#8. Mastering Time Management: From Overwhelmed to Organized
Episode Shownotes:
Are you constantly feeling overwhelmed, racing against the clock, and yet your To Do List is still a mile long? I was in the same boat until I started doing THIS small thing that had a huge impact on my efficiency, productivity, and peace of mind. Want a hint? It involves numbers. (But don't worry - we're not talking crazy math skills!) Tune in to today's episode and find out my secret that's made all the difference!
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Episode Transcript*:
This is Your Speech Path: Mindful Time Management for the Busy SLP. My name is Theresa Harp, and as a mom and speech pathologist turned productivity coach, I know a thing or two about how hectic life can be. If you're an SLP who's overworked, burnt out and feeling like you're constantly falling short as a therapist and a mom, then this is the podcast for you. I cover time management and mindset strategies so you can learn to love your work and your home life at the same time. Let's dive in.
Hey podcast listeners, thank you so much for being here. Welcome to another episode. I'm so grateful that you're spending your time listening to the show. It's awesome. Today I'm going to be sharing a little bit of, I suppose, what you could call a hack when it comes to planning how I spend my time. I don't really think of this as a hack, but I guess it's maybe an approach that some of you have not considered. I just thought everyone was doing this. When I discovered that not everyone does, I was like oh all, right, we need to talk about this on the podcast. This is very much related to planning how you spend your time.
I recently recorded an episode all about being proactive versus reactive when it comes to time management. If you haven't listened to that episode, go back and check that one out, because it is very, I would say, relatable or connected to this episode today. It got me thinking: for those of you who are proactive with your schedule, you might still be struggling…you might still be struggling with spending your time. One thing that I have noticed that my clients don't always do just naturally is—I'm going to share this with you here on the podcast—and then I'm going to talk about why this is so important.
The thing that I noticed that people are not doing when it comes to time management is looking at the available time for work, the amount of time that's available to get work done and the amount of time that they are going to spend on a task. It's really both of these together what I would do when I was making a to-do list and sitting down and brain dumping the things that I had to get done and then selecting the things that I was actually going to focus on. That was useful for me. That was a nice approach when I started doing this, when I started looking at first the available time for my day and then the amount of time that I was going to spend on each task and writing it down on my list, a lot started to change, a lot.
How many of you can relate to sitting down and making a plan of what you're going to accomplish but making that list way too long? You've got unrealistic expectations about how much you can get done and maybe unrealistic expectations about how long things are going to take. When you start forecasting how much available time you have and how much time you're going to spend on something, it can help you curate that list. It can help you sort of mine for the things on that list that you're actually going to take and attack that day, right, instead of just making a to-do list of everything that's floating in your brain and working on it and then feeling discouraged when you only get a fraction of it done right, I think we've all been there. So I think what can be really helpful is to actually put this down on paper or electronically. Whatever kind of calendar system you use or planning system you use is what…is that…that is what you should do. You should do this there. You should write down the amount of time available and the amount of time that you're going to spend on a task. Notice I'm saying the “amount of time you're going to spend on the task,” not the amount of time that you think the task would take. Not the amount of time that you want to spend on a task, but the amount of time that you're going to spend. And you get to decide that and you could think about how long you believe the task would take and factor that in as you're deciding the amount of time that you're going to spend. But if you keep these tasks untimed and you just allow yourself to do the task until it's complete or to work on the task until it's complete, you're going to spend more time on it. You're going to spend more time on it. I promise you. It is just a law of nature. In fact, it has a name. You may have heard me mention this on the podcast before, for those of you who have been around. Right, but the idea of Parkinson's Law or Parkinson's Principle is the name of the theory that the work or the task will expand to fit the amount of time that's available. So if you say, “oh, I've got two hours to get this report done,” you will spend two hours getting that report done. This was definitely me when I had tests growing up, when I was taking tests. If we had an hour to take the test, I would take the full hour. Always I would use it, and that might not necessarily have been a bad thing. But if you are in the real world now struggling to get all of your things done, you need to think about Parkinson's Law. You need to get on board with this idea because I promise you it's probably happening. It's happening to you. Okay. So by sitting down and deciding how much time you're going to spend on the task, you take control back and then you're not stuck in that sort of you know, limbo space where it's just going to take as long as it takes.
Okay, now back to the first piece of sitting down and identifying how much time you have available. This might sound, what's the word, I don't know. This might sound unnecessary. That's the word. This might sound like something that you don't actually need to do, but you're wrong, and here's why you need to acknowledge in your brain the amount of time. Even if the amount of time that you have is the same every single day, even if it doesn't change, if it's predictable, you still need to sit down and acknowledge okay, eight hour workday. This is what I've got. What is it filled with? How am I going to spend it? Right, it's, of course, especially true for those of you that work from home and don't necessarily have a work schedule per se, or for those of you that might be self-employed or contractors and you get to kind of create your own schedule. This is very important that you sit down and you decide every day how much time am I devoting to work? Okay, I would offer that that actually would lead you to a little bit of more what I'm calling work-life integration, because it gives you a cap. It kind of gives you this, this boundary of time that you're going to be spending on the work tasks, and then that ends and it opens up time for you to devote to other tasks, other events, things that are not work-related.
