects get my undivided attention.  The challenge is it’s hard for my staff to interrupt me when I am in the middle of something.  I employ a variety of techniques to stay on track—planning everyday at the end of the day before—and making sure I define the outcome of every working session before I start—so that I stay focused on just the primary goal of that time commitment.

Linda:  If you found yourself with an unexpected extra hour on a particular day, how would you spend that time?

Julie:  Probably for something fun and relationship oriented—call or get together with a friend, go for a walk, stop by a museum, go to the park.   

Linda:  Is there anything you’d like to share that I haven’t asked?

Julie:  Just that mastering time management is not a static process—it is a lifelong skill, dynamic, changing as your own life, circumstances and interests evolve.  You can also tackle your learning in phases and stages.  There’s freshman time management and graduate time management. Everyone, at every point in their lives can benefit from stopping to reflect on their relationship to time, the choices they are making, and what they can do differently to create more meaningful and satisfying days.   

Thank you, Julie for your wonderful insights and strategies about time management. I’m sure many people will appreciate your concept that time management is not a static process. This brings hope, particularly to the time-challenged. I invite all of you to join Julie and me as we continue the conversation. What are your time management challenges? What works or doesn’t work for you?

Twenty-nine years. Today my wonderful husband, Steve and I celebrate our anniversary. Time has passed quickly from the day we said our wedding vows to now. Our time has been rich with family, friends, children, adventures, work, fun, growth, joy, laughter and challenges. I am grateful for all of our moments together- our family time, our parenting time, our just us time, and our challenging time. How did it go so fast?

Seconds, minutes, hours, days, months, and years organize the convention of time. However, we remember time by the people, things, and activities we give our attention to. Time is filled with the priorities we set. It’s what we include in our time that gives our life meaning.

Choices are available at every moment. What do you focus on? Who do you focus on? What distracts you? What do you want to include in your life? Neither the clock nor the choices stop. You have an opportunity right now to invite in what’s most important. When you look back twenty-nine years from now, your memories will reflect your decisions.

Have all my choices been good ones? They have not. I’m human, just like you. Maybe I said “yes” to ice cream too often. Maybe I spent a bit too much time engaged in social media. Maybe the words that needed to be said were silent. Yet when I reflect on these years, I know that many of the choices I made were positive. They helped me to create time that was filled with the people I love, the things I enjoy doing, and work that’s meaningful. Without hesitation, the best choice I made was twenty-nine years ago when I said, “I do” to my best friend and Sweetheart.

The time will pass before you know it. What will you say “yes” to? Come join in the conversation. Share your thoughts, your choices, and your memories with us.

Time constantly moves, but sometimes we need to be still. We have to just breathe, not do, and quiet ourselves. Vacations provide a wonderful break to do this, but they can be few and far between. What are the benefits of introducing stillness more frequently? With our busy lives, how can we embrace the pause?

On a recent spring weekend afternoon, I basked in the quiet comfort of our hammock. As I stretched out between two giant oak trees, the birds chirped and the breeze barely blew. Restful greens surrounded me. The light blue sky peeked through a ceiling of trees. The hammock swung ever so slightly. I wrote, read, and thought while appreciating the calming effects of the scenery, sounds, and scents.

The benefits of the quiet were noticeable. I slowed down and felt better balanced. That sense of constantly needing to do and accomplish took a hiatus. Feelings of stress and restlessness went away. Energy was restored. Clarity returned to my thoughts. Gratitude for the surroundings, peacefulness, and pause filled my being.

If you don’t have a hammock what are other ways you can experience the pause? Some like to meditate, pray or do yoga. Others prefer being near water, woods, or mountains. Porch or playground swings can be relaxing. There are many ways to quiet the self.

Time is for doing and it's also for just being. What benefit do you get from pausing? What works for you?

You’ve heard it before. The playing field is level. We each have 24-hours in a day. That’s a big number, isn’t it? In addition, we have 365 rounds each year. That’s 8,760 hours per year to make our own concoction of work, fun, and relaxation. With all this time, why do we feel unproductive, overwhelmed, stressed-out, and time poor? Here are common time challenges and some strategies for overcoming them.

1. Overscheduling – Life is not dull. There are so many meetings, extracurricular activities, and social events in addition to the regular responsibilities that you feel perpetually frazzled and busy. There is never any relaxation time, other than when you sleep.

Tip: This might be the time to introduce “no” into your vocabulary. What can be removed from the schedule to give you some downtime?

2. Ambitious List Making – Massive doesn’t even begin to describe the length of your lists. You are overwhelmed by your ideas, projects and to-dos. How and when will you accomplish everything?

Tip:  Adjust your expectations. As items are checked off, new ones will appear. Don’t let that de-motivate you. Instead of focusing on completing the entire list, shift your perspective. Work your list by selecting the two or three items that you will get done that day. Reframe what completion looks like.

3. Lack of Planning – You prefer to just “go with the flow” and not plan your time. This isn’t working for you. The day ends and you haven’t accomplished what you wanted to. Consider the good enough method of planning.

Tip: Don’t plan every minute. Instead, create large time blocks in your schedule that are devoted to certain types of activities like returning phone calls and emails, doing errands, spending time with family, and “me time.” Yes…block out time for just you! Review the loose plan before the end of each day. Adjust as needed.

4. Not Focusing – Distractions . . . Let me count the ways. There are children, pets, phone calls, TV, email, texting, Internet searches, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Don’t get me started about Pinterest (my personal new favorite social media addiction, oops I mean site!) The supply of distractions is endless.

Tip: Two words: Establish boundaries. Whether the distractions are digital or human, it’s essential to set parameters. Remember those time blocks I mentioned above? Incorporate into those time blocks some “tech-less time” or whichever distraction needs the boundary. Experiment with effectively using parameters to maintain your focus.

5. Under Appreciating – You’re doing a lot. You’re moving through the days at lightning speed. You’re done and on to the next thing before pausing to acknowledge what you’ve accomplished. This exacerbates your frenzied feelings.

Tip:  Gratitude is powerful. It shifts our thoughts to a positive place. Allow yourself to slow down long enough to reflect and appreciate. That can include acknowledging our accomplishments, being grateful for our loved ones, or enjoying the sweet scent of spring.

What is your biggest time challenge? Is it one of these or something entirely different? I’d love to hear from you. Come join the conversation.