Yesterday, I put out a short video about how you can be there for people while still maintaining control of your time and spending it on the things you value.
I wanted to elaborate a little on that here.
Sometimes people don't even have a schedule, just a to-do list, and that's a different problem I've already written about and will do so again.
But let's just assume for the sake of this post that you already have some semblance of a schedule you try to follow, and the problem is that people (whether it be family members, co-workers, clients, customers, people in your church, etc) always seem to need something that throws your schedule off and makes it impossible to keep to your calendar. And then, once you're off track, you tend to spiral and end up going to bed with a bunch of unfinished tasks.
If that's relatable, give this a try.
Hear me out on this before you stop reading after this next line. You can work time blocks into your schedule for this. It can be a few hours a week, or it could be a few hours a day. You can decide this based on the amount of people consistently "needing" you, and for generally how long.
These can be specific times that are on your calendar, or they can be flexible time blocks that can take place at any point in the day. This is dependent on the amount of control you have over your schedule.
Of course, emergencies will come up, but you may need to reeavaulate what you let people call "emergencies" when they are asking for your time. "My mom is headed to the ER" is an emergency. "I just saw this hilarious meme," or "I have a question I need your help with" probably isn't and can wait until your scheduled time.
An extra step you can take with this is getting an app like Calendly where you set the times you're available, and you simply send that link to someone who is trying to set up a time with you.
This eliminates all the back and forth. They can see when you're avaialable and select a time when they are also available, then it automatically syncs to your calendar. Simple as that. It automates this and helps you stay organized.
People can't book a time slot that's already taken. And if you go the route of flexible time blocks (ex: an hour each day) vs. specific (ex: 12:00-1:00pm), then you can simply set your Calendly to only allow so many appointments that day, regardless of time.
You may be reading this and thinking it sounds a bit cold and isn't helpful to people and will be looked at as unkind. To you, I'd say three things:
1. You have to control your time, or someone else certainly will. You won't be able to do the things that you believe are important with any sort of consistency if you don't develop a strategy.
2. People and customers want someone to be CONSISTENTLY available to them. This system allows for you to be a constant presence in their lives for the long term without burning out. Someone can always have access to you the same day, if that's what you want, and there is always room for those true emergencies to show up spur of the moment. They just can't be your norm if you want to break this cycle.
Let me know if this is helpful to you, and if you like time management posts like this, stay tuned! I'll be launching an entire time-management program at a very dicounted rate within the next few weeks.
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