For many people, stress is either caused by or aggravated by time pressure, the feeling that there is too much to do in a day. To help you understand this pressure, consider our case study, Joe. Joe ran a real estate agency that employed 30 people. The company’s business had been increasing rapidly, which made Joe happy but also caused him more stress. As the amount of work to be done grew, Joe took on more and more responsibility; he didn’t trust anyone else to do it properly.
Soon, he had so many tasks to do that he did not know where to begin. Some days he spent far too much time doing unimportant things, and other times he simply stared out the window, too overwhelmed to choose one task and start it. Though he worked longer and longer hours, he never seemed to get enough done. His relationships with friends and family suffered, he lost sleep worrying about work, and eventually he developed an ulcer.
Most of us can identify to some extent with Joe’s situation. It illustrates two typical problems associated with time pressure: taking on too much and working inefficiently. Taking on more responsibilities than you can handle does not mean you are a bad worker. In fact, you probably work so well that it seems natural to try to do more and more. This is when the second problem sets in. When you have more tasks than you can perform well, you feel overwhelmed, and your ability to work efficiently suffers. You need to learn to manage your time.
Some people have no problems at all with time pressure, and if this is true for you, you may find that this chapter is not that important. However, for others, time pressure is one of the most important sources of stress, and learning to manage time is one of the most important stress management techniques. Time management is no great mystery. It simply means learning to organize and allocate your time better so that you get the most out of your day without feeling stressed. Again, this comes back to an issue we discussed earlier, feeling that you have no control over your environment. By managing your time better, you are taking control of the world around you. As we will see later in this chapter, even if you cannot completely structure your time, it is important that you have some structure, or at least keep records and plans, so that you can achieve a sense of control.
The two main components of time management are designed to combat both problems described above. First, you will learn not to overcommit yourself. Next, you will learn to organize your time so that you complete your tasks efficiently and don’t have to worry about forgetting things.
Which comes first, being overcommitted or being stressed? It’s hard to say. People who tend to be stressed also tend to take on more than they can handle, and then, like Joe, they end up feeling even more stressed. Often this state of affairs sneaks up on you. It can be hard to say no to all the requests and opportunities that come along. We hope, by now, that you are practicing the assertiveness you learned in the previous chapter, so that saying no is becoming a little easier. But if you have not learned to be assertive, you may find that some of your overcommitment comes from being unassertive and taking on tasks that you really don’t need to do.
Before you know it, the day is over, and you haven’t even started the things you meant to do. As you have seen with the other stress management techniques, the first step is to become aware of what you are actually doing. To this end, you will be recording your activities for a few days so that you will have realistic evidence to act on. Before we continue, a word of warning: Time management takes time!
You may need to allow 15 to 30 minutes to record everything you do in a day. If you are already feeling overwhelmed, it may seem silly to take on another task; you will be tempted to ignore the reporting in favor of doing something else. But remind yourself that the recording is only temporary, and it will serve an important purpose. Though it takes time now, in the long run it will save you time by reducing your stress and helping you to work more efficiently. In other words, the time you save later will more than make up for the time you spend now.
Your first step is to record everything you do for the next few days. Try not to change your schedule to make it “look better.” Simply record what you are actually doing on a few of your typically busy days. Recording for three or four days should be enough; the idea is simply to get a “sample” of your typical day. You should also try to record more than once a day so that you do not forget anything.
Recording at three or four regular intervals throughout the day should work well. We have prepared a Daily Activity Record for you to record your activities on page 100. If you have another record or planner that will accomplish the same thing, that’s fine. Use the first column to write down everything you do, even things that were unplanned and fairly brief. In the second column, record the time that you started the task and the time that you stopped. Use those times to record the duration of the task in the third column, just so it will be easier to see how much time you spent. Finally, use the last column to record any comments on the task. Was it worth doing? Did you spend too long or not long enough? Were you interrupted often? Be sure to include things like sleep, personal care, time with spouse, and so on. The duration column should total to 24 hours. The record below shows part of such a form that was completed by Joe.
