Time management??? Simplify....

One thing I hear over and over from child care providers and educators (well, everyone, really) is that there never seems to be enough time to get it all done.

Time to teach Time to rehearse Time to practice Time to be with family Time to be a good friend Time to read Time to exercise Time to learn

Time is like money: it's a commodity. We all have the same number of hours in the day - it's how we spend them that makes the difference. Where (and how) do you want to spend your time? What's important to you?

Here are a few time-saving tools and tactics to try this week:

1. Put all your to-dos in one place.

I'm generally a pen-and-paper person, written to-do lists work for me. Sometimes, I want to write things down for next week or next month and see them sitting on the piece of paper in front of me every day.

2. Limit social media.

We all do it: the mindless scrolling without really stopping to read or pay attention to what we're seeing. For me, it's a way to escape for a minute, but, I've learned how distracting this can be during the work-day.

"Every time we become distracted, it takes an average of 15 minutes to regain complete focus, and that adds up over time" (source).

As such, I've started leaving my phone in the other room during working hours (and it's made a big difference in how much I'm able to get done!).

3. Close documents and browser tabs you're not currently using.

Do you ever catch yourself with more than a few documents or browser tabs open (read: 8 or more)?

You were reading an article and clicked on a link - new tab. You want to remember to look something up later - new tab. You're in the middle of writing this month's newsletter article - new document. You're checking email in multiple inboxes - new tab(s)/applications.

The thing is, every tab or open file represents something that needs your time and attention, a decision waiting to be made, a reminder that you have a lot to do and not enough time to do it.

And nobody has time for that kind of mental clutter, am I right?

Try focusing on one thing at a time. Close out of your email if you're not currently checking, writing, and responding to messages. Close out of documents and applications you're not currently working in. If you don't want to forget to look something up later, add it to your to-do list instead of opening a new browser tab. Simplify.