Have you found yourself muttering that you simply don’t have enough
hours in the day, week or month to get everything done? You’re not
alone. Technology can be your friend but more than likely it’s simply
adding to feelings of being overwhelmed and ‘always on’. Read on, I’ll
share a few ways to tone down the insanity.
Email, snail mail, iPhones, 24-hour expectations, text messages, endless meetings, committees, kids events, charity events, time with friends, time for yourself…wait…what was that last one?
With the widespread use of technology there seems to be a constant expectation that we all need to be available to one another on demand…at everyone’s beck and call, on someone else’s schedule other than your own. STOP the insanity…you do not!
If this sounds familiar, I’m here to tell you help is available…you CAN break the cycle and get your life back, unless of course you’re with the FBI hostage rescue team or the press secretary to the President. You can shut the world off to take time to recharge, IF you really want to.
My term for this problem is LifeClutter. It’s a situation that we’re all guilty of, and that for the most part is self-inflicted. We’ve allowed ‘stuff’ to creep into our lives, often undetected, and overrun our schedules. It’s an epidemic that’s worse than the plague or the growing Covid-19 scare.
At least the plague could be seen, people quarantined and controlled. This epidemic is both self-inflicted and is in fact killing us. Stress, over work, over-eating, hypertension, FOMO (fear of missing out) and more. Are you suffering silently?
Common signs of LifeClutter:
- Double or triple booking yourself hoping one or more will cancel
- Missing more than one family event in an average week because of poor planning
- Taking calls, especially unplanned ones, during off hours
- Making sure that everyone knows that you’re always available, a very bad habit to train others to expect
- Taking work on ‘vacation’ just to stay caught up
- Feeling nervous if you haven’t checked email in an hour
- Sending yourself a test email to make sure the system is up and running
- Spending more than an hour a day on email, voicemail, snail mail and social media – combined
- Joining or remaining on multiple committees and dreading every meeting
Here are a few tips for fighting back…they work.
Schedule one meeting per time slot, you waste more time having to rebook the ones that don’t cancel at the last minute which interrupts yet another day.
Make sure that you actually schedule time with yourself, plan date nights with your spouse/significant other before the overtime list comes up and give yourself time to get projects completed.
Pre-schedule as many of your family events as possible throughout the year. Schedule all of your kid’s school events, vacations, 1/2 days and sporting events as soon as you know them. You won’t be able to make them all but by doing this simple scheduling practice you will be able to attend a whole lot more than if you wait and have to schedule around work events. In my case this process helps me make ALL of the important ones and about 75% of the rest. When a meeting, training, voluntary overtime shift or other conflicting event comes up, I simply say “I already have something booked that day?”
Consider not giving everyone your personal cell number. Most emergency service and healthcare organizations need to have someone on call, simply get a cell phone with a dedicated number and rotate the phone to whomever is on call…the rest of the management team can truly be off-duty.
Set crisis criteria, things that can happen that require higher levels of leadership response, your personal intervention or an all-hands-on deck response…those interrupt your time off.
Work and vacation don’t mix. If you have one really big meeting, project, etc. that can’t be left until your return, set a date and time to be available. Stick to that specific time and date only, otherwise shut off the phone and leave the laptop.
Schedule specific times to check email and respond to it. As an example, I get about 200 emails a day, about 30 actually require action on my part. A procedure that I’ve found to work well for me is to only check email three times a day when in the office and as time allows when on the road. Also limit yourself to about an hour or less per day to check, respond to and update emails, social media and such.
Committees…I have one simple rule, if the agenda hasn’t changed or progress made by the third meeting, you’ll never see me at a fourth. How many could you resign from and not be missed?
Fight LifeClutter at every turn, you only have 1,440 minutes in a day, don’t squander them on someone else’s agenda items.
Need help? Let’s schedule some time to talk about your situation.
Visit TakeTheStrongRoad.com and schedule a complimentary 30 minute discovery call and we’ll talk about your current reality.
Be well,
#TakeTheStrongRoad