Joe’s Daily Activity Record
Once you have recorded your activities for three or four days, use the records to make four lists:
1. List the things you should have done or would have liked to do but didn’t manage to get to during those days.
2. List the things you did not do properly because you did not have enough time.
3. List the things you should not really have been doing.
4. List the things that you spent too much time on.
The first two lists will help you decide whether you are overcommitting yourself. If there are many things in these lists that you should have done or didn’t do properly, then you may be trying to fit too much into your day. If this is true, then it is no wonder you are stressed!
The next two lists will tell you if you are working inefficiently. If you find that much of your time is taken up by things that you should not really be doing or you are spending too much time on things, then your time is not being used as well as it could. Think of how much free time you would have to relax and enjoy life, if you rid yourself of some of these activities.
Here are the lists that Joe made:
Things I should have done/would like to do
Write ad for new employee.
Read Sally’s report on production.
Go to get my hair cut.
Read Financial Review articles.
Talk to Steve about his review next week.
Things not done properly
Budget.
Things I shouldn’t have been doing
Answering questions from Chloe that she could have handled.
Tidying filing cabinet.
Reading about accounting software.
Things taking too long
Lunch.
Phone call to property developer.
Deciding whether an activity has taken too long, or is not necessary, is very personal. Only you know what is efficient and what is not. The record of your daily activities should show you what you are doing each day so you are in a position to make such decisions. Sometimes it helps to get an outside perspective on your day by discussing the list with a friend or relative. The following case of Erik describes how the Daily Activity Record and priority lists can work.
Erik had recently cut down from full time work to working four days per week. He had done this because he wanted to finally finish his architecture degree, which he had begun several years before. Erik had expected that having an extra day a week to work on his university work would reduce his stress significantly. Much to his dismay, however, he noticed that he felt just as busy and stressed as before.
In order to understand this better, Erik wrote down everything he did for three days, and he made lists of all the things he had not done or spent too much time on. When he studied these forms, he was surprised at what he saw. To begin, Erik noticed that it took him almost two hours to get out the door in the morning. He had been trying to walk for 30 minutes on the way to work each morning, but this rarely happened because he was usually running late. Erik realized that he spent much too long trying to locate different items in the morning—he would spend 10 minutes at a time trying to find his keys, searching for matching socks, trying to locate a clean shirt, and so on. He also noticed that he would become absorbed in the newspaper over breakfast, and sometimes spent half an hour reading when he should really be getting ready.
On his day off, Erik saw that he spent very little time actually writing his assignment as planned. Although he had done all the research he needed to the week before, Erik became worried that he didn’t have enough references and spent an hour looking at additional resources online. He was persuaded by his brother to go with him to look at a new car, and this ended up taking much longer than anticipated. Then he found himself checking his work e-mail, even though he wasn’t supposed to be at work that day, and getting distracted by some work issues. By the end of the day he had spent about two hours writing his assignment, rather than the six hours it would have taken to complete it.
Reading over your lists should lead you to some new realizations. How to act on those realizations is an individual decision. Some people like full days, when they are constantly on the go, while others need more “down time,” to read, think, or just relax. If your lists are full of important tasks you have had to leave undone, then it’s a pretty safe bet you are overcommitted. Even if your lists are short, you will probably notice ways in which you could use your time better.
Joe, for example, recognized two major problems with his workload after he had recorded his activities for three days. He found that he was wasting time on interruptions, which his personal assistant could easily screen and handle, such as phone calls and office questions. He also found that he was spending so much time on unimportant tasks that he did not have enough time for big projects. This is often true of people under stress. You keep doing the small things, the things you feel you can get done in a short time, but the big things that you are putting off begin to weigh more and more heavily upon you. Once you have recognized the problem, you can start doing something about it.
One of the most common discoveries that overcommitted people make is the large number of tasks they do in a day that could easily be done by someone else. This may happen for a number of reasons. It may be simply that you are too unassertive to ask others to do things for you. If this is the case, you need to go back to Step 8 and keep working on your assertiveness. However, it may be because you believe it is easier to do a task yourself than to explain it to someone else. Or perhaps you just do not think others will do the task as well as you would.
