Virtual Assistance by Jen

Owned and Operated by Jennifer Gallaher

  • Welcome
  • About Jen
  • Services
  • Testimonials
  • Service Retainers

March 24, 2010 By Jennifer Gallaher - VAbyJen 2 Comments

Policies for Time Management???

Many of you may not know this about me, but I am an avid Real Simple magazine reader. The magazine contains tons of tips to help simplify your life, whether it is for work or home life. Then I came across an article, “How do you say no to people who want too much of your time?” answered by Julie Rottenberg, who is Real Simple’s etiquette expert and it really got me thinking. Julie talks about having policies in place to help manage our time.

Hmmm….Policies for time management? The concept sounds pretty silly to me. But, the more I thought about it, the more I really liked the concept. In our daily lives we are constantly bombarded by things or people who require more time and attention than we may have to give at any given moment. Julie Rottenberg calls them “Time Suckers.” Some examples may be: 1) Running into an old friend while on your way to meet a client, 2) Constant requests to join various groups or clubs for which you either have no desire or time for or 3) Television on “for noise” while working at home. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been caught up in all three of these examples at one time or another, as well as many others. It’s called life. But that doesn’t mean things can’t change.

So, I have decided to do an experiment.  I am going to create and implement a few policies and for the next 30 days I will try my best to follow them.  Here is what I’ve come up with as starters:

  • I have a standing play date for my son every Thursday.  I am going to create a recurring appointment in my Outlook calendar for the next month for this and come rain or shine, I will keep that appointment (that is of course, if my son stays healthy).
  • My hours of operation are supposed to end by 5:00 pm PST.  However, I tend to put certain small tasks off until later in the evening, like sending out daily reports to clients.  I am going to create a daily reminder in my calendar that will alert me at 4:30 pm PST each day to start wrapping up all work related tasks and projects.  This will not only force me get those reports out on time, but will show my family that I mean business when it comes family time.
  • When I run my errands throughout the week, I inevitably run into other moms that I know.  I say “hello” to be polite, but keep going.  I know that if I stop, I’ll get caught up in a conversation that I won’t be able to get out of.  My goal here is to not only wave hello, but to acknowledge the person in a way that lets them know that I do want to get together, but not at that particular time.  Then call or email them later in the day with some dates/times I do have available for that long overdue chat.

What policies can you enact today to help get your time management under control?  Let’s do this together and see what our results are in 30 days.  Good luck!

Tweet: Policies for Time Management

Filed Under: Learning By Example, Organization Tips, Work at Home Tagged With: Learning By Example, time management, Work at Home

Comments

  1. Amber Whitener - Virtual IT Assistant says

    March 24, 2010 at 6:56 pm

    Oh my goodness. . . the radio or tv for background noise is so my bad habit! 🙂 Great post Jen.

  2. vabyjen says

    April 1, 2010 at 9:41 am

    Thanks, Amber! Glad you enjoyed the post.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

  • Facebook
  • LinkedIn

Copyright © 2023 · Virtual Assistance by Jen · jennifer@vabyjen.com · Log in · Privacy Policy

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

You can find out more about which cookies we are using or switch them off in settings.

Virtual Assistance by Jen
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

You can adjust all of your cookie settings by navigating the tabs on the left hand side.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.