Situations appear to be spinning madly out of your control? Don’t you care, your time management plan will help you to have everything under your control. That’s why your planning to anticipate obstacles is an important part of your time management plan
Let’s have a more detailed look at them.
Over-scheduling, as discussed before, is a huge obstacle. When creating a realistic schedule don’t try and cram too much into your day. Set time estimates and make sure you are working on your high priorities at the time of day when you have the most energy.
Are you a perfectionist? If you don’t think that anyone can do the job as well as you, you’ll end up doing everything, or re-doing tasks until they are perfect. Being perfect is a psychological barrier to successful time management. It will give you an excuse for poor performance ‘I wasn’t happy with the outcome anyway’ or ‘I didn’t have enough time to get it exactly right’. Remember, not everything has to be perfect.
Procrastination appears to be everywhere and can be a huge obstacle. Do you put things off because they aren’t high on your priority list or do you procrastinate because you aren’t quite sure how to do a task? Are things of very high importance hard to get motivated for? Avoid procrastination by making sure the stages to reach your goals are in small measurable steps. If fear of failure is making you procrastinate work out how you can overcome this fear. Is there anyone who can help you with this task? Do you need to learn more before you tackle the project?
How urgent is the job you are working on? Is it the one you want to be working on right now? Some people are slaves to the call of urgent. Can you ignore the telephone ringing? Do you have trouble identifying priorities? It may seem to you that every task on your to-do list is urgent. If you can learn to differentiate between urgent and non-urgent tasks and perhaps delegate some of the non-urgent ones you will no longer be a slave.
Other obstacles that need to be planned for include being over-accessible. Everyone wants a piece of you and you want to help everyone. Is that possible? Learn the art of saying no. It doesn’t make you a bad person. Everyone has their limits as to how much they can do.
Do you get distracted easily? This can also be an obstacle to effective time management. Working on your concentration or making your workplace free from unwanted distractions can help.
Fear of failure and depression are also obstacles for some people. Negative thoughts can lead to both these obstacles. Depression can be a passing thing or a more serious illness. Medical intervention may be necessary.
What to say more? Obstacles will test you and your time management plan. If you are well prepared when meeting an obstacle you’ll get the tools to deal with it. Meet them head on and deal with them. Then move on to those things high on your priority list and remain in control.
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