The only way out of this cycle is to ask other people to take on some of your responsibilities. If you can delegate only a couple of your regular tasks, you will be amazed at how much time it frees up. With more complicated tasks, like those at work, you may begrudge the time it takes to show someone else the ropes. But remember, the few minutes you invest in explaining now will save you time on every occasion in the future when that task needs doing. And if you find yourself worrying that the other person may not do the task as well as you do, remember your realistic thinking techniques. Ask yourself, “How likely is it that it won’t be done properly?” And then ask, “What would really happen if the other person did it wrong?”
To return to the example of Joe, he realized that he should not be wasting his time answering phone calls from clients wanting to check on their properties. Knowing that his assistant was perfectly capable of handling the calls and passing along to him only the clients who had problems, he decided to ask his assistant to take over this responsibility. This, as it turned out, was easier said than done. When Joe analyzed his reluctance to delegate responsibility to his assistant, he realized that he was worried she would not give the clients accurate information. So he began challenging his thoughts. What was the probability that his assistant would give clients inaccurate information? Thinking realistically, Joe realized that his assistant knew the properties as well as he did, and it was highly unlikely that she would be wrong. But what if she was wrong? What would really happen if she made a mistake? After some thought, Joe realized that most of his clients would be understanding if she made a mistake—and, if any were not, he would be right there to step in. So by applying realistic thinking to time management, Joe was able to reduce his workload significantly.
Many people run out of time because they spend so much of their day doing things they do not want to do—taking on the work of less efficient employees, for example, or talking to people who just will not go away. Being assertive is important in limiting how much you do in a day. By now, you should be working on your assertiveness skills. If saying no is a particular problem for you, make sure you include some practice of this skill into your prediction testing. Thinking realistically, you need to remind yourself that people will not be angry with you or hate you just because you do not have time to do something for them. If you can make yourself say no, even once or twice a day, you will find that you have a lot more time.
Our case study Erik realized that in order to make his day off work more productive, he needed to say no to any other invitations or requests on that day. Once he explained to his family the reason that he was taking the day off (to finish his university work) they were supportive of his decision to spend the whole day studying.
Another reason that some people run out of time is that they do a task in an inefficient way, or they start one task and end up doing several others. As an example of the first problem, let’s say you have gotten into the habit of going out to lunch with a colleague every time you have an issue to discuss. If you want to go to lunch because it is fun or relaxing, that’s fine. But if you are doing it simply to discuss business, then it may be far more efficient to write a memo or talk on the phone. Often, brainstorming ways in which you can make a task more efficient and thinking laterally about different ways of doing a task can help to get you out of many old and inefficient habits.
Erik, for example, decided to lay out his clothes for work the night before. He knew that he was not a “morning person” and generally took too long to find things in the morning. So, by getting organized the night before, he got out the door earlier and could get some exercise by walking to work.
Perhaps the most important thing you must do once you realize you are overcommitted is to convince yourself that some things simply are not going to get done. You need to set priorities—in the short term, by deciding what to do each day, and in the long term, by deciding how you want to live your life.
For some people, giving up a task creates stresses all on its own. If this is true for you, go back to the realistic thinking strategies and use them to challenge your beliefs about giving up the task. Assessing priorities and organizing your time are so important that we will discuss them in more detail in the following section.
Once you have examined your typical day, the next step is to assign each task a priority and work out a schedule so that the important things get done. It’s easiest to start this by planning just one day—say, tomorrow. Make a list of all the things you plan to do tomorrow. Then go through the list and label the tasks according to how important they are. It is best to assign importance in terms of four levels: A, B, C, and D tasks.
• A tasks are top priority. Give an A only to tasks that absolutely, positively have to be done that day. Some days you may have no A tasks, while other days you may have several. Be strict with the label. Ask yourself, “Do I really have to do this today?” If not, it is not an A task. If you have too many A tasks, then you are probably overcommitting yourself.
• B tasks are the most common type—things that are important but do not necessarily have to be done immediately. Of course, if they are not done, B tasks will eventually become A tasks. You should not feel stressed if you cannot get to a B task immediately because you know that it is not the top priority. There is always tomorrow. But do try to do it before it becomes an A task, to keep stress at a minimum.
