If you and your calendar are feeling stretched thin or maxed out, maybe it is time to take a look at your Time Management practices.  There are three Questions to ask yourself:  What tasks can only I do?  and what can someone do for me?   Finally, what is the most important thing right now? 

If you need to make some breathing room in your schedule…

1.  Outsource whenever possible.

• I love providing for my family, but I hate shopping.  Lately, the physical act of acquiring more stuff in a store drives me crazy.     
• So I resolved to put the joy back in my holiday planning, and shop on-line as much as possible.  I am willing to pay a little more in shipping, just to save my sanity while finding the great gifts.
• What Can Only You Do:
  • Be the family member to your kids, spouse, parents, siblings; 
  • Your professional life;
  • Mail / To Do List / Bill Paying
  • Decision Making / Big Picture (leaving implementation to outsourced person)
• What Can someone else do?  There are always things that you can pay someone else to do.  Clean your yard or your house, shop for or wrap your gifts, cater your parties.  All of these things require an exchange of $$ for convenience and expertise, but that exchange may be worth it, if it helps you out.  You do not have to solve every problem yourself.  There are trained professionals and technological wonders that can solve problems for you!  
• I am not a crafty person (at all).  My creative friend dropped off my lovely new hand crafted gift certificates to me today, just in time for the holidays.  The exchange of money for services is totally worth it!
• Be ready to relinquish some control, in the interest of getting help / getting things done.

2.   This may sound crazy coming from a professional organizer, but don’t do a task just because it needs done. 

• I just went out to check the mail, and I notice my yard needs raked.  The street department will come soon to clear the curb side, it looks messy to me, it just needs raked.  And I like to rake (don’t tell anyone).
• But I, Colleen, also have a really important meeting in 2 hours that I need to prepare for, and I need to get dinner on the table before I leave.
• So I tack “Rake” on to my kids’ to-do list for after school, and I get ready for my meeting.   I have more than one thing that needs done right now, so one task has to take priority.
• Take care of tomorrow and this week before you worry about something in 2011!

3.  If there is a task on your To-Do list that is a gate to other things, get it done.

• Putting my son’s Christmas Lists on Amazon.com will help my family members get started on their To-Do lists, so at some point today, that task will take top priority and it will get done.  
• I have to send out an email query about an event coming up, so I can get final numbers and start preparing for it.  The numbers influence the final outcome, so I had better write that email!

4.  Why can’t we just get started?  

• I am a perfectionist.  Honestly, you probably are, too.  I often struggle with not having the time I need to finish a task exactly the way I want it to be finished.  So, then it gets put aside again and again, waiting for that perfect opportunity. 
• Let me be the first to tell you, Perfect is an illusion for we humans.  It is reserved for God, not us.  So perfect opportunities may never come.  And our tasks may never get done, if we keep waiting.
• A very smart person at a meeting last week asked “Why can’t we get started on this great idea now, instead of waiting 4 weeks until our next meeting?”  Turns out, there was no reason why we could not get started.  So we did!
• Just Do It.  Don’t wait for perfect, don’t wait at all.  Value “getting it done”! 

5.  Make things simpler.

• Helped loved ones move out of their home over the weekend.  At one point, one of them walked back into the now empty, cleared-out house and asked if he could stay.  His garage had never been that spacious, his kitchen never that uncluttered!  Simple seemed very appealing.
• It is never too late to clear clutter, either from your house, your schedule or your mind.  It is always a good idea!
• Eliminate clutter, and don’t replace it (see last week’s Pantry Shopping blog article!).

I challenge you to look at your next 168 hours a little differently!  Have a great week.