Round-up: The Best Time Management Tip Ever

Lots of fun stuff in the news this week. USA Today ran an article called “School’s Almost Out: A Summer Survival Plan For Parents,” featuring 168 Hours. I gave some suggestions for dealing with changing summer schedules, but also put in a pitch to use the increased flexibility summer brings for adventure.

I have a Q&A over at CurrentMom that also talks about Summer Schedules, with more tips for parents balancing work with kids’ summer activities. The Clutter Diet featured a fun teleclass on Wednesday night, and Meagan Francis at The Happiest Mom gave a nice shout-out to this week’s paperback release, citing my figure of the 1000 hours of summer we have for our personal lives (that was the theme of this month’s newsletter. Are you signed up yet?) . I have a guest post over at Men with Pens today on “10 Time-Savers That Aren’t Saving You Anything.” As one commenter has already noted, it’s a bit of a brutal list, but sometimes using time wisely is about tough love…

I continue to hear from people who read my post at BNET from two weeks ago on What The Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast. This post apparently ran on the home page (or top news page, it’s unclear) of LinkedIn or Monday, which has resulted in close to 200,000 visits. Phew!

I put a note in that post that I’m looking to do more time makeovers. People started sending me their time logs on Monday and I’m using a few of them in posts next week. This week, we had a few other BNET items:

  • The Biggest Time Saving Tip Of All. Guess what it is? Seeing time as a choice. If you’re not happy with how you’re spending your time, you can choose differently. Sure, there may be consequences. But choosing to fill your life with things that deserve to be there definitely beats trying to save 15 minutes by doing laundry in a different fashion.
  • 2 Steps To Summer Happiness. If you want to fill your free time with meaningful things, first you have to plan them in. And then start repeating this mantra: Do It Anyway. You’ll always be tired. So what? We draw energy from enjoyable activities. Act the way you want to feel, as Gretchen Rubin always says.
  • 4 Ways To Think Outside the (Lunch) Box. Whenever people want to bond with a client or colleague, the first thought is “lunch” or “dinner.” But there are plenty of other ways to get to know each other. My favorite — if only for the advanced set — is the networking playdate. I think we’ll see more of this in the future.

Also, just a quick note: If you haven’t already read 168 Hours, or if you know someone who hasn’t, the paperback is out this week. I’d really appreciate any orders! Thanks so much.

Also, I’ll be hosting my first Twitter chat at 1pm eastern today (10am Pacific). Use the hashtag #168hours to follow along, ask questions, share time tips, and so forth.  See you there!

3 thoughts on “Round-up: The Best Time Management Tip Ever

  1. liked the men with pens list. I don’t do most of those things, but I liked the email thought. I mostly just delete stuff. Unsubscribing to all the store emails was the best thing I’ve done.

    I will be having more things delivered, as my time logs have revealed that errands waste my time. I great piece ran in Family Circle this month called “Errand-Free Weekends.’ I thought of you when I read it. I plan to use a few of the sites suggested. I also noticed in your time logs that you rarely run errands. I think that has something to do with your lack of a car too. When I was recuperating from my surgery I ran no errands for 8 weeks, and didn’t miss them. Now that I can do it again, I am at Target, buying and returning. All of it is mostly unnecessary (although I really like the few new pieces I’ve added to the living room decor).

    1. @Denise: It is true that I don’t spend much time on errands. I went to the grocery store today. I went to the post office on Friday. I think errands are one of those categories of things that expand to fill available space. If there’s no space, you do less of it, or consolidate and get stuff delivered.

      1. Exactly! I just found out that Peapod delivers stamps, so I can stop going to the post office too.

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