Burr’s Blog 3: Time Management

Burr’s Blog 3: Time Management

I have a friend who always arrives early to events, and thus she can be counted on to be the first to knock on my door if I am having a party. She once said to me, “I remember that you were late to my party and you didn’t stay long because you had another party to attend.” I blushed over the phone, feeling embarrassed.
One of my time management challenges is over-booking. If I get invited to three events within the same two-hour time frame, I will try to drop in on all three. As a consequence, I will be on time at most for one of them. My friend’s remembrance has prompted me to rethink this policy.
All of us are often bombarded with invitations to events, some of which coincide. How do we manage our social time? I have decided that when I am invited to conflicting events, I will ask the host, “Will you mind if I do not get to your event at the beginning?” If she says yes, I will give an anticipated arrival time window. Rather than state a specific time, like 8:15 p.m., I now give an approximation because it inevitably happens that as I am walking out the door, someone else grabs me or my phone rings. If the person objects to my anticipated arrival time, I remove the event from the schedule. I have also started rejecting invitations at the outset. This also eradicates some stress.
Managing the timing of events can be particularly challenging if you are responsible for someone else’ life. Parents face this as they plan for their children’s activities while tracking their own responsibilities. Caregivers for the elderly have to take parents to doctor’s appointments within their own schedules. In my role as my coma brother’s guardian, I endeavor to sever my time into days. When I fly in to care for him, I take only his matters with me on the plane and devote the day to caring for his needs. Recently, I discovered I missed a professional deadline in the process. My attempt to segregate my responsibilities doesn’t work in our Internet-connected world. Now I realize, I must carve out at least 30 minutes to check my email and phone messages to respond to professional requests.
Some timing lessons have to embarrass us to get our attention.

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