• C tasks are those that will need to be done someday, but at the moment they are not too important. Some C tasks can stay C tasks indefinitely, while others will eventually become B or even A tasks. C tasks are useful to fill in the gaps in your day. That way, if you are running behind schedule, you can always cancel a C task to give you more time without getting too stressed.
• D tasks are all those tasks that can be delegated to someone else. Most of the time, these tasks will come from the other priority tasks on your agenda. In other words, you might first assign a task a B priority. Then, when you look at it more closely, you realize that you can actually hand the task (or part of the task) to someone else, making it into a D task. Obviously, the more tasks you can turn into D tasks, the easier your day.
Once you have divided up your tasks this way, the next step is to organize them. Use a recording sheet like the Daily Planner on page 101. Many electronic diaries or software programs also have good ways to arrange your day.
The first step is to look over your list of A, B, and C tasks and see how many can actually be allocated to D priority. Next, write on the sheet all the tasks that must be done at a specific time, such as attending a meeting, picking up your children, or having lunch with a client. Then, beginning with the A tasks, write the other tasks into time slots when you think you can do them. Do not schedule all the A tasks together. Instead, follow an A task with a B or C task. That way, if something keeps you from doing the A task or it takes longer than expected, you can reschedule the B or C task and still get the A task done.
Time Task Rating (A, B, C, D)
8:00–9:00 Reply to e-mails: A
8:15–9:00 Work on next month’s advertising campaign: B
9:00–10:00 Meet with accountant: A
10:00–11:00 Work on advertising campaign: B
11:00–12:00 Staff meeting: B
12:00–12:30 Lunch: C
12:30–1:30 Meet with Mike to discuss his new role: A
1:30–2:00 Practice relaxation: C
2:00–3:00 E-mails: B
2:30–4:00 Go through last month’s performance figures for sales reps: B
4:00–5:00 Work on plans for rearranging office space: B
5:00–5:40 Read Financial Review articles: C
6:00–7:00 Tennis: C
Joe’s daily plan illustrates two important factors you should consider in making your own: staying flexible and “rewarding” yourself. Making a daily plan is supposed to reduce your stress, not increase it. If you schedule your tasks so tightly that any interruption throws the whole schedule off, then you may not be able to stick to the schedule and you are likely to feel even more stressed. If you put all of the unpleasant tasks together, both your efficiency and your mood may soon suffer.
When you are scheduling your tasks, especially the most important ones, estimate realistically how long the task will take and then at least double that time. Tasks almost always take longer than you expect. You are bound to run into unexpected hitches, interruptions, or emergencies that distract you. So give yourself plenty of time.
You will be surprised at how much you can get done in a day when you organize it logically, even if you allow a lot of time for each task. And wouldn’t you agree that it is better to end your day with three completed tasks than six half-finished ones?
Approach the scheduling realistically; plan for how your day really goes, not how you wish it would go. That means allowing for any time-consuming events that are likely to happen, whether you like them or not.
It is also important to schedule rewards—in other words, to schedule rests or enjoyable tasks after particularly difficult jobs. This practice gives you a break, helps you to relax, and helps to make you more efficient as you move on to the next task. Often, C tasks are more fun than A or B tasks and you can use them as rewards, as Joe did. You will notice that Joe scheduled a pleasant C task at the end of his day (reading). This helped him to unwind after a long day and also allowed him the flexibility to have more time for his earlier A and B tasks if these had not been finished. A different type of reward is to look over your planning sheet at the end of the day and check off all the tasks you completed. Chances are, you will end up with a strong feeling of accomplishment.
What do you do with any tasks that have not been completed? We hope these will not be A tasks, but will be B and C tasks. Because they are not essential tasks for today, putting them off until tomorrow should not cause too much stress. You should think about whether these tasks need to have their priorities reassigned (for example, will any of today’s B tasks become tomorrow’s A tasks?). Then you should simply make a note of them in order to schedule them into tomorrow’s plan. This will let you finish your day with a feeling of being in control of your time.
