{"id":192082,"date":"2015-05-28T08:46:30","date_gmt":"2015-05-28T12:46:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joangarry.com\/?p=192082"},"modified":"2023-09-15T12:20:32","modified_gmt":"2023-09-15T16:20:32","slug":"manage-your-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joangarry.com\/manage-your-time\/","title":{"rendered":"Take Back Your Time. Here’s How"},"content":{"rendered":"

What an amazing day.<\/p>\n

The day The New York Times <\/em>announced that it would now include same sex wedding announcements<\/a> on its wedding pages in 2002. My staff at GLAAD had pulled it off.<\/p>\n

Bad things happened that week. I\u2019m sure of it. There were hateful voice mails. I know I debated angry members of the anti-gay opposition on national television.<\/p>\n

But I can\u2019t remember a single detail of that. It just didn\u2019t matter. There are big things and small things.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what all of us need to remember when the days and weeks seem to spin out of control. When you stop feeling like your time is your own to manage.<\/p>\n

There are days that you control and days that control you.<\/em><\/p>\n

We all know how critical it is to focus on the important stuff and push aside the urgent, but unimportant. Or even just the less important. You must be able to manage\u00a0your time.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not so easy in practice.<\/p>\n

Today, I want to share with you my process for how I manage my time so that I get to control of a lot more of my days.<\/p>\n

My process is easily replicable by any leader. Let\u2019s give it a go, shall we?<\/p>\n

THE DAY THAT CONTROLS YOU<\/h3>\n

It actually begins the night before. You are responding to emails but avoiding your watch. It\u2019s really late. \u201cUgh \u2013 my boss is sending emails at 1:15am. I can feel my blood pressure rise.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

That\u2019s how the day begins. The night before.<\/p>\n

Alarm Goes Off at 7am<\/u>: You roll over and check your email. You respond to a minimum of five. Before going to the bathroom. Before greeting \/ kissing the human or pet you sleep with. You kid yourself. \u201cIf I get this out of the way now, I\u2019ll get a head start on the day and feel less stressed later.\u201d<\/em> Yeah, right.<\/p>\n

8:30am: Breakfast with your board chair. At least you got a quick shower and you\u2019re on time but you rushed. We all know the breathless feeling.<\/p>\n

So you\u2019re not as prepared as you would like. But the Board Chair is even more unprepared. She opens the meeting with, \u201cSo what\u2019s going on?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Do you tell her good news or unearth a relevant challenge you are having? \u201cOh, by the way, I have a hard stop at 9:15.\u201d<\/em> You didn\u2019t know that. Not enough time to open a can of worms.<\/p>\n

And while you are at breakfast, you get 10-15 more emails, each of which \u201cdemand\u201d<\/em> your attention immediately.<\/p>\n

The Morning<\/u>: You arrive at the office and feel as if you have been shot out of a canon. If you\u2019re lucky enough to have an assistant, the assistant can\u2019t control the line outside your door.<\/p>\n

You spend your entire morning responding to everyone else\u2019s questions and demands.<\/p>\n

Fifteen minutes before lunch, you glance at the clock and realize you now have barely any time to get a deeper background on a certain lapsed donor.<\/p>\n

Lunch<\/u>: Breaking bread with said lapsed donor.<\/p>\n

The lunch goes OK. It could have been an A. It was a B minus. No firm commitment and you wish you had more clarity about what specific actions the org could take to bring this donor back.<\/p>\n

The Afternoon<\/u>: More of the same.<\/p>\n

Except now it includes a few board committee meetings that you have to lead because the committee chair is not prepared and the work from the last meeting is not completed.<\/p>\n

You also need to fit in a performance issue with a staffer \u2013 should she stay or should she go?<\/p>\n

The finance person needs a \u201cquick\u201d meeting to tell you that a few bills didn\u2019t get paid last month.<\/p>\n

The Evening<\/u>: If you\u2019re lucky enough not<\/em> to have an evening event, you leave the office late (natch) and head home to pick out of the fridge (who has time to grocery shop?)<\/p>\n

You look back on the day and realize some very big things didn\u2019t get done. In a ten-hour day, you only spent about 45 minutes talking about the WORK!<\/strong><\/p>\n

And while you pick at your leftovers, you grab your laptop and begin to catch up from the day. Before you know it is 1:30am. You\u2019ve played catch-up but not planned out your day.<\/p>\n

Before you know it, your alarm is going off. D\u00e9j\u00e0 vu all over again. And again. And again. Ad infinitum.<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=tSVeDx9fk60<\/a>