Time Management Tips & Techniques
What The Weather Has Taught Me About My Time Management
A Microburst is an unusual weather phenomenon that causes a sudden surge of incredibly high winds. They can be intensely powerful, dangerous, are often totally unexpected, and usually extremely frightening to experience or observe.
They last just minutes yet leave a path of devastation behind.
If you don’t believe me, check out YouTube: “Top 5 Powerful Microbursts Caught On Video. “
This got me thinking. Only yesterday I had a day planned that consisted of back-to-back meetings, coaching sessions, appointments, and commitments outside of my home. From the moment my feet hit the ground at 6.12 am, I kept a keen eye on the clock sticking to the tightly scheduled activities and following my plan to the letter so that I would keep my head above water.
The night before, as is always the case for me, I had also written out a list of tasks that I must attend to when I can, this included some home admin, invoices to scan to clients, bills to settle, etc.
So when I found myself with an unexpected 15-minute window of time, having completed one task a little sooner than I had expected, I had a choice to make. One option would be to say, surf the net and get drawn into mindless social media posts from people I don’t even know, or go and make a cup of tea and watch some daytime TV, or numerous other wasteful and non-rewarding tasks. Or I could use the time well.
I chose the latter and because I already had a list of urgent tasks drawn up and to hand, I could very easily power my way through as many of them as I could in the short 15 minutes I suddenly had. I was as a human Microburst; blasting off scanned invoices, settling two outstanding bills that were playing on my mind, ordering two much-needed items for next day delivery, and replying to a client email. In total, I ticked off 6 items from my list of reminders, felt totally in control, had a huge sense of achievement, and was completely on fire. Such a better feeling than I would have had if I had wasted it on things like scrolling through Twitter posts, or something similarly unproductive, unrewarding, and unhelpful.
By using Reminders or To-Do Lists, we are immediately on the front foot. By using tiny pockets of time in a truly focussed manner - similar to the occasions when we notice we only have 5% battery left on our device but don’t have a charger with us - we blast through the important tasks, messages, emails, etc., speedily and efficiently before the device shuts down on us.
So if you don’t already use lists and reminders, then it might be worth trying. And when small pockets of time present themselves to you, you will immediately know where to put your attention so that you absolutely ensure you get the most out of it.
And you too will be a results-focused microblast!
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