My Pitfalls with Managing Time

It would be super easy to write this blog with some tips and tricks for managing time better.  But it doesn’t quite feel authentic for me to write that if I haven’t first shared the messes I’ve been in when it comes to time. 

One struggle I’ve wrestled with is not having a process for managing my time.  There were seasons (read: years) of my life when I didn’t have a process for scheduling my time.  My calendar was a free-for-all for anyone or any group who wanted to meet, and my non-meeting times were either frittered away with task avoidance (read: making another to-do list) or a frantic attempt to get through items on one of my many to-do lists.  It didn’t matter whether they were important items or trivial – what mattered was that I could cross them off.  (Incidentally, this meant that trivial stuff got done more often since it was a smaller task and easy to name on a list than bigger, more important projects that had very ambiguous titles like “staff development” or “plan outreach to stakeholders.”)  As you might imagine, this wasn’t the most effective way of managing my life, and looking back, I realize that I certainly wasn’t leading my life very well.

A second pitfall I’ve experienced is at the other end of the spectrum:  having too rigid of a plan.  Once in a while, I’d recognize that my time management needed a tune-up, so I’d make a better attempt to plan my days.  I’d plan what would get done when.  I’d remind myself that it was ok to say no to a meeting that conflicted with time I’d planned to spend working on other things.  I’d get pumped for how focused and productive I was going to be.  And I typically couldn’t even make it through a full week before throwing in the towel.  Interruptions came up that had to be dealt with.  New options or invitations came up and I didn’t want to miss out.  I’d sit down to work on whatever task or project I’d planned for that hour and find that “my energy just wasn’t in that space” at that time, so I’d make a bargain with myself to swap tasks for that block of time… and then I’d usually not ever get around to whatever project I was avoiding. 

Feast or famine.  What some people do with diet, exercise, or cleaning their desks, I did with attempts to manage my time. 

And if I’m being really honest, there was a third pitfall:  my own intellectual arrogance.  I had read Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.  I knew about the difference between urgent things and important things, and I understood the process he taught about managing time.  For goodness sakes, I had even trained and coached others on those concepts and how to use that process.  Yet somehow, I counted myself as exempt from needing to use and practice such a process, as though knowledge alone was enough to solve the problem. 

Such was my life until I learned “a healthy, balanced approach” to time management through the REALIFE Process.  It provides the framework I so desperately need, but also the flexibility that makes it actually work for me in my real life.  It helps me stay balanced among different life priorities, and it allows me to really enjoy the time that I give to each area of focus in my life.  I’m getting stuff done, and most times, the stuff I’m getting done is the stuff that matters most.  And perhaps most importantly, living through the process helped me to humbly admit to myself that I needed to work on the ways that I handled my schedule and that I needed to actually practice what I preached.   

For the sake of length, I’ll save a more in-depth look at the REALIFE Process approach to time management for another blog.  (Or you can join us on Wednesday, April 19, 2023 for “Managing Time with Purpose” to learn it for yourself!) 

What I will say for now is that learning to manage my time well has been an opportunity for grace:  reminding myself that there is no such thing as “the perfectly managed week” – and to acknowledge that this false ideal isn’t the goal.  It’s liberating to know that I’m not being graded on how I spend my time.  The goal is to be the best Kathy I can be, and time (and how I fill it) is what I’m given to work with.  The gift of grace comes in knowing that God’s not grading my weeks but coming alongside to help me walk through them and to help me see the opportunities I’m given to be who he created and to bring his presence to the world.

I’m excited to share more about this process in the next post and in the upcoming workshop, but in the meantime, I’ll invite you to reflect as I have:

What have been your pitfalls in managing your time?

What would be possible in your life if you managed your time better?