In my last post I talked about reconsidering the term time management and focusing instead on energy management and reminded readers that the first way to address this is through taking care of personal health through exercise, eating healthy foods, and getting enough rest. This first step is on-going, and the reminder we need to give ourselves is that small daily changes in our health will add up to big improvements in energy over time. If you want a better outcome, put in a better effort, but keep that ‘small steps’ mantra in the back of your mind for days when energy and motivation are low.

Contact me for ideas and tips on how to stay motivated.

The second way to manage energy is through day-to-day task management – making an effort to simplify home and work practices so jobs only get done once, or get accomplished with least possible extra effort. Let me give you 2 examples:

1) Email management.

Problem: Do you spend far too much time managing emails?  Maybe this sounds familiar. Emails arrive in your inbox with a notification that immediately prompts you to look at who has contacted you. You don’t have time right now to return emails, but you wast 30-90 seconds checking, and clog your brain with information and ‘to do’s’ that could have waited until you were ready to respond. You may check in with your email in this manner 10 times before you actually get to responding to them. That adds up to 5 to 15 minutes of time wasted and dozens of emails that have clogged your mind and sucked away portions of your energy that could have been used for other more productive tasks.

Solution: Turn off your email notifications so you’re not tempted to check in every time a new message shows up. Choose to check emails first thing to ensure there are no fires to put out, and then commit to checking emails during a scheduled slot when you have time to actually respond. Time and energy restored!

2) A place for everything.

“For every minute spent in organizing, an hour is earned.”

~ Unknown

Problem: Do you complain about being too busy to get organized? If you regularly rifle through piles of papers and files every time you need to find something, you may want to take time to tidy up! You may tell yourself you’re too busy, but how much time do you waste in search of that missing file, set of keys, unpaid bill, or colleagues phone number? In addition, your mind, once again, gets clogged up with processing as you wrack your brain to try and figure out “where the %#&* did that file end up?” Energy wanes under these circumstances, so you can’t afford not to get organized.

Solution: The time to organize is the minute you receive something in your hand. Find a place for everything, and when you get something new in your hands, put it in its place now. That may mean that unpaid bills get placed in the allotted file for later, but when the time comes to deal with them you’ll know where to look won’t you? This may mean you schedule an afternoon to ‘clean house’, or hire a professional organizer to create systems, but the investment will pay dividends in time and energy for you.

As you navigate through your day, pay attention to other time and energy traps that regularly sucked you in. Emailing when a call would be quicker?  Letting a call go to voice mail rather than clearing your slate of it by answring it NOW? Scheduling meetings during hours when your staff is most productive…

I bet you know if a few time and energy traps! How did you work past them?  I’d love to hear your ideas! Send me an email and tell me how you save time and energy at work and home!

A special request for your HELP!

I have applied to be a W Expert’ for the W Network which is a Canadian women’s television network that produces a lot of reality based TV shows on health, personal development, etc.,

I have posted two video applications and I am asking for your votes on both. The top 20 entries will move to round two of casting, and I want to be among them.  The end result could be a TV hosting opportunity!

Add your comments, and click on the stars under my video to rate me!

Click this link to vote on my Health and Wellness video submission.

Click here to vote on my Personal Development video submission.

My video should start playing after a moment or two, but if you have difficulty, follow the links at www.wnetwork.com and scroll through the pages until you find my video.

You have until October 26th but I’d be very happy if you go there right now and cast your vote in my favor. THANK YOU so much for your help!