Okay, so what I do when I'm sitting down is I say, okay, how much time do I have to work today? I might do this in advance, like the day before, or even at the beginning of the week, but my schedule tends to be, I guess I don't want to say erratic, but it's a little bit. It can change, it can change somewhat on a last minute, at the last minute. So…and my brain? I feel like it was just such a high cognitive load for me to sit down and try to do this one week at a time that I started doing it just day by day and that worked for me. You have to figure out what works for you, but sometimes I'll do this the day before, or sometimes I'll do this before my work day starts, so like early in the morning, before the kids are up, when I'm having my time to myself, and what I will do is I'll look at the day and I'll say okay, how much time do I have available today? I'll give you the example of today. As I'm recording this, the day that I'm recording this episode, I knew that I had available from 9am to 4pm, which is fantastic for me. That's like an incredible amount of time, way more than I typically get to do work, to focus on work tasks. Typically for me it's going to look like 9am to 2pm. That is the available time that I have for work, which is just kind of crazy when you think about it. But that's, that's a topic for another day. So today I happen to have from 9am to 4pm. Tomorrow that is not the case. Tomorrow it is like 9:30 to 1:30, I believe. So I need to figure this out day by day so that I know realistically what I'm going to fill the day with. So today I sat down and I said, okay, seven hours, I've got nine to four available. Then I go in and I fill. I fill in what I call the non-negotiables, the things that are appointments, commitments with other people usually, and I put those on there so that I can kind of see what's coming off my schedule, like what time, what available time, is coming off of my plate. So I had, what did I have? I had two sessions today, two client sessions today, and I had a work meeting today for teaching for grad school. I think those were the three sort of standing appointments. So three non-negotiables. Those were three hours long. So already I'm down from seven hours to four hours. You can see how this can get a little bit depressing. That's okay, not a problem. Right now I've got four hours. I also know that for me I work from home I like to get some household things done during the day when my kids are not here, because, hello, it's obviously way easier and more enjoyable, or I should say maybe less painful to do those things when I'm not being interrupted and pulled in a million different directions. So I sit down and I say, okay, when am I going to have my time for household stuff and when am I having any breaks? If I'm getting any breaks today, I'm going to take a break. So I actually have to—well, I don't have to, but I choose to write down what time frames or like the amount of time that those things are going to be. So I'll say, okay, I know I want to get a load of laundry done and I want to get all of the lunches made and dinner prepped, like those are kind of the three things that I would love to have before the kids get home. So the laundry, the lunches and prep dinner. So then I ask myself quickly okay, what, how long am I going to spend on those three things? And then I take that out of my work schedule, right, or my available time. I keep saying work schedule, but I kind of I put that on the schedule. So then it removes available time.
So let's say all of that was going to take me an hour. Okay, let's say all of that was gonna take me an hour. So now I'm down from from four hours to three hours. Okay, so I've got three hours of time available for work now. This next part is where I kind of deviate a little bit from what I do now versus what I used to do. So what I'm gonna share with you for the purposes of this episode is what I used to do, because it was working, it was fine, it was a good plan, it worked for me and I think it's sort of the firs—it could be one of the simplest ways to start taking back control of your time and having a to-do list that's achievable and doable for you.
So I'm gonna share that with you and then I will tell you a little bit about what I do now and how that might, what that might look like for you, okay, and why I'm not going into that. You'll see in a minute. You'll see why I'm not sharing that with you right now, but what I would then do and what I would suggest to a client to do might be sitting for two minutes and brain-dumping all of the tasks that are floating through your mind that you want to work on. Anything that pops in your head, you write it down. Do not filter, don't think about, “oh, but wait, I don't want to do that today.” Or “Oh, but wait, I need to find this out first before I can start that task".” If it pops in your head, you write it down. That's the definition of a brain dump.
Okay, I would do that. I would write them all down and then I would identify the things that were the biggest priority for that day. Okay, now, that's gonna look different from person to person. We could have a whole other episode on how you prioritize those tasks Not something we're gonna cover on this episode, but I will do an episode about that.
Okay, so let's assume that you've figured out the things that that are the top priorities for you. The next step this is the piece where people, where things, fall apart. This is the thing that people don't do that causes them not to get everything done on their to-do list is, once they've chosen the things that they're gonna work on, they need to decide how long they're going to spend on those things. So, for you, listening, look at the things that you decided were the top priority and ask yourself, “How much time am I going to spend on this?” remembering all along, keeping in mind you now have what did we say a three-hour container of time. I think that's what we said a three-hour container of time. That's what I'm left with. So that's what you've got to work with. That's what I had to work with.
