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LIFESTYLE

Ask Coach Carole: Finding Time to Balance Your Life

Carole Rehbock
Contributor
May 2008

Dear Coach Carole:

I am sure you hear this very often and my issue is shared by many others. I feel like I never have enough time to do what I need to do. I am organized, use a planner, set goals, delegate and have taken time management classes. In this virtual world of work 24/7 seems to be the norm. However, there are people in my company who seem to work extra hours but not extraordinary hours and one of them recently just got a promotion.

He and I started about the same time, we do similar work and we are close in age and both have families. I have talked to my boss and he is very satisfied with my work, so why am I overwhelmed and working such long hours? Something is wrong.

Sincerely

Out of Answers

Dear Out of Answers,

It sounds really important for you to have life/work balance and you have many skills that can enable you to make that happen. Sometimes it is not the skills that make the difference but how you think about the situation. If you see time as a scarce resource that has control over you rather than a resource you control, then you will not have “enough time”.

When we say we do not have time, do we mean we did not make something a priority? Were we not willing to say “no” to one thing so we could do another? Do we mean that someone else is controlling our time? Or is it that the demands of life are “taking over our time”? Is it that we have scheduled so many things to do, even things we like, that we have “run out of time”? It’s obvious that we have time for some things, but not for

 others.

I appreciate that we all have obligations; we need to work, we need to go food shopping, we need to take care of children or parents, and the list goes on. The question is this: how do we turn those ‘needs’ into what has meaning and priority for us? How can we eliminate or get help with those things we really do not care about?

Time is not what stops us from doing what we say we want to do. We all have 24 hours in a day, so why do some people seem to get it done while others do not? I would ask you if you are focused on what is important to you? Where are you saying “yes” when it does not fit your priorities? What are the three things that have the most meaning for you right now? Does everything have the same urgency and priority? How are you choosing to spend your time?

I do have some tips from my clients that have helped them to “free up time.”

• Identify your priorities in terms of where you want to spend your time

• Break down activities into smaller increments, and spend ten or twenty minutes a day on them

• Find 2 days a week to leave work at 5:00 pm

• Watch one hour less of TV each evening, or a couple of evenings per week.

• Telecommute once a week if you can

• Ask friends to babysit for your kids on a Saturday afternoon once a month

• Combine exercise with socializing or doing errands

• If you can afford it, get a housekeeper

• Say “no, thanks” at least once a week

• Block out hours in your calendar that are for working on your personal goals

I do understand that this is a challenge and what I am suggesting is that you can be a great time manager however if you are not working on your top priorities and making clear choices you will always be “out of time”.

All the best,

Coach Carole

Carole Rehbock is the President and Founder of Consulting & Coaching Solutions. You can reach Carole at carole@rehbocksolutions.com or 510- 843-6417.