That seems like a question I ask myself often enough. I’ve got a lot of plans, things to do, places to see, people to meet, blogs to write. And then I have reality. Work life flows into home life (especially with my job in IT where I have a Blackberry which means getting calls and e-mails at odd hours). Balance can quickly turn into imbalance and one might just end up looking back and wondering how all those dreams and goals got relegated to the back of the closet.
So, I’m working on learning and implementing a new time management system and using my Microsoft Outlook a bit more efficiently in conjunction with my blackberry.
I’m keeping it simple. The 4-d’s
- If it isn’t important, delete it.
- If it can be done in 2 minutes or less, do it.
- If it isn’t for you or if you can, delegate it.
- If you need to do it, but it takes longer than 2 minutes (including reading), defer it.
There’s a pretty good article on Microsoft’s website here that talks about taking control of the inbox.
But, more important than what is in the article – part of organizing that to-do list should really get down to priorities. It may seem silly to schedule time in my calendar with things like “Call wife and tell her I love her” – but really, is there anything more important? There will always be more things to do than time to do them in, it’s just a matter or remembering those priorities about what is most important in my life and doing those things first.