So I had to decide what are the things I'm gonna do today and how long are they going to take me, and make sure that they stay within the time constraints of those three hours. Okay, if, for example, I had identified a priority that wasn't doable within that three-hour time frame, I couldn't do it that day. It would have to get moved to a different day, like just simple as that. That's not something I'm gonna do, right? Or I could look at that thing and say, okay, well, maybe it's going to take longer than three hours, but could I do part of it today, or could I do an hour of it for today? So maybe look at that task and see what are the sub-tasks. Usually for most things, there are sub-tasks. So identify what are the sub-tasks. Okay, what am I going to have to do in order to get that thing done? First I'm going to have to do this, then I'm going to have to do that, then I'm going to have to do that, and maybe you decide that you're going to do the first three tasks like the first three sub-tasks, or maybe you decide all right, well, I know that this project is going to take more than three hours. Today I'll spend one hour on it, I'll spend the other two hours on other things and then tomorrow I'll spend another hour on it. Right, so you get to decide what you think would work best for you, for your brain you know your learning style and for your schedule.
Okay, but the key is to write down the amount of time that you're going to spend and put it right next to that task on your to do list. And for those of you overachievers, or for those of you who like to have as many supports in place to increase your success, do yourself a favor and get yourself a Time Timer or some sort of timer that is visual, that you can actually see the amount of time that's left, not just a digital timer that's on your watch or on your phone, that is not in your face and visible for you, right? Maybe this is an ADHD thing, I don't know. But well, I do know that it is common for people with ADHD to need to be able to see the time, but I think it's beneficial for people, even who don't have a diagnosis of ADHD, to be able to see the amounts of available time. It's sort of like a microcosm of this exact exercise that we just walked through, because, as you can see on the timer, the amount of time available, you see that getting smaller and smaller. It's just another visualization of needing to fit time inside a container, right, because we don't have all the time in the world. We have to be intentional with our time, and so using a timer can help you then make sure that you're sticking to the designated amount of time that you're going to spend on that task. Okay, so I told you that I was going to share what I used to do. That is what I used to do and that is where I would encourage you to start.
Okay, let me recap before I start sharing what I do now and diving into that just a little bit. Just to recap for where we're at. The two things I said it was one thing, but really the two things that most people don't do when it comes to planning, that they need to start implementing in order to be more successful and productive, are number one looking at the amount of available time and, number two, deciding how long you're going to work on a task. Okay, so those two things are where you're going to start. First, start with the available time, figure out how much time do I have for work today? And then fill in your non-negotiables what are the things that have to get done in terms of appointments and commitments. Put those in there so that you have a really clear picture of the true available time, the available working time that you have. So you fill in those non-negotiables and any breaks or lunch or whatever, and you're left with the true available time. And then you're going to create your brain dump, anything that pops in your mind of tasks that you have to do, and you're going to prioritize them and decide how much time you're going to spend on the ones that you've decided to focus on that day. Okay, that's what I'm going to invite you to do, and let us know in the Facebook group how this is going. Join the Facebook group, share you know once you've tried this. Share what's coming up for you, what's effective, what's not effective, what do you need help with. That's what the group is there for.
Okay, now I said I would also tell you what I do now. That's a little bit different, and the reason why I didn't share this to begin with is because this is not like the first course of action when you're trying to take back control of your time, and it's not even the most necessary course of action for people who are trying to take control of their time. But I use a project management system that tells me exactly what I'm working on and when I'm working on it, and at some point I will do an episode. I had an episode about this under the former podcast but that had to come down, so at some point I will record a whole episode about what tool I use and why it's helpful, how I use it. You know all of that information that maybe you are now thinking about, but I'm talking about things like I don't use these. I use MeisterTask yeah, I always forget the name of it. I use Meister Tasks, but there's lots of them out there…Asana and Trello and Notion and like just so many, so many tools. It's easy to go down a rabbit hole and I don't want you to. We'll do a podcast episode about it later, but the reason why I don't think you need to start there is because, number one, it could send you down a rabbit hole. Number two, you need to know what tasks are on your plate and how long they take in order for a project management system like Asana or Trello to work optimally for you.
So, to me, a list like this and the two strategies that I gave you today available time and time you're going to spend on a task, and then those kind of step-by-step approach, that step-by-step approach for what you're going to do; to me, that is the path of least resistance. That's just the simplest, easiest way. No fuss, no frills to start taking back control of how you spend your time, and it probably is something that you can just tweak to what you're already doing. It's not really giving you anything new to do, because most of you listening probably do some sort of a list of to-do list and plan for what you're going to be doing every day. It could be a high-level plan, it could be a low-level plan I mean, it's going to look different from person to person but what I've offered you today is a simple, easy way to take an approach you're already using and maximize it, or to start a new approach on a really basic level, but a really effective way to help you have a better awareness of how much time you have and how much time you need, how much time you are going to spend on the things. So that, to me, is the most logical place to start. But stay tuned for a future episode, don't know when, but at some point a future episode where we can talk more about tools that you could use. I know many of you might already use some of these tools, so we can talk about that later. But for now, get started with the suggestions I've offered today. Pop into the Facebook group and let us know how it's going, and so we can celebrate all of your wins and support you with any challenges that come up. All right, that's it for today. I said I was going to keep it shorter and I did. Yes, very happy about that. Hope this was helpful. Hopefully you got something good and useful out of this. Would love to hear your thoughts and if you know someone who needs to hear this episode, would you do me a favor and share it with them? Just click the share button or copy the link and send it to them. Thank you very much. I will see you all next week.
*Please note that this transcript was generated by AI and may contain errors.