If you find that you are finishing most of your days with a lot of unfinished tasks, then this is a clear message that you are not being realistic in your daily planning. You need to be more generous in the time you allow for tasks, and you need to try and fit less into a day. If unexpected interruptions keep interfering with your plans, then you need to schedule into your day enough time to cover those interruptions. That way, the interruptions, in a sense, become planned activities, and you will feel more in control.
Often when we have one really major job to do, we try and find every excuse under the sun to try and avoid it. Suddenly, all sorts of minimal tasks become high priority. The major task then becomes more and more urgent and stress levels increase. If this describes you, then you need to do something about your procrastination in order to reduce your stress.
The first thing to do is to try and determine why it is that you are procrastinating. There are three main reasons. First, you may just not like doing the particular task and you may be letting the negative feelings about it build up and up. There is not much that you can do about this, except to use some motivational strategies. Set yourself some specific goals (for example, two hours’ work on the task each day). Then tell a friend, colleague, or relative about your goals and arrange a time to review your progress with them. Their expectations will motivate you to stick to your commitment. You may also need to remind yourself that we all come across tasks that are unpleasant, and sometimes we just have to put up with some unpleasantness in our lives. Finally, reward yourself for meeting your goals. Sometimes the sense of achievement will be reward enough, but consider also rewarding yourself with an enjoyable activity for particularly difficult tasks.
Another reason for procrastinating is because of anxiety or stress about the finished product. Some people worry so much about getting things perfect, or they worry so much about not being able to do something well enough, that they don’t do it at all. Obviously, this is unrealistic—surely it is better to do something reasonably than not at all. If you find yourself thinking in this way, you need to apply the techniques you learned in the earlier steps of this program to your procrastination. In particular, the realistic thinking techniques will be important. Look at how likely it is that you will do a bad job, and if you do, so what? Then, apply prediction testing to the task. Break the task down into small steps, put them in order of difficulty (in most tasks you will find some sections that are easier than others), and then force yourself to do them, one step at a time, looking for evidence of your predictions. Often, telling yourself that your boss (or whoever) doesn’t have to see the first draft is a way of taking some of the pressure off so that you can at least get started. If you find that this is a general problem in your life—in other words, if you are generally perfectionistic—then you need to treat your perfectionism as an area for prediction testing. You need to develop a list consisting of different tasks that involve making mistakes, letting other people down, and so on and work out your negative predictions. Then you need to do each of these tasks in order of difficulty and look for evidence for your predictions. Finally, you can use this evidence in your realistic thinking. Ultimately, you need to learn that not doing something perfectly does not mean you are a failure.
Finally, many people simply do not know how to go about beginning a task, and the more they think about it, and the longer they leave it, the more overwhelming it seems. The best way to attack this type of problem is to break the larger task into many small sections. Rather than just trying to begin, sit down and write out an overall plan. In this plan, make sure you point out all of the sections and subsections to the task. Then, you should pick one section and ignore the others—pretend they don’t even exist—and simply work on that one section. Once you have finished a rough draft of that first section, go on to the next and so on. At each point, you need to intentionally make yourself forget about the fact that this is part of a larger, overall project. Try to think of it as a number of small projects and focus on the present as you do each one. Using your time management principles and planning out your days will help you to get through all of the sections.
Your assignment for this week is for three or four days to record your daily activities using the Daily Activity Record and make your priority list indicating the other things you want to get done.
For the remainder of the week begin to organize your time by using your Daily Planner.
Keep filling in your
Daily Stress Record
Progress Chart
Reality Testing Record
In this lesson we have shown you the importance of managing your time.
• Taking on too many tasks and performing them inefficiently can be a leading cause of stress for many people. Even if you believe that you manage your time efficiently, you should follow our suggestions in this lesson; you will be amazed at what you discover.
• You now have some tips on how to reduce your daily stress level by:
• Not overcommitting.
• Delegating.
• Saying no.
• Sticking to an agenda.
• Prioritizing.
• Labeling your tasks on a scale of A through D can not only help you prioritize your tasks, it can also add to your self-esteem when you see how much you “really” do accomplish.
