Time Management - Back to Basics

One day...and sometimes one hour, one minute, or one second. 
Our time is a precious and finite commodity.

Where does the time go?!?!?!  If I've asked it once, I've asked it a million times. (And so has most everyone I know.)  Predictably, and often in spite of my best intentions, the answer remains the same.  There have always been twenty-four hours in a day, and no amount of wishing, hoping, or praying is going to change that. 

Beyond the challenge of this fact, I also tend to over commit.  I'm not a pushover, and I prefer the label of "overenthusiastic".  I really want to do it all... and I want to do it all well... and I want to do it all right now. Alas, it's once again time to admit that this just isn't possible.  (This seems to be a recurring theme in my life!)

I know that the key to taming my time management monster doesn't hinge on finding new ways to jam more productivity into the precious time that I have.  Instead, it lies in setting more realistic expectations of myself, and it lies in the soul-searching task of determining which activities are most important to my personal and professional well being.

This brings me to the exercise that my local friends and I will be undertaking this month.  Since our days tend to pass in a blur of activity, we realized that we first need to make an honest assessment of the manner in which we currently spend our time.  To accomplish this, we've decided to keep "time cards" for the next month.  They don't have to be fancy; we won't be punching time clocks; and we certainly don't want this process to take too much of our time.  :-) 

Instead, we'll simply record the manner in which we spend our time each day.  For me, categories may include Mom, Alan, Sleep, Housekeeping, Bookkeeping, Studio, etc...  I'll probably develop a few subcategories as the month progresses too.  For example, I may include a subcategory for Social Media within my Computer Category.

In a month we'll discuss our results, and we'll work through a few other exercises to help us with this process.

Would you care to join us?

Or will you please share any other innovative ideas that you have for conquering the dilemma of having too much to do in too little time?